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One of the remaining dramas as the lame-duck Congressional session slouches to a close is whether House Speaker John Boehner will allow a vote on an important reform measure aimed at strengthening the Freedom of Information Act. That’s the law that allows journalists and the public to access federal government records.

A key provision of the legislation, the Freedom of Information Act Improvement Act, would codify the “presumption of openness” President Obama ordered in a 2009 directive. It would mandate that federal agencies may withhold information only when it foresees specific harm to, say, national security or policy deliberations between agencies.



The provision is necessary because future presidents could withdraw Mr. Obama’s directive, and agencies delay or even refuse to hand over records on flimsy grounds.

The bill is supported by over 70 advocacy groups concerned with government transparency and enjoys a rare degree of bipartisan support. Co-sponsored by Senator Patrick Leahy, the outgoing Democratic chairman of the Senator Judiciary Committee and Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, the bill was approved unanimously this week by the Senate.

In the House, which approved its own bill on the subject a few months ago, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Representative Darrell Issa of California, and the committee’s ranking Democratic member, Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, issued a joint statement on Tuesday calling for the House to pass the Senate version and send it to President Obama for his signature before Congress adjourns.

Mr. Boehner has yet to say whether he will put the worthy bill on the calendar and log a meaningful achievement for greater government openness and transparency. The signs are not encouraging. At a press conference earlier today, Mr. Boehner said he had “no knowledge of what the plan for the bill is.”

It is up to him now whether FOIA reform succeeds or fails.