The bill is designed to promote faster action by government agencies when citizens ask them for material under the Freedom of Information Act.

Even if the "Faster FOIA Act" passes Congress, budget cuts could undermine that goal. FOIA advocates worry that delays could worsen as Congress seeks to shrink the size of government.

"If there are to be cuts in all of the agencies, I cannot imagine that FOIA offices would not be subject to the same threat, which obviously would make a bad situation even worse," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

President Barack Obama has ordered agencies to improve their response times under FOIA, but backlogs of requests continue to be a problem. The oldest requests at eight agencies are more than a decade old, and one is 20 years old, according to the Knight Open Government Survey released in July by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

The Faster FOIA Act would create an advisory panel to examine what causes backlogs and recommend to Congress how to speed up the process. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the bill's author, said the panel's findings would help lawmakers pressure agencies to be more responsive.

"It will have the teeth that allows people like myself who push FOIA to say, 'OK, you, such and such department, have really screwed up. By the way, next week we're having a hearing on your budget in the Appropriations Committee and I intend to ask questions,'" Leahy said.

The Senate unanimously approved the bill Tuesday for the second time this year.

Leahy and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, reintroduced the bill this week after House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio used the proposal as the vehicle for his plan to raise the debt ceiling and cut federal spending. In doing so, he stripped the FOIA provisions from the bill.

It's unclear why Boehner chose the FOIA bill as a vehicle, but the decision amused Leahy.

"I haven't felt this special since a particular greeting I once got from Vice President (Dick) Cheney," Leahy told Roll Call on July 27. He was referring to a 2004 incident on the Senate floor in which Cheney directed an obscenity at him during an argument.

The FOIA bill's House companion has awaited action on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform since late April. More than 35 transparency organizations have urged the committee to pass the legislation.

Leahy said this week that he expects the bill to advance in the House, given the bipartisan support it received in the Senate.

"John and I have a proven track record of getting FOIA (legislation) through," said Leahy, a longtime advocate of such bills.

Dalglish said the bill is largely symbolic because there's no mystery about what's wrong with the FOIA process. She said her group supports the bill because it draws attention to the need for government to be held accountable.

Among the problems she cited: The law allows for too many exemptions; it's not a priority for agencies; agencies interpret it in different ways; and offices tasked with fulfilling requests are underfunded.

"Given how deadlocked Congress is and how they are basically immobilized on everything else, I trust the senator's judgment that at least this might be attainable," she said.

The federal government spends up to $500 million processing FOIA requests from the public annually, a small amount in terms of "Washington dollars," said Rick Blum, coordinator of the Sunshine in Government Initiative, a coalition of media associations.

FOIA is the "cheapest investment we can make" to save money and root out waste, he said.

As Congress cuts funding for every agency, having less money available to process FOIA requests will be a challenge, he said. The law will continue to require the government to respond to requests. Blum said he hopes the advisory panel, as proposed by Leahy, can help make the response process more efficient.