Abstract
The Freedom of Information Act serves as the means for the public to have an access to documents of the government. The proponents of the said law believe that the public has the right to know information that interests the majority or information that have something to do with the performance various government agencies. But the access to various government documents is only limited to those documents that are mention in the exemptions of the said law or to protect the secrecy and assuring national security of the country. Furthermore ever since the start of the implementation of the said law, there have been a lot of government agencies that violates the mandates of FOIA and this caused a lot of complaints coming from the public and mass media as well.
Current State and Issues Concerning FOIA
The public use of the FOIA continuously rising with about 2 million requests had already been made under the mandate of FOIA filed to various federal agencies by the year 1999. Moreover, the direct costs of the provision of the FOIA to the taxpayers is amounting to about $3 Million by the year 1999, or roughly $1 per citizen based from the request that had been made for the documents and records to the Justice Department and Census Bureau. Based from a new survey conducted on 87 government agencies, the oldest pending request that they recorded is about 20 years and 16 requesters have been waiting more than 15 years for the result of their request (Shane, 2007). The said survey serves as the proof of the public regarding the seriousness of the government in implementing the laws and policy that they are promoting.
After so many years of passing the FOIA to give the public the power to have an access to government documents and information, there are still other agencies who do not comply with the rules and regulations that were set by FOIA. There were always been delays on the requests that were sent to most of the government agencies. Due to this, there were a lot of people complaining the credibility of the agency concerned as well as of the current administration of the country.
One of the issues that strike the public’s interest was the case of the CIA. It took them about took 9 years to deny fully a request of 22 documents and it took them only 7 months to deny the appeal of the requesting party (archives, 2007).
Those documents that were released under the federal, state and local FOIA ignite about 3000 news stories by the year 2000 and 2001 base from the number of searches made on-line on the website of the National Security Archive, that exposes data the gains major interest to the public like the mercury level in the canned tuna as well as the projected $4 billion costs overrun on NASA’s space station.
Through the aid of FOIA, the public was able to inform regarding the anomaly in the Marines. It was reported that in 2005, nearly 10, 000 marines were issued body armors that flunked government safety test and had potentially life threatening flaws (Hoyt, 2007).
Another issue would be the issue regarding the attempt of President Bush for the public and the Congress not to know the anomalous activity of his government through reducing the access of the public to the government documents and information by the year 2002 that has anything related to weapons of mass destruction. This is another step made by the government for their activities not to be exposed to the public (Klotzer, 2005).
The US government spends about $7 billion a year for keeping secrets but there is only $320 million allotted for funding the FOIA, that’s $1.1 per citizen. There are already five government agencies that comply with the 10 year old electronic FOIA that aims to put on the web information from the government without even filing a FOIA request (Blanton, 2007).
Changing the FOIA
Based from the given situation of the FOIA nowadays, we can see that there is a need for the government to make necessary movements in order to fight the problems concerning the implementation of FOIA.
According to the article written by Jon Kyl, the public cannot put all the blame to the government agencies for having late for the processing of their request since the FOIA has already been enacted decades ago and there are a lot of parts in the FOIA that needs revisions in order to cope up with the needs of the public. Because of this, the US Senate has come up with a bill that would implement changes in FOIA. But the problem is there are some loopholes in the proposal that could cause unintended consequences. Here is one of the flaws in the said proposed bill.
One of point that Kyl had raised on his article regarding the flaws in the bill being passed by the Senate was the issue concerning the meaning of “media” in the said bill. Based from the bill, the definition of “media” is anyone who intends to disseminate the information broadly. Moreover, media are the only member of the general public that is exempted in paying the costs of processing their needed documents. With this, it would be more costly on the side of the tax payers since anybody could free ride with the said definition by just simply claiming that they will share the information broadly to fall under the category of “media”. As for the welfare of the government agencies, if the said bill will pass the Senate, it is expected that there will be more request that would come into the offices of many government agencies to seek for information and documents (Kyl, 2007).
The FOIA
Freedom of information act serves as a law that enables the public to have access to the records of the U.S. government (Archive, 2007). This can be done through writing a request to the government agency concerned (State, 2007). As for the part of the government agencies, they have the discretion if whether they will give the needed information to the public based from the nine identified exemptions and three exclusions stated in the statute since there are some document and information that are not applicable to be shared especially to the public (Cabinet, 2007). There is no corresponding punishment for those government agencies that will not follow the said law. For example, the Department of Justice of the United States just like the other government agencies in the United States is required to disclose records or information to the public if they requested such (Justice, 2007). The said act also gives the agencies the mandate to recover part of the costs for their response to the request of any citizen of the US. It is said that the Department of Regulation is the one that is responsible for the provision of the specific rules that will be used to guide the government agencies on how to collect fees or a reduction of the fees (Health, 2007). The following are the general principles that apply to all the kinds of requests like:
“If the person is requesting for a fee waiver or reduction in fees, then, he/she should do so especially when filing the initial request for the said needed documents” (Health, 2007).
