I’m a little behind on this one, but at the end of 2007 President Bush signed into law the Open Government Act of 2007.

According to the EFF this law will make it easier to access government information in ways like:

* Ensuring that freelance and alternative journalists are considered representatives of the media, making it less expensive for them to get information from the government.
* Providing for attorney fees when a requester’s lawsuit prompts an agency to change its position on a request, even if a court doesn’t order it.

* Creating a tracking system to help make sure that FOIA requests don’t become hopelessly tangled in red tape.
* Establishing the Office of Government Information Services, which will be tasked with helping to resolve conflicts between agencies and requesters.
* Penalizing agencies that don’t process FOIA requests on time.
* Making it clear that requesters can get government records maintained by private contractors, not just the agencies themselves.
* Imposing greater reporting requirements to let Congress and the public know more about how agencies handle requests.

Read the full release from the EFF here and the text of the legislation is available here.