Biden’s legacy: Leaving FOIA in shambles
AP Illustration
The Freedom of Information Act gives the public a right to access government records.
The Freedom of Information Act is supposed to shed light on government activity by giving journalists and the public access to government records. But the law is in shambles. From endless delays in response time and unjustified refusals to ridiculously overbroad redactions, FOIA is plagued with problems.
We must fight back against the government’s refusal to comply with FOIA and urge Congress to reform the law and end backlogs of requests, reduce the number of exemptions, and overturn damaging court decisions.
Featured Items
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Support the Bureau of Investigative Journalism's new project investigating the CIA torture report
Today, we’re launching our first crowd-funding campaign of 2015—in support of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism’s new reporting project on the Senate’s recently-released report on CIA torture. The Bureau, which is partnering with the Rendition Project and long-time torture and secret prisons researchers Crofton Black and Steve …
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This Week in Transparency: Whistleblowers remain mired in broken system
'When revealing secret documents, one law helps us like no other.' Good piece over at War Is Boring on how it used the FOIA for national security reporting, when it failed, and the need for legislative reform.LAWSUITS DoD fights lawsuit seeking unclassified report on nuclear needs of Israel and …
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FOIA Rundown: The Year in Review, Private Prisons, and Stolen Brains
This post is adapted from CJ Ciaramella's weekly Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. Regrets the error: My last newsletter referred to "ace blogger Andrew Howard." Mr. Howard's first name is Alex.Also, while not technically a correction, I forgot to give …
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Obama’s Justice Department secretly helped kill the FOIA transparency bill that was based on its own policy
We’ve long known the Justice Department’s stance on transparency has been hypocritical and disingenuous. But they’ve really outdone themselves this time. Last week, the agency secretly helped kill a bipartisan Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reform bill that was based word-for-word on its own policy. First, a little background: In …
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Why aren't more news outlets covering Sen. Rockefeller's shameful attempt to kill FOIA reform?
An uncontroverisal, mild Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reform bill may die on Monday, despite passing 410-0 in the House earlier this year, and with a similar bipartisan vote expected in the Senate. The bill had already been stripped of its most substantive provisions that government agencies objected to, …
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Transparency bill on the verge of passing is being blocked by Sen. Rockefeller
This post is adapted from CJ Ciaramella's weekly Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. FOIA Reform The FOIA Improvement Act of 2014 is on the verge of passing. One senator away, in fact. As of Friday, only Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D., W.V.) …
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This Week in Transparency: FOIA reform passes Senate Judiciary Committee
This post is adapted from CJ Ciaramella's weekly Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. FOIA REFORM The Senate Judiciary committee reported the FOIA Improvements Act of 2014 to the full Senate by a unanimous vote last week. More than 70 transparency and …
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FOIA Rundown: Reform bill delayed, lethal injection secrecy, and more
This post is adapted from CJ Ciaramella's weekly Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. FOIA Reform The Senate Judiciary Committee pushed back a hearing on the FOIA Improvement Act of 2014, where it was expected to vote on the bill and advance …
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This Week in Transparency: Court gives NYPD Glomar powers and more
This post is adapted from CJ Ciaramella's weekly Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. "Information is the currency of power." — Barton Gellman, author and journalist NYPD gets itself a Glomar doctrine The New York Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit against the …
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FOIA Rundown: Ferguson's ongoing stonewall, majority favors release of CIA torture report, and more
This post is adapted from CJ Ciaramella's weekly Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. Ferguson's ongoing stonewall The AP's Jack Gillum reports that Ferguson officials are using the tried and true method of charging exorbitant fees to discourage news orgs and individuals …
