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The law we know as the Freedom of Information Act was initially introduced as a bill in the 89th Congress. When the bill was signed into law, it was enacted July 4, 1966, but July 4, 1967 was the date it would go into effect, one year after the date of enactment.
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Watergate was a major political scandal that came about as a result of the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972.
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Following Watergate, President Gerald Ford created FOIA-strengthening documents. They regard the concern of a citizen in the following ways:
- One has the right to see records about [one]self, subject to the Privacy Act's exemptions.
- The right to amend an inaccurate, irrelevant, untimely, or incomplete record.
- The right to sue the government for violations of the statute including permitting others to see [one’s] records unless specifically permitted by the Act. -
Issued by President George W. Bush, Executive Order 13233 restricted access to the records of former presidents.
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Passed by congress in 2002, this amendment to FOIA prohibits disclosing formation in response to requests made by government agencies or their representatives outside the United States.
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This amended the federal FOIA statute in several ways. Among them:
- It establishes a definition of "a representative of the news media."
- It prohibits an agency from assessing certain fees if it fails to comply with FOIA deadlines.
- It requires agencies to assign tracking numbers to FOIA requests that take longer than 10 days, and to provide systems determining the status of a request.
- It requires agencies to specify the specific exemption for each deletion or redaction in documents. -
Public access to presidential records was restored by President Barack Obama with Executive Order 13489 to the original extent outlined in the Presidential Records Act.
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President Barack Obama issues Executive Order 13526, which allows the government to classify certain specific kinds of information relevant to national security after it has been requested. So, a request accepted can then be denied if it is determined that it should have been classified information initially.
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The FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act passed unanimously. It amends the FOIA to make it easier and faster to request and receive information. It requires the Office of Management and Budget to create a single FOIA website for people to use to make FOIA requests and check on the status of their request.
