ACLU Blog: “…the Open Government Act of 2007, a bill that enjoyed broad bipartisan support in Congress…called for the appointment of a FOIA ombudsman, to work out of the National Archive, who would serve as an impartial mediator between citizens and the government agencies receiving their FOIA requests…Agencies would be held to the FOIA standards by the ombudsman and not just by threat of court action. FOIA requesters would find it less necessary to bring lawsuits and the government itself would save itself from having to spend public money and time to mount defenses…Tucked away in Bush’s proposed new budget for 2008 — in the 1,300-page appendix — was language that stripped funding for the FOIA ombudsman role, and shoves the responsibilities off to the Justice Department. The same department, we might add, responsible for defending the government agencies when they’re named in lawsuits to have FOIA requests enforced.”