The Freedom of Information Act and Deteriorating Federal Transparency Infrastructure
By Amanda Teuscher, Just Security, Aug. 4, 2025
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) — the nation’s primary legal tool for accessing public records — is under increasing pressure. The longstanding need for meaningful FOIA reform, including increased resources and improved practices, has been overtaken by a wave of structural rollbacks that the United States has not seen before. As I show below, good government and pro-transparency organizations like American Oversight, the nonpartisan non-profit where I work, as well as investigators and political reporters, have been documenting a rise in denials, delays, and office closures, along with an uptick in other problematic practices. Combined with a pattern of disregard for disclosure and record-keeping requirements, these developments threaten to hollow out a core pillar of government accountability – and to weaken one of the public’s most effective checks on corruption. In this way, FOIA is not simply a tool for transparency. It is a mechanism for accountability, and one that has long helped expose corrupt actions, government misconduct and waste, and undue influence while providing crucial evidence for those seeking to hold power to account. Its weakening does not merely impair public knowledge; it also reduces the likelihood that abuses will be detected, investigated, or deterred.
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