Trying Hard To Be Open p.15

By: DEBRA GERSH HERNANDEZ

THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT is trying every day to keep its promises for a more open government, with disclosure as the norm, according to Attorney General Janet Reno.
"Too many Americans mistrust their government," Reno said. "And unnecessary government secrecy feeds this mistrust.
"What makes this country unique is its commitment to being open, to holding its leaders accountable," she said during a speech at the American Society of Newspaper Editors convention in Washington.
Speaking during the week that marked the one-year anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, Reno noted that while "our thoughts turn to the threat of terrorism ? in our own country and around the world ? it is so important that we not retreat from that principle, that we not give in to assaults on our democratic values.
"It is a time when we need to renew and invigorate our commitment to open government," Reno said.
In 1975, the Department of Justice received 30,000 Freedom of Information Act requests, the attorney general said. In just 20 years, that figure skyrocketed to 125,000 FoIA and Privacy Act requests, which were being handled by the equivalent of 617 people working full time at a cost of over $35 million a year.
"I know full well that a working reporter doesn't care how many requests we get or how much it costs to process them. I understand that," Reno said. "What you care about is when you are going to get your questions answered. That's the challenge, one that demands real solutions."
Among the DoJ's progress, Reno cited a significant reduction in FoIA request backlogs for most of the DoJ's sub-parts; a decline in backlogs at other agencies, such as Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Bureau of Prisons and U.S. attorneys' offices; the implementation of expedited FoIA requests for information that is particularly newsworthy; a simple, easy to retrieve document from the press office that doesn't go into the FoIA system; the release of information about DoJ attorney misconduct without FoIA requests; the encouragement of discretionary release by other agencies and a reevaluation of FoIA forms and
formats; and FoIA performance has become part of relevant DoJ employees' job descriptions.
While conceding the presence of tight budgets, Reno noted the DoJ must continue to think about its FoIA goals and how to accomplish them.
One new system, expected to be implemented shortly after she spoke, is a posting of U.S. attorneys' press releases on the Internet and the DoJ bulletin board.
After meeting with ASNE representatives, Reno said, "Without question, we are going to interact with one another in the future by computer."
In addition to the Oklahoma City anniversary, Reno also noted that the day she spoke to ASNE ? April 17 ? was the one-year anniversary of President Clinton's executive order "that will overhaul our system for classifying national security information to lower the wall of government secrecy."
Two years ago, Reno told the ASNE "about the instructions President Clinton had issued to make the government as open as possible and to make disclosure the norm."
"I told you what we were doing to meet the challenge," she said. "We try, every day, to keep our promises, with the limited resources we have."
The attorney general cited her weekly media availability as being "extremely important" to her, even when she has to say "no comment," because the give-and-take has given her a "personal admiration for the working press of America."
"The wisdom, the caring, the thoughtfulness I
see reminds me of how critical they are to a democratic nation, to ensuring there is a free press," Reno said.
"The challenges to law enforcement are different and more complex than they were 30 years ago when the Freedom of Information Act was passed," Reno commented.
"We are working hard with Congress on a bipartisan basis to outmatch the cunning and stealth of the terrorists, of organized crime, of those who spread havoc on our streets."