Statement on Signing the
Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986
As
I stated in my remarks at the signing ceremony for this bill, I am pleased to
sign the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. One other matter concerning the act is worthy
of note. This act contains several important provisions reforming the Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA) that will considerably enhance the ability of Federal
law enforcement agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the
Drug Enforcement Administration, to combat drug offenders and other criminals.
My administration has been seeking such reforms since 1981.
These
FOIA reforms substantially broaden the law enforcement exemptions in that act,
thereby increasing significantly the authority of Federal agencies to withhold
sensitive law enforcement documents in their files. The statutory language
changes make clear, for example, that any Federal law enforcement information
relating to pending investigations or confidential sources may be withheld if
its disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause an identified harm. The
act also includes, for the first time, special exclusions whereby certain law
enforcement records would no longer be subject to the requirements of the FOIA
under particularly sensitive, specified circumstances.
Additionally,
this act makes several changes with respect to the charging of fees under the
FOIA. Agencies will now be able to charge and recover the full costs of
processing requests for information under the FOIA, consistent with the Federal
user fee concept, in the large number of cases in which FOIA requests are made
for commercial purposes, a term that has been broadly construed in other
contexts of the FOIA. At the same time, the act will somewhat limit the fees
applicable to noncommercial educational or scientific institutions and to bona
fide representatives of established news media outlets. It is important that no
such special treatment is accorded to organizations engaged in the business of
reselling government records or information.
Finally,
the bill improves the standard governing the general waiver of FOIA fees, by
mandating that such waivers be granted only where it is established that
disclosure is in the ``public interest'' because it is likely to ``contribute
significantly to public understanding'' of the operations or activities of the
Government. This standard is intended to focus upon benefits to the public at
large, rather than upon the interest of a particular segment of the public, and
thus clarifies the type of public interest to be advanced.
Note:
H.R. 5484, approved October 27, was assigned Public Law No. 99 - 570.