Reports Show Spike in Lawsuits Against Intelligence Agencies Due to High Rate of FOIA Denials and Slow Processing Time

Open the Government, June 27, 2018

Open the Government Executive Director Lisa Rosenberg urged America’s military and intelligence agencies to be more forthcoming and less secretive to avoid costly lawsuits that waste taxpayer’s money and infringe on the public’s right to know. Freedom of Information Act lawsuits have increased sharply under this administration, and an OTG survey of recent FOIA reports on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Army, Navy, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), show that these agencies spend a disproportionate amount of taxpayer’s dollars on FOIA-related litigation costs. The CIA is far and away the biggest abuser when it comes to government spending in defense of secrecy.  

“Excessive and reflexive secrecy, that serves no legitimate purpose, is a costly habit that our intelligence community needs to kick before they waste more taxpayer’s money defending the indefensible in costly FOIA lawsuits,” said Open the Government Executive Director Lisa Rosenberg. “Congress needs to step-up and fulfill its oversight role to make sure agencies are accountable to the public and fully complying with their legal transparency requirements.”

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