Partisan Bias in FOIA Responses?
Delve CEO Jeff Berkowitz helps The Washington Times’ Jim McElhatton interpret data on EPA responses to FOIA requests. Is the agency really more responsive to Democrat requests than Republican ones? The data suggests yes, but it might be a bit more complicated than that:
Democrats have filed more than 50 FOIA requests, including lots seeking correspondence between Republicans and EPA officials. Their findings help supply a steady flow of material for damaging news stories and campaign ads.
Republican political committees have filed just four requests since 2012, and none of those has been fulfilled.
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The lack of EPA records on the Republican side doesn’t mean Republicans are less aggressive than Democrats. Campaigns sometimes file requests through intermediaries — “regular citizens” — so as not to attract undue attention inside agencies, said Jeffrey Berkowitz, a research consultant who advises campaigns on open-records requests.
Mr. Berkowitz said clients sometimes don’t want anyone to know what documents they are trying to track down, so they use intermediaries with no outward political affiliation to file requests.
Berkowitz told The Washington Times that getting FOIA requests answered takes patience, but it can produce significant results when it works:
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The FOIA process isn’t easy. Months and sometimes even years can pass before agencies respond to records requests. Even then, agencies have a host of exemptions with which they can black out huge swaths of paperwork, shielding records from public view.
“You have to start early and you see with the national political organizations, they’re often thinking very far ahead.”
But the records can pay off, he said.
“If you’re about to run against an incumbent senator or congressman in an agricultural state, you might want to see what correspondence they’re sending to [the Agriculture Department] to advocate for their constituency. You may not find much, or you may find letters that match up neatly with their list of donors,” he said.
Read the full article here. Need help understanding the FOIA process and other research techniques? We can help.