Tag Archives: FOIA

Calling it one of our "greatest democratic reforms", the Texas based Corpus Christi Caller Times has endorsed a bill to strengthen the Federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). They conclude their endorsement as follows:

The Freedom of Information Act affirms the public's right to know what its government is doing in its name. It forces government officials -- often against their wishes -- to substitute transparency and openness for a natural bureaucratic tendency toward secrecy. We must never allow the public's right to know be suppressed for the sake of official convenience. Letting legitimate FOIA requests languish for weeks, months, years, even decades, is unacceptable.

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The GAO released a report today on FOIA entitled "Processing Trends Show Importance of Improvement Plans." [PDF] From the "Highlights" page:

The improvement plans submitted by the 25 agencies mostly included goals and timetables addressing the four areas of improvement emphasized by the Executive Order: eliminating or reducing any backlog of FOIA requests; increasing reliance on dissemination of records that can be made available to the public without the need for a FOIA request, such as through posting on Web sites; improving communications with requesters about the status of their requests; and increasing public awareness of FOIA processing. Most of the plans (20 of 25) provided goals and timetables in all four areas; some agencies omitted goals in areas where they considered they were already strong. Although details of a few plans could be improved, all the plans focus on making measurable improvements and form a reasonable basis for carrying out the goals of the Executive Order.

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