FOIA, which was originally enacted in 1966 and subsequently amended several times, establishes a legal right of access to government records and information, on the basis of the principles of openness and accountability in government. Before the act, an individual seeking access to federal records had faced the burden of establishing a right to examine them. FOIA established a “right to know” standard for access, instead of a “need to know,” and shifted the burden of proof from the individual to the government agency seeking to deny access. The act has been amended several times, including in 1974, 1976, 1986, 1996, and 2002. FOIA provides the public with access to government information either through “affirmative agency disclosure”—publishing information in the Federal Register or making it available in reading rooms—or in response to public requests for disclosure. Public requests for disclosure of records are the best known type of FOIA disclosure. Any member of the public may request access to information held by federal agencies, without showing a need or reason for seeking the information. The act prescribes nine specific categories of information that is exempt from disclosure; agencies may cite these exemptions in denying access to material (see table 1). The act also includes provisions for excluding specific sensitive records held by law enforcement agencies. The act requires agencies to notify requesters of the reasons for any adverse determination and grants requesters the right to appeal agency decisions to deny access. In addition, agencies are required to meet certain time frames for making key determinations: whether to comply with requests (20 business days from receipt of the request), responses to appeals of adverse determinations (20 business days from filing of the appeal), and whether to provide expedited processing of requests (10 business days from receipt of the request). Congress did not establish a statutory deadline for making releasable records available, but instead required agencies to make them available promptly. We have reported several times in the past on the contents of the annual reports of 25 major agencies, covering fiscal years 1998 through 2002. We first reported information in 2001 on the implementation of the 1996 amendments to FOIA. At that time we recommended that Justice (1) encourage agencies to make material electronically available and (2) review agency annual reports to address specific data quality issues. Since our report was issued, Justice has taken steps to implement both of these recommendations. In 2002, we reported that the number of requests received and processed appeared for most agencies—except the Department of Veterans Affairs—to peak in fiscal year 2000 and decline slightly in fiscal year 2001. In our 2004 report, we reported that between 2000 and 2002, the number of requests received and processed declined when the Department of Veterans Affairs is excluded. We also reported that agencies’ backlogs of pending requests were declining, and that the number of FOIA requests denied governmentwide had dropped dramatically between 2000 and 2001 and remained low in 2002. The Department of Justice and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) both have roles in the implementation of FOIA. The Department of Justice oversees agencies’ compliance with FOIA and is the primary source of policy guidance for agencies. OMB is responsible for issuing guidelines on the uniform schedule of fees. Specifically, Justice’s requirements under the act are to ● make agencies’ annual FOIA reports available through a single electronic access point and notify Congress as to their availability; in consultation with OMB, develop guidelines for the required annual agency reports, so that all reports use common terminology and follow a similar format; and ● submit an annual report on FOIA statistics and the efforts undertaken by Justice to encourage agency compliance. Within the Department of Justice, the Office of Information and Privacy (OIP) has lead responsibility for providing guidance and support to federal agencies on FOIA issues. OIP first issued guidelines for agency preparation and submission of annual reports in the spring of 1997 and periodically issued additional guidance. OIP also periodically issues guidance on compliance, provides training, and maintains a counselors service to provide expert, one- on-one assistance to agency FOIA staff. Further, it also makes a variety of FOIA and Privacy Act resources available to agencies and the public via the Justice Web site and on-line bulletins. In addition, the act requires OMB to issue guidelines to “provide for a uniform schedule of fees for all agencies.” In charging fees for responding to requests, agencies are required to conform to the OMB guidelines. Further, in 1987, the Department of Justice issued guidelines on waiving fees when requests are determined to be in the public interest. Under the guidelines, requests for waivers or reduction of fees are to be considered on a case-by-case basis, taking into account both the public interest and the requester’s commercial interests. The 1996 FOIA amendments, referred to as e-FOIA, require that agencies submit a report to the Attorney General on or before February 1 of each year that covers the preceding fiscal year and includes information about agencies’ FOIA operations. The following are examples of information that is to be included in these reports: ● number of requests received, processed, and pending; ● median number of days taken by the agency to process different ● determinations made by the agency not to disclose information and the reasons for not disclosing the information; ● disposition of administrative appeals by requesters; information on the costs associated with handling of FOIA requests; and ● full-time-equivalent staffing information. In addition to providing their annual reports to the Attorney General, agencies are to make them available to the public in electronic form. The Attorney General is required to make all agency reports available on line at a single electronic access point and report to Congress no later than April 1 of each year that these reports are available in electronic form. As agencies process FOIA requests, they generally place them in one of four possible disposition categories: grants, partial grants, denials, and “not disclosed for other reasons.” These categories are defined as follows: ● Grants: agency decisions to disclose all requested records in full. ● Partial grants: decisions to withhold some records in whole or in part, because such information was determined to fall within one or more exemptions. ● Denials: agency decisions not to release any part of the requested records because all information in the records is determined to be exempt under one or more statutory exemptions. ● Not disclosed for other reasons: agency decisions not to release requested information for any of a variety of reasons other than statutory exemptions from disclosing records. The categories and definitions of these “other” reasons for nondisclosure are shown in table 2. When a FOIA request is denied in full or in part, or the requested records are not disclosed for other reasons, the requester is entitled to be told the reason for the denial, to appeal the denial, and to challenge it in court. FOIA also authorizes agencies to recoup certain direct costs associated with processing requests, and agencies also have the discretion to reduce or waive fees under various circumstances. Agency determinations about fees and fee waivers are complex decisions that include determining (1) a requester’s fee category, (2) whether a fee waiver is to be granted, and (3) the actual fees to be charged. FOIA stipulates three types of fee categories for requesters: (1) commercial; (2) educational or noncommercial scientific institutions and representatives of the news media; and (3) other. Further, fees can be charged for three types of FOIA-related activities—search, duplication, and review—depending on the requester’s fee category. In addition, fees may not be charged to a requester in certain situations, such as when a fee waiver is granted or when the applicable fees are below a certain threshold. Commercial users can be charged for the broadest range of FOIA- related activities, including document search, review, and duplication. Commercial use is defined in the OMB fee schedule guidelines as “a use or purpose that furthers the commercial, trade or profit interests of the requester or the person on whose behalf the request is being made.” The second category exempts search and review fees for documents sought for noncommercial use by educational or noncommercial scientific institutions, and for documents sought by representatives of the news media. The third category of fees, which applies to all requesters who do not fall within either of the other two categories, allows for “reasonable” charges for document search and duplication. Table 3 shows the FOIA-related activities for which agencies can charge by fee category, as stipulated in the act. Although the act generally requires that requesters pay fees to cover the costs of processing their requests, in certain circumstances, fees are not to be charged. For example, as stipulated in the act, fees may not be charged when the government’s cost of collecting and processing the fee is likely to equal or exceed the amount of the fee itself. Further, under certain circumstances, the act requires an agency to furnish documents without charge, or at reduced charges. This is commonly referred to as the FOIA fee-waiver provision. Based on this provision, an agency must provide a fee waiver if two conditions are met: ● disclosure of the requested information is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government, and ● disclosure of the information is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester. Under the act and guidance, when these requirements are both satisfied, based upon information supplied by a requester or otherwise made known to the agency, the fee waiver or reduction is to be granted by the FOIA officer. When one or both of these requirements are not satisfied, a fee waiver is not warranted. As these criteria suggest, fee waivers are to be granted on a case-by- case basis. Individuals who receive fee waivers in some cases may not necessarily receive them in other cases.