Cause of Action and 13 other groups sent a joint letter to the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) urging it to investigate the unauthorized and abusive practice by administrative agencies of sending “administrative closure” letters in lieu of responding to proper requests for information. The Freedom of Information Act gives anyone the right to request documents from a federal agency but various administrative agencies are finding a backdoor way to close requests without producing documents. Specifically, after delays of months and, at times, years, FOIA officers are writing to requestors that unless the requestor provides certain information within a proscribed short period of time, the agency is going to close the request. The effect of such a closure is that if the requestor is forced to send a new request, it will go to the end of the line for processing (resulting in further delays of months to years). The coalition letter requests an investigation into this practice, and Cause of Action is hopeful that such an investigation will result in a directive to agencies to end this practice.
Read the letter here.
