Federal agencies mostly earned failing or incomplete grades in a test of their responsiveness to Freedom of Information Act requests although several produced A-level work, according to a program of Syracuse University.
In January 21 agencies were sent identical FOIA requests that were structured to be as non-controversial and as easy to comply withas possible. The agencies were asked to provide copies of electronic files that the FOIA offices themselves maintain to keep track of FOIA requests, to be produced in any of a range of formats the agency might be using.
The result: DHS headquarters replied in just nine business days, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in just 10 and Justice’s Management Division in 12. The Fish and Wildlife Service, Army, Bureau of Land Management and Citizenship and Immigration Services also responded within three months.
However, those were the only agencies that furnished complete and usable records. The others failed to respond at all; responded with only an acknowledgment of the request but provided nothing afterward; or provided or pointed the requestors to online information that was not responsive to the request. One, the CIA, denied the request.
