FOIA Studies Find Progress
By George A. Warner
Many government agencies have made significant changes in Freedom of Information processing in the last two years, a new report released on Monday found. But, nearly half of all agencies studied have shown little or no progress since President Obama instructed agencies to "renew their commitment" to open government principles in a memorandum signed on his first day in office.
Forty-nine of 90 agencies have made tangible changes to improve their ability to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests, according to "Glass Half Full," a report by the National Security Archive.
But 41 agencies have made no tangible progress nearly two years after the president called on agencies to "adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure," and "renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA."
To assess agency efforts to improve the FOIA system, the National Security Archive filed FOIA requests at each agency it examined. More than 100 days later, more than a dozen agencies had not replied to the requests, even though the law gives them only 20 days.
The White House painted its own picture of FOIA progress on Monday, citing findings from a Justice Department report on fiscal 2010 agency FOIA activities." Agencies are sharing more and withholding less," said Steve Croley, a special assistant to the president for justice and regulatory policy in a post on the White House blog.
"In about 56 percent of the cases, the agency made a full disclosure, up a full 6 percent over last year," Croley said. "Agencies reduced their FOIA backlogs as well--the Cabinet agencies by 10.9 percent and all agencies across the government by 10.2 percent."
The National Security Archive's report updates findings released last year showing only 13 of 90 agencies had taken any steps to improve their FOIA abilities. That report helped spur action from the White House, including a memorandum ordering agencies to update FOIA guidance and training materials and "assess whether [they] are devoting adequate resources to" FOIA requests.
"There is room for improvement at most agencies," said Nate Jones, the National Security Archive's FOIA coordinator. Among the 49 agencies that have acted on the president's memo, only 13 have fulfilled the two directives outlined in the 2010 memo, Monday's report found.