| FOIA Survey Shows Agencies Improved But Far From Perfect |
| (03 Nov 2015)
Two-thirds of 21 agencies are now responding and providing usable data in the FOIA survey being conducted by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).
This represents an improvement over just seven agencies that gave adequate responses in April. However, seven other agencies are still failing to provide requested records after four rounds of quarterly requests.
In the latest round, TRAC requested information on the current status of each FOIA request received or pending during July through September 2015, including tracking number, processing track assigned, date received and closing date (if closed). TRAC deliberately asked questions about information the law requires each agency to maintain, and avoided those that might require redaction or other processing steps that could cause delay. Some agencies are replying with amazing speed: two provided data within just two days, and one has begun to proactively post the data on its own web site. Only the CIA has outright refused to process the requests, prompting TRAC to challenge the agency in federal district court. Six other agencies have still either not addressed the request or have so far failed to provide useful data in the nine months since the survey started. To read the full report, which includes a chart ranking the agencies, go to: http://foiaproject.org/?p=3524To keep up with the FOIA Project, follow us on Twitter @foiaproject or like us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/foiaprojectTo keep up with TRAC, follow us on Twitter @tracreports or like us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/tracreportsThe FOIA Project is administered by TRAC, a self-supporting independent research center that depends on foundation grants, individual contributions and subscription fees for the funding needed to obtain, analyze and publish the data we collect on the activities of the US Federal government. To help support TRAC's ongoing efforts, go to: http://trac.syr.edu/sponsor/ |
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