Freedom of Information Act is a law that authorizes anyone to examine most of the records of agencies of the United States government. Records can be obtained by presenting an agency with a written request for specific documents. Congress passed the law, often called the FOIA, in 1966 in an effort to discourage secrecy in government.
The FOIA states that agencies can withhold only certain types of documents. These include records relating to national security, personnel files of government employees, and records of criminal investigations. The FOIA enables a person to challenge the government in court if an agency refuses to release information covered by the act.
The FOIA was strengthened by the Privacy Act Amendments of 1974. One of these amendments provided for disciplinary action against any government official found to be withholding documents illegally. Another amendment required the agencies to answer an FOIA inquiry within 10 working days. A later law, the “Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments (E-FOIA) of 1996, increased the time for an agency to respond to an FOIA query to 20 days. It also required most organizations to provide electronic records for most documents created after Nov. 1, 1996. The OPEN Government Act of 2007 extended agency time on an FOIA request to 30 days. The 2007 act also defined representatives of the news media to include bloggers and others working in electronic media.
