Law Commons^™

Fixing Foia: Pushing Congress To Amend Foia Section B(3) To Require Congress To Explicitly Indicate An Intent To Exempt Records From Foia In New Legislation, Catherine J. Cameron

Catherine J Cameron

This article advocates for statutory reform to section b(3) of the federal Freedom of Information Act. Section b(3) is a broadly-written “catch all” provision that allows federal agencies to withhold records if there is some sort of “criteria” evident in another federal statute upon which the agency thinks Congress intended to close access to the records. An agency’s decision to withhold a record under a statute in which Congress was not clear or explicit -- either in the text of the statute or in the Congressional record -- that it’s intent was to close access to a particular type of …