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The Freedom of Information Act turned 40 earlier this month, and a Government Accountability Office study released yesterday reinforced what has often been reporters’ primary gripe about the law – requests take too long. According to the study, (you can read it here) “federal agencies are taking longer to answer requests for records but provide fully responsive documents nearly nine out of 10 times,” the Associated Press wrote today.

For example, the report said that the number of FOIA requests that have been carried over annually has risen 43% since 2002. It was introduced during a House Government Reform subcommittee hearing, during which testimony pointed out both sides of the information tug of war. Reported the AP:

“‘Federal departments and agencies are operating in the post 9/11 information age and face 21st Century security, information management and resource challenges,’ said Rep. Todd Russell Platts, R-Pa.

Tonda Rush, representing the National Newspaper Association and The Sunshine in Government Initiative, said the open records law ‘has become less reliable, less effective and a less timely vehicle for informing the public of government activities and newsworthy stories.’”

We asked a few CBS News producers and correspondents what their experiences filing FOIA requests have been like – some find the process more useful than others.

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Theoretically at least, the Freedom of Information Act is a journalist's best friend. Signed into law by Lyndon Johnson 40 years ago, the law requires that federal government agencies provide access to their records in response to the written request of a citizen. Johnson, as the Associated Press notes, was reticent to sign the law, fearing that it could lead to the disclosure of secrets that, if revealed, might mean harm to the country. (He even chose not to conduct a public signing that would draw attention to it.) The Johnson administration's unease was revealed in Johnson's signing statement, a portion of which was at one point changed from "democracy works best when the people know what their government is doing" to "Democracy works best when the people have all the info that the security of the nation will permit."

Accessing documents using a FOIA request can be a challenge. Officials argue that they need time to process the many requests that they receive, and to make sure that they do not share sensitive information with the public. They say that FOIA "is overused by prisoners and aliens to overtax the system. It is abused by lawyers to circumvent court discovery rules. It is employed by businesses to gain unfair advantage over competitors. It is exploited by journalists to invade personal privacy and endanger national security." But transparency advocates say that the government takes too long with requests and keeps classified information that should be in the public domain. Writes the AP: "Seeking records can be a hair-pulling experience, with requests often taking months or even years before paperwork - if any - is returned."

Officials have numerous strategies for dealing with an unwanted FOIA request, and most journalists are familiar with at least a few of them. A few years ago, I was working on a story for Washington City Paper about a DC governmental agency, and I submitted a FOIA request in an effort to find out as much as I could about the agency. After a significant delay, I received boxes of documents, most of which contained information that was obviously useless for my work. I had been "buried in paper," as they say, and was of course charged for every copy.

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