§20.1 Overview of Foia

• Jurisdiction: Washington

§20.1 OVERVIEW OF FOIA

This brief chapter is designed to provide an overview of the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552, but is not a comprehensive treatment of the topic.

FOIA is the federal public records act. FOIA was enacted in 1966 and predated Washington's Public Disclosure Act, former Chapter 42.17 RCW, which was replaced by the Public Records Act (PRA), Chapter 42.56 RCW, in 2005. Washington's PRA is based in part on FOIA.

FOIA has some similarities to, but many differences from, the PRA. In general, FOIA provides less access to government information and imposes greater procedural barriers to access than the PRA.

Like the PRA, the purpose of FOIA is to provide open access to information to keep public agencies accountable. "The basic purpose of FOIA is to ensure an informed citizenry, vital to the functioning of a democratic society, needed to check against corruption and to hold the governors accountable to the governed." N.L.R.B. v. Robbins Tire & Rubber Co., 437 U.S. 214, 242, 98 S. Ct. 2311, 57 L. Ed. 2d 159 (1978). Also like the PRA, FOIA requires disclosure unless a record falls within an exemption. See N.L.R.B. v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 421 U.S. 132, 136, 95 S. Ct. 1504, 44 L. Ed. 2d 29 (1975); cf. O'Connor v. State Dep't of Soc. & Health Servs., 143 Wn.2d 895, 905, 25 P.3d 426 (2001) (PRA" requires all state and local agencies to disclose any public record upon request, unless the record falls within certain very specific exemptions.").

However, FOIA and the PRA differ on the number and scope of exemptions. FOIA has only nine exemptions, but they are relatively broad. FOIAs exemptions exclude from disclosure records relating to broad. FOIA's exemptions exclude from disclosure records relating to

(1)	national security information concerning the national defense or foreign policy;
(2)	internal agency personnel rules and practices;
(3)	information exempt

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