Updated FOIA Guide

The U.S. Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA (pronounced foy-a), is a key piece of open government. The Department of Justice has updated their FOIA Guide, which details how this Justice Department interprets the law, and gives guidance to agency FOIA officers. [Note: there is no open records law that pertains to the U.S. Congress, although several have been introduced in this Congress.]

If you want to make a FOIA request, you should go to the web site of the agency you’re going to request from, and follow their guidelines.

Alabama has its own open records law [included under Title 36, Public Officers and Employees], and the state’s Department of Archives & History has published a leaflet for state employees entitled “Providing Access to Government Records - keep in mind that it was last updated in July of 2002.

And occasionally people out there remember that public universities are state agencies - and therefore fall under that state’s open records law.  Recently an Arkansas Razorback football fan filed an open records request for the cell phone records of Houston Nutt, head football coach.  Because Coach Nutt’s phone was purchased and paid for by the University, the records were turned over to the fan - who analyzed them & made portions available online.

CRS Director Cracking Down on Release of Reports

CRS is the Congressional Research Service (key word - Congressional). It’s a think-tank that works exclusively for members of Congress. They produce wonderful reports - non-partisan, thoroughly researched…just wonderful. Unfortunately, even though these reports are federally-funded, they are not very accessible to the general public - and CRS likes it that way. Sites like the Federation of American Scientists and OpenCRS help - they somehow obtain reports & post them on their sites for anyone to download. But currently, if you want to obtain a report, you might have to buy it from a company called Penny Hill Press.

Anyway, that’s the background. The latest news? A memo sent by Director Dan Mulhollan to his staff was posted by Secrecy News the other day. In it he states, “I have concluded that prior approval should now be required at the division or office level before products are distributed to members of the public,” (meaning everyone except a member of Congress or their staff).

From personal experience, I know that there are plenty of other government workers who find the CRS reports invaluable - not to mention students, researchers, and the general public. This new policy isn’t just about the suppression of information produced at taxpayer expense - it is an attack on the employees of the organization, and their ability to do an effective job.