To limit the costs a government body may charge to fulfill a Freedom of Information Act open records request. Among other things the bill would prohibit charging more than the wages of the lowest paid employee capable of meeting the request (or of deleting information exempt from disclosure), whether or not that person does the actual work. “Overhead” or overtime costs could not be included. A government body could choose to provide bulky information in electronic format (on CD), and if the requested information is on its website could just reference this in its reply. FOIA requestors would have to be given an itemized list of the costs, and a government body's procedures, guidelines and fees would have to be posted on its website (if it has one). Tardy responses would be subject to a discount of up to 50 percent. The penalty and damages for wrongfully denying a request would increase from $500 to $1,000 (with fines of up to $7,500 if this is “willful and intentional”). However, more rigorous sanctions previously adopted by the House were stripped out in the final Senate-passed bill.
| 101 Yeas / 9 Nays | |
|---|---|
