OMB: Agencies must report on FOIA usage

For this year’s annual e-government report, agencies must describe how they distribute information under the Freedom of Information Act, according to the Office of Management and Budget.

Karen Evans, administrator for e-government and information technology at OMB, wrote in an Aug. 25 memo that a new part of the report will focus on how agencies apply certain sections of FOIA and how they provide information to the public.

Agencies must describe how they categorize information, how people can access electronic information, and how they can find federally funded research and development information, the memo states. Agencies must also include links to their Information Resources Management Strategic Plans and FOIA Improvement Plans.

The reporting instructions mirror requests from previous years, including the information on how agencies are complying with the act and the factors they use to determine what information to make public, according to the memo.

Agencies must publish the reports on their Web sites, the memo states.

This will be the fourth year agencies have issued these reports, as mandated by the E-Government Act.