Govt. Workers: Little Change Under New FOI Rules

By: Jesse J. Holland, Associated Press Writer (AP) Attorney General John Ashcroft's tightening of Freedom of Information Act guidelines has had no effect on the amount of information released, said nearly half of the government FOIA officials surveyed in a report issued Monday.

Forty-eight percent of government officials who handle FOIA requests said they noticed no changes in what their agencies release to the general public since Ashcroft changed the Justice Department's FOIA memorandum.

Only a third of the officials (31%) said their agencies release less information to the public because of Ashcroft's 2001 directive, according to the General Accounting Office, Congress's watchdog arm.

Of that 31%, only 8% saw more than a slight decrease, the GAO report said.

The Justice Department generally agreed with the GAO's findings, the report said.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, government agencies must provide the public with access to government information, unless the information falls under certain exemptions. However, the agencies can disclose the exempted information at their own discretion.

Attorneys general traditionally issue a policy regarding the Freedom of Information Act at the beginning of a president's term.

In October 2001, Ashcroft changed the FOI policy in place by requiring agencies to carefully consider national security, effective law enforcement and personal privacy before releasing information.

Janet Reno, Ashcroft's predecessor as attorney general, had promoted an overall "presumption of disclosure" and promoted making information public, the GAO said.

Ashcroft also said the Justice Department would defend agencies' decisions not to release information if there was a "sound legal basis" for such withholding under FOIA. Under the Reno policy, Justice would defend an agency's withholding information only when the agency reasonably foresaw that disclosure would harm an interest protected by an FOIA exemption.

The agencies surveyed by the GAO were the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency, General Services Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Central Intelligence Agency, National Science Foundation, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of Personnel Management, Small Business Administration, Social Security Administration, and U.S. Agency for International Development.

Also surveyed were the Treasury, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, and Transportation departments.

Those agencies handle 97% of the government's FOIA requests, the GAO said.