U.S. senator asks FBI to explain plan to abandon FOIA requests by email
Dell Cameron, The Daily Dot, Feb 10, 2017
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s decision to stop responding to the public’s requests for agency records by email garnered widespread disapproval this week from journalists and freedom of information advocates.
Now, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is asking the FBI to reconsider its plan.
For years, the nation’s top law enforcement agency has allowed the public to request access to government documents via email under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)—a federal law whose underlying purpose is to combat government secrecy. Beginning on March 1, however, the FBI is shutting down its email account, directing solicitants instead to one of three other avenues for submission: a web portal, a fax machine, or standard mail.
In a letter on Friday, Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, urged the FBI to revise its new policy, which he interpreted as potentially placing an “unnecessary burden” on requesters, citing limitations of the FBI’s new online submission platform.
Read more here.