The War on the Freedom of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is what enables regular people to pester powerful federal agencies into handing over information about what they’ve been up to. FOIA’s website calls it “the law that keeps citizens in the know about their government.” It’s hardly surprising then that government accountability groups balked when, in early April, House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) directed multiple agencies under his committee’s jurisdiction to start classifying all communications with the committee as official “congressional records” not subject to FOIA.

Probably best to back up a tick: FOIA applies only to executive agency records. Congressional records are a different creature entirely (as are presidential records), enjoying greater privacy protections. But not every document that has been created by or sent to Congress qualifies as a congressional record. Basically, if anyone at an agency is interacting with the finance committee in any way, Chairman Hensarling wants to make sure that you can’t find out any details about it. You can see how this might not be great in terms of promoting government accountability.