FEMA: Freedom of Information Act Isn’t Free

The Advocate reports that FEMA responded to an information request by the newspaper with a $210,000 bill. In September of last year, the Advocate requested a series of documents detailing contracts issued after the hurricanes. FEMA responded with a letter explaining the charge for the information. In the letter, a FEMA attorney wrote “The first 100 pages are free. The duplication cost for 2,099,900 pages will be $0.10 per page for photocopying.”

The agency also noted that if payment were not received within 10 days the request would be considered “withdrawn.” FEMA eventually backed off this requirement.

Lucy Dalgish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, offered her opinion on the charge to the Advocate.

FEMA should be embarrassed — $209,000 is nuts. They’re trying to use what they can in the law to make your life miserable and make sure no one scrutinizes them … They’re trying to make you back off the story.

Putting aside the ridiculous amount, if FEMA wanted to keep those documents hidden, they did so with all the usual efficiency we’ve come to expect from the agency. It’s difficult to imagine a more obvious way to confirm that there is something in those documents that the agency does not want seeing the light of day.