FOIA Frustrations
Overthe life of FOIA, one of the most-common complaints among its users, especially historians and journalists, is the time it takes to process a request and the need to take some agencies to court to get compliance with the law (The National Security Archive, 2009, McMasters, 1996, Feinberg et. al, 1986, and McBride, 1980).
One contributor to slow response times is the lack of resources to respond to between 500,000 and 600,000 annual requests (McMasters, 1996).
Other complaints include:
One contributor to slow response times is the lack of resources to respond to between 500,000 and 600,000 annual requests (McMasters, 1996).
Other complaints include:
- Government workers face severe penalties if they release sensitive information and no incentives to release allowable information.
- FOIA polices “vary widely from agency to agency”(McMasters, 1996), though this is changing (Office of Government Information Services, 2011, and The National Security Archive, 2011).
- Inconsistencies and contradictions between FOIA and Privacy Act, the Government in Sunshine Act, the Whistleblower law, the Federal Advisory Committee Act, and other laws and regulations make it confusing for requesters and federal employees (McMasters, 1996).
- External communications systems, such as web-based e-mail, that allow agencies to circumvent FOIA and federal proceedures for record retention (McMasters, 1996).
- Monitoring agencies’ compliance with FOIA is not a priority for Congress or any agency within the federal government (McMasters, 1996). Until 2010, FOIA audits tended to be conducted by non-government organizations.
- Some historians have estimated that many of the 1 billion older classified documents would pose no threat to the nation’s security (McBride, 1980).
- Documents that have been redacted to the point that they are useless (McBride, 1980).