Where Is The Funding For FOIA Operations Going To Come From?

Anyone active in FOIA knows that money for FOIA Operations is always a problem.  And with the recent budget battles, FOIA Offices in many agencies have been stretched beyond thin. 

Further, the GSA travel scandal has made training almost extinct for a number of agencies and this includes FOIA training for all employees, including new ones who have very little or no experience whatsoever in the FOIA.

I see the biggest issue in FOIA for the foreseeable future as the funding of FOIA operations.  Even with the adoption of electronic processing and FOIA portals, this lack of funding will increase backlogs in requests and decrease knowledge among FOIA employees.  Its moving into a code red situation. 

What, if anything, can be done?  First, those making up the FOIA community, (requesters and FOIA employees) need to realize that this is not a situation created by the FOIA community.  As such, they need to work together to contact both Congress and agency higher ups letting them know that this situation is not satisfactory, that FOIA is a statute and needs to be funded.  Further, those at the offices in DOJ and OGIS need to work with agency FOIA staff in educating non-FOIA management of agencies in the importance of the FOIA, including keeping the money flowing.  Finally, Congress should look at ways to fund FOIA Operations either by specific line items per agencies (I"ve gotten flak in the past for this suggestion, but I've never been swayed that it would hurt) or by allowing FOIA agencies to keep the money they bring in by charging duplication and processing fees.  Congress may also want to re-look at where attorney fees come from in FOIA litigation.  They are now paid, in many instances, from the already depleted FOIA Operations.  I would suggest there should be some type of system that allows agencies to take the money from the budget's of the program offices that often create the litigation situation in the first place.

The next few months will see the sequestration/budget battles dominate the headlines.  Those in the FOIA community should remember that these discussions cut straight to their interests and should be active participants.

I'd love to hear your suggestions/comments about this issue.

Comments

[Joe Tangredi]

How about a FOIA funding pool requiring all categories of commercial, non-profit, news media and institutional FOIA requesters to deposit into an annual pool a certain amount of money based on their utilization of FOIA services over the past 5 years?

[Jennifer]

I think it is going to get vastly worse with sequestration, particularly as the FOIA operations are already understaffed, but with sequestration you have less employees across the agency working, making it a lower priority. In some agencies cutting work hours, both the existing/understaffed FOIA staff will be working less hours, and those that they are relying on (record owners, attorneys, etc.) will also be working less hours therefore causing even greater delays.

[More Backlog is a coming]

Agree Jennifer. Not only will the full time FOIA employees be affected by this, the part time FOIA employees that have FOIA task as a secondary duty on their plate will have to decide what is more important, their main job duty or this FOIA collateral duty. Many of the people who have FOIA collateral duties are not processors, they are searchers of records, legal reviewers, policy people, and even administrative staff not to mention those process appeals. Many offices use FOIA as a tool to get increased funding for their office. They abuse funding for FOIA an use it for other non-FOIA based funding as such as Privacy, Other Initiatives, etc. Make sure your appropriated funding for FOIA is used for FOIA processing!