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About the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
How to Make a FOIA Request 
Government Guidance, Directives and Statistics on FOIA

United States Department of Justice Summary of Annual FOIA Reports for Fiscal Year 2000

 

United States Department of Justice Summary of Annual FOIA Reports for Fiscal Year 2001

 

THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

ON ITS 37TH BIRTHDAY

More than 2 million FOIA requests filed at a yearly cost of just over $1 per citizen.

Archive releases selection of "Top Twenty" news stories based on the FOIA.

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book Number 93
Edited by Meredith Fuchs, Barbara Elias, and Thomas Blanton

Posted 4 July 2003

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 4 - George Washington University's National Security Archive, the leading non-profit user of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, today released its annual Freedom of Information Act birthday posting, 37 years to the day after President Johnson grudgingly signed the U.S. FOIA into law on July 4, 1966.

The Archive reported that documents released under federal, state and local freedom of information acts sparked more than 6,000 news stories in 2002 and the first half of 2003 (according to the Archive's searches of on-line databases), including revelations of major public interest such as the use of electronic highway toll data in criminal, administrative and civil probes, the failure of government agencies to prosecute water pollution violations, the misuse of federal student aid, defective military airplanes, and the loss of explosives, mines, mortars and firearms from U.S. stockpiles. The report features an itemized list of 20 significant news stories from the last 18 months that cited documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

In addition, the Archive posted one-page summaries of 35 major federal agencies that include correct, up-to-date listings of the FOIA contacts, as well as information on FOIA appeals and other useful information for accessing records from the agencies. The Archive website also includes key documents on the history of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, Phase One of the Archive's Freedom of Information Audit, the most recent General Accounting Office assessments of the FOIA and E-FOIA, a User's Guide to FOIA, sample FOIA request and appeal letters, and guidance from the Archive's experts on how to use the FOIA.

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