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SUMMARY: New office should not be part of the Justice Department.

We cheered when news reached us that Congress had passed the Open Government Act, which is being hailed by news organizations and open-government advocates across the nation as an important update to the Freedom of Information Act. Among other much-needed measures, the new legislation will create an Office of Government Information Services to serve as a mediator of sorts in the federal FOIA system.

However, our applause ended in mid-clap when we learned the new office is not going to be located within the National Archives and Records Administration, as Congress originally intended. Incredibly, it’s budgeted to fall within the Department of Justice administration.

Surely this is a mistake. The new office is designed to help the public get access to requested information faster and more easily. It is therefore expected to reduce the number of lawsuits accusing the government of withholding public information.

That is why the new office was designed to act as a neutral party - so it can mediate conflicts between those seeking information and the agencies in charge of that information.

The Department of Justice, on the other hand, is supposed to represent the interests of these same government agencies whenever there is a legal dispute. How can the Office of Government Information Services act as a neutral ombudsman when its administrators are representing one side in a conflict?

Our federal legislators are aware of the fact that the new office needs to act with autonomy to be effective. That’s why the original bill placed the office within the National Archives and Records Administration. We agree that this would be the best place for it.

And we agree with the dozens of organizations - from the Sunshine in Government Initiative to the American Library Association - who are asking Congress to make sure the ombudsman’s office gets put back where it belongs. They are specifically calling on the appropriations committees in the House and Senate to provide enough funding for the National Archives and Records Administration to manage the new office.

In the meantime, the Bush Administration should take it upon itself to give the nation’s budget for fiscal year 2009 a second look and correct this unfortunate mistake.

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