The Environmental Protection Agency made changes to its policy for processing Freedom of Information Act requests without first going through a public comment period.
Freedom of Information Act requests are increasing, and show no sign of slowing. A digital transformation is needed for more efficient, less costly processing.
The Office of Management and Budget stated in June 2017 that it had received over 100,000 public comments on its agency reorganization efforts, but a FOIA request of those comments returned zero records.
Supporters of the bill say the new exemptions are designed to ease companies’ concerns about divulging private and sensitive data to police investigators that could be made public under the Freedom of Information Act.