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Can you give us a big-picture look at the state of public information access in 2025?
Cuillier: The state of government transparency is exceedingly poor and getting worse by the year. About 10 years ago, if you asked for a public record in the United States, on average you might get it half the time. Now it’s about 30% of the time and continuing to drop. Even worse at the federal level, where you might get what you ask for 18% of the time — or in Alabama, 13% of the time. Response times have doubled in the past decade, denials are on the rise, and many agencies just flat out ignore requesters.
Given the state of legacy media, where fewer organizations sue for records, government agencies know they have the upper hand. This is happening all across the country, even in Florida, which had a great reputation for its sunshine laws but is now cloudy and dark. Secrecy is escalating at the federal level under the new administration, and that will no doubt trickle down to the states and cities of America.
How should journalists be thinking about FOIA in light of personnel changes across the federal government under the new administration?
Cuillier: I have a lot of concern about the state of transparency in our country given recent events with the new administration. While we’ve seen a steady decline of transparency across the decades, regardless of what president or party is in power, the first few months of this administration have had some of the most draconian secrecy measures that we have seen. Of course, we already saw the hiding of the president’s health records, refusal to provide White House visitor logs, and other actions.
But now we are seeing the removal of websites, records, and databases like we’ve never seen before. We have witnessed the firing of the National Archivist, along with the head of the Office of Information Policy, who actually was fairly decent compared to his predecessors. They’ve fired FOIA staff, to the point where a FOIA request to the Office of Personnel Management prompted a reply that read “Good luck with that, they just fired the whole privacy team.” They canned the new Open Government Federal Advisory Committee, as well.
The actions are just too numerous to cover, not to mention blatantly unconstitutional viewpoint-targeted attacks on the press.
When a FOIA request is denied, how can journalists get the information they need?
Cuillier: Wow, there are so many, and [they’re] the basis of The Art of Access: Strategies for Acquiring Public Records, which I co-authored with Charles Davis of the University of Georgia. Unless you have a lawyer ready to sue, you have to use psychological strategies, like a FOIA Jedi.
Some of the tips I provide in training — check out this handout I provided recently to a session with Mirror Indy Documenters — include crafting specific, detailed request letters, using peer pressure by first getting the records from a nearby competitive agency, always appealing, shaming bad officials through writing about the denial, and setting aside one hour a week to submit a request and follow up on outstanding requests. I’ve always called it FOI Friday, because that is when I set my hour.
It’s not easy, but the more you do it, the better you get — and easier the process gets. FOI skills are like muscles: You have to use them and push them, or they will atrophy and become weak. Feel the strength of public records and the power for making the world better.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Sunshine Week? What will keep it going for the next two decades?
Cuillier: As negative as I can seem about the state of FOI today, I think there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We know from history that transparency goes in waves, that for every action there is a reaction.
When we’ve encountered huge moments in time where secrecy is pushed hard — World War II and the Cold War, Watergate, 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq — we see backlash. We see people stand up for accountable government, and foundations to support smart initiatives to protect democracy. That’s what happened after 9/11 — some amazing groups like Open The Government and Sunlight Foundation were created. But, after time, the interest waned and they folded.
We appear to be hitting another pivotal time in our national history, where extreme forces are pushing hard on secrecy. Perhaps we will again see a reaction. Perhaps we will see average Americans once again remember the fundamental principles of what makes this country great. Funders will refocus their efforts to support good records-based journalism and citizen access to public data. Sunshine Week is more important than ever.
Read on to learn more about Cuillier's work on the Federal FOIA Advisory Committee as well as services that the Brechner Freedom of Information Project offers for journalists and members of the public.
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