FOIA Advisor

FOIA News: Exemption 4 and Public-Private Partnerships

FOIA News (2025)Allan BlutsteinComment

Public Money, Private Secrets: Rethinking FOIA in the Age of Public-Private Governance

By Morton Katz, Law & Political Econ. Project, Nov. 25, 2025

Public-private partnerships are, as the saying goes, kind of a big deal. By “public-private partnerships,” I mean arrangements where private, usually corporate, actors work with the government to accomplish a common public good. They take two main forms: contracting, where private firms carry out government tasks, and regulation, where the government relies on private disclosures and compliance systems to pursue public interests like safety or fairness.

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