Every year, we celebrate Sunshine Week to honor the work of the journalists and private citizens who are utilizing the Freedom of Information Act to bring government records out of the dark filing cabinets where they live and into the sunlight. The federal Freedom of Information Act and the state-level freedom of information laws make it possible for us to find out more about our government and learn about the inner workings of the organizations that keep our communities running. But as much as FOIA and the local FOIL statutes have helped us all, there is still so much work to be done. https://www.newsmediaalliance.org/state-of-foia-2018/

1. HOWSUCCESSFULAREFREEDOMOFINFORMATION
ACTREQUESTS?
Only 26.41 percent of FOIA requests are successful, meaning
they get a response and result in new information being
released to the public.
State
Massachusetts(14,972)
NewYork(7,318)
California(4,877)
Arkansas(4,432)
Washington(3,722)
Allowed response time
Average response time
HowLongIsTooLong?
The allowed FOIA request response time is 20 days, but the
actual response time is often much, much longer.
HowManyRequestsAreThere?
There are currently more than 17,000 requests submitted
through MuckRock. Of those, more than 3,600 have no
responsive documents. And while more requests have been
completed than are overdue, it's not by much.
20days
170days
27.99%
REFERENCES
MuckRock
https://www.muckrock.com/place/united-states-of-america/
CREATED BY
News Media Alliance
26.41
HOWEXPENSIVEISFOIA?
Only 2.21 percent of FOIA requests have a fee, but the average
fee is a shocking $5,203,963.59.
18.56%
10.77%
17,239Total requests filed
Completed requests
Rejected requests
Overdue requests
TopRequests
While people are requesting
records everywhere and
from every agency, there are
a few who have gotten more
than their share of requests.
Agency
FBI(46,484)
Dept.ofState(11,928)
NSA(7,943)
CIA(7,599)
Customs&BorderProtection
(4,329)
No responsive documents
21.05%
SUNSHINE WEEK 2018
THE STATE OF FOIA