FOIA Advisor

FOIA News: EPA inundated with requests

FOIA News (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

FOIA explosion at EPA, over 60 per day

By Paul Bedard, Wash. Examiner, Sept. 19, 2017

Reporters and special interests groups critical of President Trump's Environmental Protection Agency have filed Freedom of Information Act requests at a record-breaking pace, a rate of over 60 a day.

Through last week, 10,970 have been filed, many so broadly worded that it will take years to answer. What's more, there are still several weeks left in the fiscal year for more to come in. The most ever filed for a full year has been 11,820 in fiscal year 2007.

Critics have assailed some actions by Trump's EPA and Administrator Scott Pruitt and many FOIA's seek emails on their decisions.

But some are poorly focused and broad. Several seek all emails that include "climate change" in them, a list in the millions and will be costly in money and hours to retrieve.

Read more here.