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The FOIA protections reaffirmed by the appellate court came soon after an important case involving the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), which submitted a FOIA request for three Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) databases and “broader electronic data maintained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.”
In its ruling on TRAC, the U.S. District Court of D.C. stated that if organizations establish that they “intend and have the ability to disseminate new research to the public,” than they are news media. This ruling also supports the decision in Cause of Action v. FTC establishing that a news media organization can remain classified as such in perpetuity unless it changes “its research activities in the future.”
The Project On Government Oversight frequently advocates reforming FOIA’s fee waivers. In a 2011 public comment on FOIA, POGO, along with Public Citizen, criticized the chilling effect fees have upon requesters, and in 2014 POGO asked Congress to reform FOIA fees by supporting the FOIA Improvement Act.
Ultimately, the court decisions in favor of Cause of Action and TRAC will make it easier for traditional and non-traditional media and public interest organizations, like POGO, to receive FOIA fee waivers. As a result, more information will be disseminated to the public, increasing government transparency and accountability.
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