Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was passed by Congress in 1966 in order to create an open government by allowing for the full or partial disclosure of documents held by the federal government. In 1974 FOIA was amended to further the rights of an individual gaining access to information held by the government. In 1996, Congress passed the Electronic FOIA Act Amendments to make certain types of records available electronically. The most recent FOIA amendments, passed in 2007 (the OPEN Government Act), makes significant reforms to the FOIA process to institute accountability and created the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) to mediate disputes between FOIA requesters and the government. The FOIA applies only to federal agencies and does not create a right of access to records held by Congress, the courts, or by state or local government agencies. Each state has its own public access laws.FOIA can be used by individuals, universities, business, or any organization to obtain records on agency operations and actions, and other collected information relating to public health, environmental hazards, consumer product safety, government spending, labor relations, business decisions, taxes, history, foreign policy, national defense and the economy. The law does contain nine exemptions for national security, internal agency rules, information governed by other statutes, business information, internal government memos, private matters, law enforcement investigations, records on the regulation of financial institutions, and information concerning the location of oil wells.
The President and the Attorney General have significant authority to alter how information is handled under FOIA. On his first day in office, President Obama issued a Memorandum on FOIA that directed the heads of federal departments and agencies to adopt a presumption of disclosure and proactively disclose information; the memo also directed the Attorney General to issue new FOIA guidelines that reaffirm the "the commitment to accountability and transparency." Attorney General Eric Holder issued the guidelines on March 19, 2009.
The actions by President Obama and AG Holder revoked the policies established during George W. Bush's Administration. On October 12, 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a memorandum instructing agencies to withhold documents whenever legally possible under the Freedom of Information Act. The memo specifically stated the exemptions that agencies should use to shield information. The General Accounting Office (GAO) released a report in 2003 that shows a significant percentage of FOIA officers reduced the amount of information available to the public because of the Ashcroft memo.
Federal Agency Information
Using FOIA
Resource Pages
Legislation and Policies
Analyses and Reports
For more information on how to use FOIA, see the OpenTheGovernment.org Getting and Using Information page.
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