Open Gov Group names FBI worst responder to FOIA.

• Position: FOIA - Brief article

George Washington University's National Security Archive (NSA), an open government group, has cited the FBI for its "outstandingly bad responsiveness to the public that flouts the letter and spirit of the Freedom of Information Act." The bureau received NSA's annual Rosemary Award for what the group said was a high percentage (57%) of "no records" responses to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests it processed last year and the low percentage (less than 14%) of requests the FBI actually fulfilled. The group also said the FBI granted only 89 FOIA requests fully by providing records that had not been redacted.

According to the NSA, the FBI's FOIA response rates ranked worse than other major U.S. agencies, and it took a lot longer to respond to records requests. The group also criticized the bureau's record-searching process as outdated.

In an interview...