In Virginia, the obstacle that perhaps looms largest over greater electronic access is the Freedomof Information Act itself, the state law that deems all government records public unless explicitly exempted. Some say the law is vague in determining what a government agency must do to provide information to the public. Others say it is unclear about whether electronic records are public at all. On the other hand, it says the government isn'tobliged to create a new record to respond to a request from a citizen. Part of the problem is that the law originally was written for paper records, not for computer databases.
Electronic records are a major issue in an ongoing revision of the access law.
Advocates of greater access, such as theVirginia Coalition for Open Government, would like government agencies to be required to supply electronically stored public information even if that meant extracting the information from a larger database. The person requesting the information could be required to pay actual costs involved, the organization says. But some government officials are wary of such language. They say it expands the law and places additional burdens on their offices and, eventually, taxpayers. Access advocates respond that the agencies are already entitled to charge for the time and materials it takes to fill a request.