The freedom of information act protects citizens rights to request federal information that does not meet the allowed exemptions by law. The freedom of information act, forms an incredibly important protective element of information and fact that citizens of the U.S. should always have access to. Journalists have often utilized the act as well and generally requesting information to hold federal agencies accountable is a good practice.
This act is supposedly the bane of state agencies in Arkansas according to Rep. David Ray. He recently posited a measure that would potentially limit the public's access to information in Arkansas in order to ease the burden of work upon state agencies in Arkansas who process the information requests. Ray states that it is not "fiscally conservative" to spend millions upon millions of dollars each year on the Freedom of information act compliance officers who would require yearly salaries in the range of 60,000 dollars to 100,000 dollars.
The potential exceptions to the act according to the bill would be that officers would have some exceptions from the information access of citizens regarding ongoing investigations. Officials of the government would also be protected from individuals pursuing their legal litigation strategies in the case of an individual suing an official and then requesting any records of the officials speaking with an attorney regarding legal counsel.
The exemptions do not slow down there however, as Ray went on to include exemptions for both cyber security and state universities intellectual property. He stated that threats to cyber security were posed by the potential for hackers to request information that could allow them an easier time to hack government agencies. State universities on the other hand would have their intellectual property that is worth money protected, private research that has value to either buyers or to competitors would become protected under this bill.
Ultimately the bill did not pass, Ray failed to convince the board that these exemptions held enough merit to be passed into law. Some private citizens stood against the bill stating that the exemptions represented a less transparent government. The bill received 5 yes votes and 8 no votes falling far short of the 11 required yes votes in order to pass. Talk Business.Net has more information regarding the bill and exemptions that Rep. David Ray attempted to have passed into law.
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