Freedom of Information Act

Freedom of Information Act

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966, the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) gives the public the right—within certain bounds—to be provided federal government records on request. The FOIA requires every department and agency in the executive branch (except for the president and the president’s immediate advisors) to make duly requested government records “promptly available to any person.” The law exempts several categories of government records from release, including records relating to classified defense and foreign policy matters, law enforcement records whose release would interfere with investigations and prosecutions, and records considered internal agency memoranda. The FOIA does not apply to Congress or the federal courts.

The key figure in the development and passage of the FOIA was Congressman John E. Moss, a California Democrat. As chair of the House Special Subcommittee on Government Information, Moss spent eleven years presiding over hearings and publishing reports that exhaustively documented the secrecy practices of the executive branch. Remarkably, his work drew little interest or support from members of the Washington press corps, who at that time were accustomed to a collegial, nonadversarial relationship with government officials. Thus, the bill’s passage can be largely attributed to the diligent legislative maneuvering of Moss—as well as his party’s control of both the presidency and Congress (by large majorities in the House and Senate) in 1966.

Controversy about the FOIA’s implementation arose almost immediately after it became law, and the tenor of this debate has remained consistent over time. On the one hand, requestors of information have complained about delays in receipt of records, fees charged for duplication, and improper invoking of exemptions. On the other hand, agency staff and some elected officials have questioned the expenditure of significant resources required to comply with the law. All these concerns have shaped revisions and amendments to the FOIA, which has been significantly modified three times (in 1974, 1986, and 1996).

Records obtained under the FOIA are central to hundreds of news stories about the government that appear in the media each year. The FOIA thus plays an important role in efforts to keep government activity transparent and accountable. However, only a small proportion of FOIA requests are made by news organizations and legitimate researchers. A great number of requests are filed by commercial interests, who hope to repackage and sell the information obtained from their requests, or otherwise use it for business purposes. Access to government records has been dramatically altered by the diffusion of information technology. The vastly reduced cost of indexing, reproducing, and transmitting government records has made it easier for the public to locate and access government information—but it also makes it more conceivable that information of a sensitive or classified nature will fall into the wrong hands.

The FOIA has inspired the passage of similar legislation by U.S. state and local governments. Throughout the world, democracies both new and old adopted freedom of information (FOI) laws in the late twentieth century— many that consciously emulated the U.S. law. But FOI laws by themselves do not lead to greater government accountability. To have much effect, FOI laws require a media that is unhesitant to investigate government activity and is willing to use these laws as a tool to do so.

SEE ALSO Secrecy; Transparency

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Archibald, Sam. 1993. The Early Years of the Freedom of Information Act: 1955–1974. PS: Political Science and Politics 26 (4): 726–731.

Cain, Bruce E., Patrick Egan, and Sergio Fabbrini. 2003. Toward More Open Democracies: The Expansion of Freedom of Information Laws. In Democracy Transformed? Expanding Political Opportunities in Advanced Industrial Democracies, eds. Bruce E. Cain, Russell J. Dalton, Susan E. Scarrow. New York: Oxford University Press.

Patrick J. Egan