Latest news with #FOIAs
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Detroit Red Wings legend Steve Yzerman isn't to blame for team's troubles
Cover your mouth with a piece of duct tape. That's what President Donald Trump will in essence be doing to millions of women, people of color and legal immigrants if the SAVE Act becomes law. ("Married women are concerned about the SAVE Act. Here's why," USA Today, April 25.) The act requires American citizens registering to vote, or updating their registration information, to present a passport or birth certificate. Approximately 146 million Americans don't have a valid passport. Some may not have birth certificates. And if your name changed when you got married, you could also lack proper documentation. The SAVE Act doesn't 'save' anyone. It's a voter suppression act to silence women, minorities and other marginalized people. To ensure everyone's right to vote, call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard (202-224-3121) and urge your senators to vote no on the SAVE Act. (The House already passed it.) It's misogynistic. Racist. And far from Trump's last effort to keep MAGA Republicans in office. Nancy Wellinger Pleasant Ridge More: Detroit Red Wings clean out lockers, but have hope for next season. Here's why It's a shame and a sad state of affairs that Dylan Larkin points the finger at Steve Yzerman for the Red Wings performance. Larkin only needs to take a look in the mirror to see the one who needs to be traded ― yesterday. Alex DeBrincat brings the fire. He's the one who needs to be the captain. Dan Holden Essexville, Michigan I get that most people do not understand what opposition research is or what a researcher does. I've been an opposition researcher for over thirty years, and I'm positive my parents could not explain what I do. But an investigative reporter should know better, which is why I was so disappointed in M. L. Elrick's recent column (Democratic dirt-mining operation plays into Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's hands, Detroit Free Press, April 20). Elrick's April 20 column was a fine mixture of media hyperbole and political nonsense. He throws around terms like 'dirt-mining' and 'smear campaign' regarding Freedom of Information Act research requests made by the Democratic Governor's Association made for public data from Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, an independent candidate for governor in 2026. But the supposed nefarious enterprise was requestsfor public data. FOIAs are standard requests to get public information from government entities. Asking the city to be transparent with documents hardly seems like dirt-mining, but a column entitled 'DGA Makes Typical Public Requests' doesn't get the clicks, I guess. Elrick also argues that Democrats would be far wiser to wait until Duggan leaves office in 2026 before making these requests. This is terrible advice on so many levels. First, getting information from FOIAs can take a bit of time, as Elrick himself notes. If the city is slow in replying to FOIAs, does it make sense for the DGA to wait nine months making the ask? Second, city officials are obligated to provide answers to FOIAs. If the next mayor is a Duggan ally, should the DGA just give up? Lastly, public information can provide a very valuable check on power. Right now, DOGE is cutting agencies and jobs, often leaving the public in the dark. Is Elrick suggesting that Democrats wait until 2028 before sending in FOIA requests regarding DOGE? Researchers sift through tons of data to find the strengths and weaknesses of their candidate and the opposition. That means reading documents, voting records, and yes, making Freedom of Information Act requests. It's not about 'smearing' an opponent, but thoroughly checking facts. Campaign folks know that what makes good research hardlymakes good copy. Hopefully Mr. Elrick now knows that too. Brett C. Di Resta The writer is an adjunct professor in George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management Submit a letter to the editor at and we may publish it online and in print. If you have a differing view from a letter writer, please feel free to submit a letter of your own in response. Like what you're reading? Please consider supporting local journalism and getting unlimited digital access with a Detroit Free Press subscription. We depend on readers like you. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Red Wings' Steve Yzerman vs Dylan Larkin, Trump's SAVE Act | Opinion
Forbes
22-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Behind The Story: Investigating The Faults In The IRS's FOIA System
In this episode of Tax Notes Talk, Tax Notes chief correspondent Amanda Athanasiou discusses her recent investigation into the IRS's handling of Freedom of Information Act requests and trends from two decades of agency data. Tax Notes Talk is a podcast produced by Tax Notes. This transcript has been edited for clarity. David D. Stewart: Welcome to the podcast. I'm David Stewart, editor in chief of Tax Notes Today International. This week: The waiting is the hardest part. The Freedom of Information Act grants individuals the right to request access to federal records, a transparency tool that has long been used by reporters and lawyers. But what happens when response times get longer and the appeals function works more like a rubber stamp on the initial responses? A recent Tax Notes investigation explored flaws practitioners have identified in the IRS's FOIA disclosure and appeals systems, which have led to taxpayer frustration and a growing backlog. Here to talk more about what was uncovered is Tax Notes chief correspondent Amanda Athanasiou. Amanda, welcome back to the podcast. Amanda Athanasiou: Thanks for having me, Dave. David D. Stewart: So why don't we start off with a background on what FOIA requests are and how they usually function, specifically at the IRS? Amanda Athanasiou: Sure. So as you said, the Freedom of Information Act is a federal law that enables individuals to obtain records from government agencies as long as those records don't fall into specific exemptions for things like individual privacy, national security, proprietary interest, things like that. In the tax context, taxpayers who are, say, engaged in disputes with the IRS will often use FOIA to gain access to what's in their file or records on their own investigations by the IRS or the