By Eric P. Robinson, USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications

All writers in Op Ed are here to inform and acknowledge issues of importance to our communities, however these writings represent the views and opinions of the authors and not necessarily of The Advertiser.

Under the federal Freedom of Information Act, government agencies are in most cases supposed to respond to requests for government information with at least an initial response within 20 business days. Despite this, delayed and backlogged requests are common, with some requests taking months and even in some cases years.
The federal Department of Energy—which oversees, among other facilities, the Savannah River Site near Aiken—has proposed a solution to this problem: but the fix is problematic, and may be illegal.
On August 14, the Department of Energy proposed that it eliminate its backlog of FOIA requests by simply purging all FOIA requests made or transferred (from another agency) to DOE headquarters before Oct. 1, 2024 that are still pending, unless the requestor specifically notifies the agency of continued interest in the requests within 30 days of announcement of the new policy (since the 30th day is a Saturday, the deadline was Monday, Sept. 15). The notice, published in the Federal Register, added that notification of continued interest must be sent to a specific email address, StillInterestedFOIA@hq.doe.gov, and include the specific DOE HQ FOIA control number(s) for the request. Notifications sent elsewhere “may result in an inadvertent closure of the FOIA request(s).”
The department said that it would email requesters for whom it had email addresses and refer them to the notice of the new policy. But it did not say anything about contacting requestors for whom the agency does not have email addresses. Read more Submitted by SC Press Association