Under a new Freedom of Information Act reform law signed by President Bush on New Year's Eve, federal agencies that don’t respond to FOIA requests within a 20-day period will face stiffer penalties.

As a reporter who routinely uses FOIA, and one who has grown accustomed to receiving responses to requests for public documents years after I ask, I am watching closely for signs of improvement in the system.

When I hadn't hear anything back from one defense agency after sending it a request for records on April 3, I figured that it might just be business as usual. Then, on April 24, I received a phone call. An official from the agency told me that there had been some confusion regarding who in her office was going to handle my request. She apologized and said that they would be "getting to it" as soon as possible.

"So, do you still want everything you asked for in the request?" the official asked me.

I told her I did.

The next day I received an e-mail from the official, which "documents the phone conversation we had on April 24, 2008, regarding the scope of your request."

The scope of my request?

"... the beginning of the 20-day statutory time frame is April 24, 2008, the date we perfected your request."

And just like that, a 20-day response window turned into a 40-day response window.

As overworked federal FOIA offices seek to stay within the confines of the new law, I'm expecting more "do you still want everything you asked for" calls and more follow-up e-mails with language such as "the day we perfected your request."

- mdl

Labels: DOD, FOIA