DOJ. But it's also used often by journalists and members of the public to uncover agency records on a whole variety of things. In the IRS context, that can include requests that are targeting information on rulings or the agency's positions on certain matters. It could be training materials, historical data. The sky is really the limit, as long as the requester is asking for records that do actually exist and that are not exempt from disclosure. Reporters at Tax Notes have used FOIA to inform some of our investigations into litigation that we're following or to gather information for topics that we're looking into for stories. We generally do receive requests for extensions after we've filed those FOIAs, so we can relate to some of what our sources said and what the data shows about response times. David D. Stewart: So how did you uncover the information you've reported about in this series, and what did you find in your investigation? Amanda Athanasiou: So I got a tip from one of our sources for this story that initial FOIA disclosures from the IRS are upheld on appeal at a rate that is kind of surprisingly high historically. So to back up, when a taxpayer receives a response to their initial FOIA request that doesn't seem quite right — maybe they feel that the agency is claiming they don't have records that they should, or maybe they're improperly withholding them by citing various exemptions that don't seem to fit — taxpayers can generally appeal that response through what's called an administrative appeal. But this high sustension rate means that the appeals function is affirming the vast majority of responses at the disclosure level. So taxpayers are now really unlikely to get anywhere by filing that appeal, which basically leaves them with the options of litigating, filing more requests and trying to get at the information other ways, or basically giving up. Lauren Loricchio, our investigations editor, and I did some digging into 20 years of FOIA data that the IRS and other federal agencies are required to keep. And we found that, yes, this tip was accurate. An average of 93 percent of those initial FOIA responses that were appealed since 2008 were fully affirmed higher up. That's a much higher rate than other agencies. And basically what it means is that either the IRS disclosure office is giving perfect answers over 90 percent of the time — in some years, the rate was 98 percent or even 100 [percent] — or the administrative appeals process has turned into a rubber stamp, which is what several practitioners told us that they have experienced. We also found some other interesting trends while we were working through all of this data, namely that FOIA requests coming into the IRS have consistently fallen over the last 15 to 20 years. But the time it's taking the IRS to respond to those requests has gotten longer. David D. Stewart: So what did you find in the data, and did you see any reasons behind the trends? Amanda Athanasiou: Well, we found that on average FOIA response times for the IRS have doubled since 2008, from 24 days to about 48 days. Before 2024, they were actually on track to triple, but they came down quite a bit last year, giving us that 48-day average. So this trend is a little concerning on its own, but when it's considered in light of this two decade decline in the number of FOIA requests coming into the IRS, it's even more surprising. The data basically raises two questions: One, why are FOIA requests falling so consistently? And two, why hasn't that led to a quicker response time, or at least not a worse one? We did find some conclusions on the first question. The reasons offered by practitioners and the IRS itself for the drop in FOIA requests are generally that alternative ways of obtaining the needed records have been rolled out over the years. So the IRS pointed out that there are increased online and digital offerings. There's a FOIA library. There are upgraded routine access procedures. After passage of the Taxpayer First Act, there's a requirement to release administrative files for cases going to appeals that are under a certain dollar threshold. There's also a direct release mechanism, and all of this should theoretically help reduce the FOIA burden. It was also pointed out that with less enforcement activity, fewer audits over the years, there will be fewer taxpayers pursuing FOIAs within their own dealings with the IRS. Practitioners did counter that some of these fixes are not always successful or enforceable. So some feel that they're not necessarily a good substitute for FOIA. And it's also not clear that these mechanisms explain all of the declines in FOIAs, which has been quite dramatic if you include Privacy Act and FOIA requests dating back to the early 2000s. But generally, these theories seem to make sense. David D. Stewart: Is there any sense of why response times are going up and what sort of effect is that having? Amanda Athanasiou: Well, on the response time side of things, the explanation isn't totally clear. But there are certainly theories that constraints with staffing and funding, training, and an increase in complexity of cases, the involvement of more subject matter experts, that kind of thing — are probably all contributors to the increased response time. More than one practitioner commented that their experience with any given FOIA request really depends on who at the IRS is handling it. So some personnel are more responsive than others, better informed, that kind of thing. The issues that this presents is that attorneys are saying that they're not getting files they need to represent their clients in time to prepare for, say, hearings or other deadlines. So it is having real world consequences. David D. Stewart: Now, all this data sort of dates back. Everything is looking back. But we now have a new administration in town. What are we expecting to see happen with the FOIA backlog? Amanda Athanasiou: That's a great question. So as of 2024, staffing levels in the IRS FOIA office were about the same as they were in 2008. But as you'd expect, there are concerns going forward about funding cuts and staffing issues and freezes during the Trump administration having the effect of exacerbating an already somewhat worsening backlog. Another logical extension of reduced funding, though, is that enforcement could decrease, which as we talked about, that could itself lead to a decline in FOIA requests