Freedom of Information

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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Chemical Security Update: Homeland Security Amendment

The Senate passed the Department of Homeland Security FY2005 appropriations bill (H.R. 4567) this week, although a chemical security amendment, introduced by Sen. Jon Corzine (D-NJ), was tabled.

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City Cites Terrorism in Secret Meeting on Gangs

The City Council of Staunton, Va., questionably used a terrorism provision to hold a secret meeting on gang activities. Using homeland security policies to hide non-terrorism information appears to be an increasing problem.

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Security Measures Invoked to End Safety Measures

A large sign in New York City, indicating the location of a natural gas pipeline to prevent accidents, was taken down after a website posted a photograph of the sign. John Young, the owner of www.cryptome.org, posts information on his site to draw attention to places needing increased security. Although federal regulations require that the location of natural gas lines be made as obvious as possible to the public for safety reasons, the company that owns the pipeline asserted that local laws allowed the sign's removal.

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Senate Approves FOIA Exemption for Satellite Images

The Senate has approved a broad new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) exemption that would restrict public access and use of commercial satellite imagery.

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Report Card Finds Secrecy Rose 60% at Rising Cost of $6.5 Billion Last Year

RELEASED 10 A.M., AUG. 26, 2004 Washington, D.C.
Government data confirm what many have suspected: secrecy has increased dramatically in recent years under policies of the current administration, which classified 14 million new documents last year. For every $1 the federal government spent last year releasing old secrets, it spent an extraordinary $120 maintaining the secrets already on the books, according to an analysis by OpenTheGovernment.org.

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Officials Seek Exemptions to Arkansas Access Law

City of Fort Smith officials are seeking to change Arkansas' state Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) after they were caught violating the law by having secret discussions about a real estate purchase. The city administrator privately polled Fort Smith's Board of Directors via telephone to get approval to bid on real estate being publicly auctioned. City officials contend that if the matter had been discussed publicly, the city would have paid more as knowledge of their top price would have driven up bids. Therefore, the secrecy served the taxpayers' interest.

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Coalition Files FOIA Suit Against Homeland Security

A coalition of Illinois organizations filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Aug. 17 against the Department of Homeland Security to obtain information about discriminatory activities post 9/11. DHS never responded to the original FOIA request. The organizations filing the suit work closely on civil liberties and immigrant rights: American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the Midwest Immigrant and Human Rights Center, and the Muslim Civil Rights Center.

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FOIA -- The Simple Explanation

Congress passed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 1966 and amended the law in 1974. The purpose of the law was to create a more open and accountable government. The law establishes that government agencies must provide any information requested, if they possess the information, unless specific restriction prohibit the public release of the information. FOIA has become a fundamental tool for obtaining information and promoting accountability with the government and industry. FOIA's Uses

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2003 Op-eds on Government Secrecy and Freedom of Information

Read the best published op-eds on the need for open government and threats to information access collected by OMB Watch, OpenTheGovernment.org, and our allies. Permission is granted for free reprinting of any of these articles, provided it credits the author and includes this attribution: "© 2004, distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services." Court struggles with privacy issue in Vincent Foster suicide case By Martin Halstuk

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Recent Policy Developments Affecting FOIA

A number of recent government policies and rules significantly alter how information is handled under FOIA. Many of these policies were established after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a memorandum October 12, 2001 instructing agencies to withhold documents whenever legally possible under the Freedom of Information Act. The memo specifically states the exemptions that agencies should use to shield information. The General Accounting Office (GAO) released a report that shows a significant percentage of

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