New Study Finds Commercial Uses of Federal FOI Outpace Requests by Journalists, non-profits and all Others
July 3, 2006
CJOG–The federal Freedom of Information Act, which turns 40 on Tuesday, July 4, is a critical tool for businesses seeking government information and companies conducting competitive research. A new analysis of FOIA use showed that about two-thirds of the requests to 20 departments and agencies were from commercial requesters.
The study also showed FOIA use by the media is considerably less than conventional wisdom would have one believe.
The report by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government analyzed 6,439 FOIA requests to 11 Cabinet-level departments and six large agencies in September 2005, the closing month of the last federal budget year. The review found that more than 60 percent of the requests came from commercial interests, with one-fourth of those filed by professional data brokers working on behalf of clients who wanted such information as the asbestos level on old Navy ships, cockpit recordings from crashed airliners and background data on prospective employees.
The second-largest group of requesters —categorized as “other” and consisting mostly of private citizens—comprised a third of the total. These were individuals from a wide swath of society: a movie producer doing research for The Road to Guantanamo, a divorcee searching for hidden assets and UFO enthusiasts seeking evidence of other worldly visitations.
There were also requests from a local police department mining for information on federal grants, a whistleblower trying to shore up a claim of government wrongdoing, historians digging into original source material, a cryptologist trying to recover a Navy intelligence report he had worked on years earlier, and a lawyer in the Texas Attorney General’s office trying to locate parents overdue on child support payments.
“Media” requests accounted for 6 percent of the total. Many reporters say it takes too long to get information through FOIA to make it a meaningful tool for newsgathering. It is used more frequently by journalists working on longer, investigative projects.