Part of this problem is the overworked and undertrained staff of each FOI office. If more personnel were trained to be releasers, rather than keepers of information, there would be greater accountability within the system. While there are provisions for timely release of information, there are no sanctions against agencies that fail to meet those requirements. If violators were subject to fines or even job loss, then compliance with the Act's timeliness requirements would increase. The fee system should be scrapped for those who operate in the public's interest, rather than for purely commercial reasons.
Agencies effectively deny information when they charge outrageous fees for documents.
But the problems lie not only with the federal bureaucracy that has developed over the Act's 28-year life. Vague requests for vast quantities of material unnecessarily burden the system, delaying action on other requests. We applaud reporters like Eileen Welsome who stick with FOIA requests for years despite the odds. We applaud watchdog groups' efforts to keep agencies accountable through litigation. Until there are fundamental attitude changes in all FOI offices, the Act will continue to be used to justify censorship, instead of providing the information so essential to the effective operation of our democracy.