The requester also has a right to appeal the denial and, if necessary, to challenge it in court. These procedural rights granted by the FOIA and the Privacy Act make the laws valuable and workable. As a result, the disclosure of federal government information cannot be controlled by arbitrary or unreviewable actions. The E-FOIA mandates that agencies make certain records available by electronic means no later than November 1, 1997. This wording debunks the notion that agencies can somehow uphold their obligation to the public without first effectively managing information internally.
Information has utility only if it can be retrieved when and where needed.
It cannot be managed effectively if agencies cannot even determine without great effort what information resources they hold. Enactment of the E-FOIA came little more than a year after the PRA became law. Both were passed by the 104 th Congress. Curiously, it was often argued that the FOIA was not a primary program of the departments and agencies, a contention that sadly ignored the importance of Government information accessibility for the citizens of a democracy. Agency Web sites are just one of many potential sources of Government information.