Last year, thanks in large part to some stirring testimony from two VCOG members, a bill that would have allowed government to sue a citizen that the government felt was harassing it with FOIA requests was sent to the FOIA Council for further study.

The discussions in those FOIA Council study committees was thorough and often impassioned. Ultimately, there was no agreement and the full FOIA Council declined to recommend any measures to the 2011 General Assembly.

Nonetheless, harassment-by-FOIA is back. This time, Del. Lynwood Lewis from Accomac has introduced HB 2383. The bill would amend section 2.2-3704(C) to add this provision:

Any public body may petition the appropriate court as provided in § 2.2-3713 for a summary determination whether a requester, in making a request for records, is intending to harass or otherwise abuse the rights or privileges granted under this chapter or whether such request is overly burdensome on the public body.

What do you think of this measure? And would you be interested in testifying on the bill? Add your comments below, or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

McLean delegate Barbara Comstock is introducing two bills we find particularly noteworthy.

One is called the Government Transparency Act and it attempts to create a website that would allow users to search for and aggregate various information, like

(i) individual or specific appropriations or budget items, (ii) state agency spending and procurement data, (iii) financial disclosure statements, (iv) audit and state agency performance reports, and (v) contact information for public records access purposes.

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An interesting FOIA bill was filed yesterday by Del. Bob Marshall. In HB1722 Marshall proposes to add a requirement that

at the time of creation of any public record, the custodian of such records that are subject to FOIA shall designate whether the record is subject to FOIA's mandatory disclosure provisions or otherwise exempt from disclosure. The bill requires that such designation shall appear on the face of the record and be updated by the custodian in a timely manner in the event of any changes. Failure to make the required designation shall, upon receipt of a request for such record, waive any charge authorized under FOIA.

The bill goes on to reiterate a proposal mentioned in Marshall's other FOIA bill, HB 1457, that