as fewer taxpayers are being audited, say. So that's a factor that could actually neutralize the effect on the backlog. It was pointed out in one of the stories in the series that was an increase in FOIA requests during Trump's first term. At the IRS, the requests still gradually declined a bit during that timeframe, but both of those points are probably worth considering if we're trying to read the tea leaves on FOIA. Between the already increasing wait times and reduced agency resources, one trend to watch out for is increased FOIA litigation. We already see a lot of examples of taxpayers going straight to court when they don't get a timely response to their FOIA requests. So these are cases in which there is no response from disclosure in the first place by the required statutory deadlines to administratively appeal. Reduced resources tend to increase wait times, so the current environment seems to be one in which we're likely to see that possibility of litigation increase. David D. Stewart: So what's likely to happen in an environment where there are fewer resources for handling these FOIA requests and these are going to litigation? How's that going to play out in court? Amanda Athanasiou: So the concern is, how sympathetic are the courts going to be to arguments that an agency doesn't have the personnel or the person power to get through the FOIA backlog? And there's some evidence that the answer is not very sympathetic. We actually saw a Florida district court handle that kind of argument from the Department of Justice's tax division recently. The tax division was accused of improperly holding documents that had been FOIA'd, and it argued it had only one attorney on FOIA requests. It was under court order to respond to unrelated requests. It had asked for various extensions throughout the process of this request, and it was going on three years to complete the requested issue. And the court said, "No dice." The agency isn't getting out of FOIA compliance based on what the court itself described as staffing challenges that amounted to a self-inflicted handicap. So the upshot is that agencies are statutorily required to comply with FOIA, and courts will likely uphold those requirements even in the face of staffing and funding objections. But as we've seen, the real world effects means that those FOIA response timelines and the lawsuits that result could creep upwards anyways, which could be costly to taxpayers. David D. Stewart: Well, Amanda, thank you so much for being here. This series has been fantastic, and we'll have a link in the show notes so that our listeners can take a look at it for themselves. And I think that there's probably going to be a lot of issues that we need to track and see the trends in the years ahead. Amanda Athanasiou: Certainly. I look forward to seeing what happens. And thank you again for having me.
Reuters
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
In the US, information gets less free
March 26 (Reuters) - The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters. This column is part of the weekly Reuters Sustainable Finance newsletter, which you can sign up for here, opens new tab. This month, my colleague Max Cherney e-mailed one of his government contacts to ask about the status of his overdue request for records under the Freedom of Information Act. Nothing doing. From now on, "there will be a significant delay in all our FOIAs," an official from the National Institute of Standards and Technology replied to Cherney via e-mail. "Unfortunately, an analyst working on the requests along with many others ... have been abruptly separated today. As a result, they will need time to reassign the work and assess next steps," the official said. Cherney's problem could become more common as mass firings by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump hit the officers and program staff who fulfill citizen requests for government information, say experts who follow the matter, citing a recent CNN report, opens new tab. This has Congressional Democrats concerned, opens new tab. Watchdog groups traditionally use FOIA as a tool to keep tabs on official actions. The Trump administration has fought in court to keep FOIA from applying to its government-downsizing team. "It's a bad time for FOIA, no question about it," said Miranda Spivack, author of a forthcoming book, opens new tab about local activists who penetrated government secrets, often with the help of documents they could only obtain with the help of open-records laws. Spivack said even if federal agencies do not lay off their FOIA experts, the departure of many subject-matter experts will hinder citizens from monitoring government operations. According to a Justice Department report, opens new tab, only 16% of FOIA requests were granted in full in the 2023 fiscal year, even as FOIA requests hit a record high of nearly 1.2 million. Neither the Justice Department nor officials at NIST, the agency that put off my colleague, responded to e-mailed questions on Tuesday. It is easy to think of FOIA's fate as only a matter affecting nosey reporters, and a paper by Ohio State law professor Margaret Kwoka spells out how journalists' concerns were a major driver for FOIA's passage in 1966. But in recent years, government-wide, journalists' requests accounted for only about 3% of total requests, she found. Meanwhile, corporate usage has grown to dominate the number of requests at some large regulatory agencies including 74% at the Food and Drug Administration; 69% at the Securities and Exchange Commission, and 79% at the Environmental Protection Agency, Kwoka told me, based on her latest research. Requesters include credit-rating companies, real estate firms and law firms looking to learn the price of various government contracts. Kwoka has written that the FOIA efforts by corporations and lawyers have crowded out the journalists who were the law's original beneficiaries. The issue, Kwoka told me by phone, is that many companies have no other avenue to get the information. "They're only using FOIA because they don't have other options. But they are completely overwhelming the FOIA offices," she said. Still, there is value from companies finding and distributing the information, said David Cuillier, director of the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida. The wide commercial usage of the government data "greases our economic machine," he said.
