Part-Time Policy Wonk

Thanks to The FOIA Blog for pointing out this post from the Daily Kos:

I am sick and tired of Congress blaming Federal agencies for FOIA delays instead of structuring the system in a way that minimizes these delays. Congress should

1. Establish in every agency subject to FOIA an office that is responsible for not only tracking and assigning FOIA requests, but actually doing the work in collecting responsive records, assessing the application of FOIA exemptions (with help from agency legal offices where appropriate), formally responding to the requests, and collecting fees. In many agencies the records will be kept by the various offices responsible for those records, and those offices will still need to spend time working with the FOIA office to respond to the request. But the efficiencies of having professional, knowledgeable FOIA staff working on every request will greatly decrease the response time and increase the quality of the response.
2. Include in each agency’s appropriations adequate funds to fully staff those offices so that they may efficiently process the FOIA requests received by that agency.

In my opinion, failure to make these fundamental changes in how FOIA is implemented will mean that delays, incorrect responses, and plain old wasted time will continue to be rampant.