BUREAUCRACY WATCH : Computer Program

The Freedom of Information Act, one of America’s strongest guarantees of open, accountable government, needs some tinkering. Passed in 1966, the FOIA permits the public, with narrow exceptions, to obtain government records. In the last 26 years, private citizens as well as the press have used it to uncover cover-ups, government waste and threats to public health and safety.

Individuals have used the act to learn what records the government has on them. Journalists have used it to document, for example, the danger posed by the Ford Pinto’s gas tank and to alert citizens to environmental degradation at federal nuclear weapons plants.

When the FOIA was enacted, Congress did not anticipate issues that would arise as the Computer Age revolutionized record-keeping. Federal agencies were given discretion to provide data in whatever form they chose.

Now, the Census Bureau and some other agencies routinely make available records on computer tape, a format that allows requesters to analyze information easily and with the least cost. But still other agencies have denied or delayed requests for information in electronic form even when that data is readily available, insisting that the Freedom of Information Act applies only to documents in paper or “hard copy” form.

A bill currently before the Senate Judiciary Committee would amend the FOIA to establish a uniform federal policy that, in most cases, requesters must be provided with computerized federal records if they want them. Such an amendment makes sense.