EPA shutters public records portal
Heralded as a step for open government when it launched, FOIAonline, in service for more than a decade across agencies, will be decommissioned later this year.
By Kevin Bogardus, Greenwire, Feb. 13, 2023
EPA will shutter FOIAonline, the public records web portal it manages, ending what was once a promising stride toward transparency taken more than 10 years ago.
The website tracks Freedom of Information Act requests across multiple federal agencies and posts records online for all to see. Heralded as a step for open government when it launched, FOIAonline has since faced departing user agencies and rising costs that could have saddled EPA alone with an expensive web application that was increasingly difficult to use.
Now, it will be decommissioned Sept. 30, according to the website itself. Those who follow FOIA wonder what will come next.
Gbemende Johnson, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, said, “It is a loss of a valuable resource."
She explained requesters can chase records from individual agencies' web portals, costing time and resources, but FOIAonline simplified the process and made it easier for those requesting information from certain agencies.
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