House Subcommittee Asks Archive for FOIA Reform Advice

National Security Archive General Counsel Meredith Fuchs today told the Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (PDF; 89 KB) that, “problems [with the Freedom of Information Act system] will not be solved unless Congress mandates solutions.”

Ms. Fuchs recommended that Congress reform the FOIA to require better annual reporting and tracking of FOIA requests, citing examples of processing delays as long as 17 years and agency mismanagement or obstruction of requests causing delay. She also called on Congress to stop agencies from playing litigation games that cost requesters and taxpayers’ money and waste judicial resources. She referenced examples of agencies that fail to take responsible legal positions until after a requester has filed a lawsuit and then suddenly reverse course when it becomes clear that a court will likely rule against the agency. She advocated revision of the FOIA’s attorneys’ fees provision as a solution. Ms. Fuchs explained that, “Despite many outstanding people administering FOIA programs throughout the government – and they deserve praise for their work – there are far too many FOIA offices that fail to live up to the expectations of the law and the needs of the taxpaying public.”

Source: National Security Archive

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 18th, 2007 and is filed under Access to Information, Search News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.