“The requesting party may be charged for the time it took the agency for searching the needed documents even if it is not been found or located or it could be that the documents that had been found is denied to the requesting party for some circumstances under one of the freedom of information act’s exemptions” (Health, 2007).
“There will be no charge for those transactions or searching of the needed documents by the requesting party to the government agency that costs less than $25” (Health, 2007).
As for the calculation of the costs of searching the needed documents of the requesting party, the following schedules are being followed:
“For the documents that were processed by an agency employee of grade 1-8, the requesting party will be charged by $5.00 for every 15 minutes that were consumed to the locate the documents” (Health, 2007).
“For the documents that were processed by an agency employee of grade 9-14, the requesting party will be charged by $10.25 for every minutes that were consumed in locating the needed documents” (Health, 2007).
“For the documents that were processed by an agency employee of grade 15 or above, the requesting party will be charged by $18.50 for every minutes that were consumed by the said agency employee in locating the needed documents of the requesting party” (Health, 2007).
Most of the records that are older than 25 years or passports from pre-1925 and visa from pre-1940 are being kept in the National Archives and Records Administration (State, 2007). There are also some records that can be obtained even if the requesting party does not file any request through the use of the Electronic Reading Room that gives access to those documents that are frequently being requested under the freedom of information act (Congresspedia, 2007). Moreover, the public can also have their needed information form government documents by searching through some publications like reports, forms, and policy statements that are available electronically in the Bureaus and Offices within the Department (Association, 1999). There are also some records that can be found in the Departments of all the States in the United States. This document includes:
“The ways of formulating and executing US foreign policies” (State, 2007).
“Information about the administration and the missions and operations of US abroad” (State, 2007).
“Applications of US citizens for US passports” (State, 2007).
“Records of visa requests of non-citizens to enter US” (State, 2007).
“Consular support that were given to US citizens living overseas” (State, 2007).
If a citizen were to use the electronic way of requesting government documents under the mandate of freedom of information act, he/she must not be searching for any document about his/her self or any personal documents on behalf of someone else (USGS, 2007).
Request for government documents may sometimes be able to be done through telephone conversations. But often times, the government agencies will request the public to mail their request addressing to the concerned agency. On the other hand, one the letter has been filed; the burden will now be on the side of the government agencies since they have to release the requested documents right away or promptly upon receiving the said request. All of the government agency’s officers are responsible for responding on the request of the public under the FOIA (C. I. Agency, 2007). Based from the said law, the government agency must provide the public with their needed documents upon receiving the written FOIA request within 20 working days, but most of time; this part of the said law was not being followed by the government agencies (r. m. agency, 2007). If this happen, the public can appeal to the agency’s FOI Appeals Officer regarding the delayed or not disclosing all the part of the information or document that they need (Education, 2007). Another way in which the public could file their appeal is to go directly to the court especially if the agency really does not respond to the request within the required period of processing. Government response can take place if the concerned government agency replies to the request of the public telling the latter if their request is granted or denied (Kathy Gill, 2007). One special case of response will be replying to the request of the public that they will extend the time limit for granting or denying the request for additional 10 working days especially if the documents being requested are voluminous records or the records will have to be retrieved firsts to various offices (RCFP, 2004).
The FOIA also serves as an important tool for the journalists for them to be able to monitor the performance of the government. The media, specifically the journalists, uses the FOIA in attempting to find out for the public on the current situation and activities that the government is up to (Hoyt, 2007).
There are some criticisms regarding the implementation of the said law based from the reports of the Department of Constitutional Affairs. Because of this, restrictions were provided in order to minimize the costs that may be incurred by the government by following the said law. According to the Newstatesman, Tony Wright, one of the major critics of the FOIA, says that FOIA has not yet got into the bloodstream of the government officials. The main point in the article was, does the public really need to know the expenses of the government officials or the costs of war in Iraq for example (newstatesman, 2007).
REFERENCES
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Health, N. I. f. (2007). Guide for Submitting FOIA Requests. Retrieved August 3, 2007, from http://www.nih.gov/icd/od/foia/
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RCFP. (2004). How To Use The Federal FOI Act-A brief overview of how the act works [Electronic Version]. Retrieved August 3, 2007 from http://www.rcfp.org/foiact/guide_b.html.
Shane, S. (2007). Survey Finds Action on Information Requests Can Take Years [Electronic Version], 1. Retrieved August 6, 2007.
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Hoyt, C. (2007). Freedom of Information Act [Electronic Version]. Retrieved August 4, 2007
Newstatesman. (2007) Freedom of Information was hard-won: it must not be diluted now [Electronic Version]. Retrieved August 4, 2007
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