Meanwhile, the Obama administration has announced online tools designed to make FOIA.Gov more responsive to those seeking information from a variety of government agencies.
One feature is a simplified search function to allow visitors to search all federal government websites at the same time – connecting not only to the documents in FOIA Libraries, but also to the proactive disclosures that agencies regularly make through their own websites. A second feature links the FOIA systems from more than 100 offices across the government, making it easier than ever for individuals to find, and make, requests electronically.
The changes were announced by Attorney General Eric Holder, who also outlined several improvements to the Justice Department’s own handling of FOIA requests. It will begin posting monthly FOIA logs for requests made to senior leadership offices that will publicly identify the subject matter and disposition of each request. Also, it introduced a new way for members of the public to submit FOIA requests to the department’s senior leadership offices online, and to track these requests.
The announcements follow by three years the policy guidance that among other changes set new standards for FOIA litigation. Under those standards, the department will defend a denial of a FOIA request only if the agency reasonably foresees that disclosure would harm an interest protected by one of the statutory exemptions, or disclosure is prohibited by law.
The extent of compliance with those standards is a subject of much debate in the government transparency community.