FOIA Eyes Only: How Buried Statutes Are Keeping Information Secret

http://www.propublica.org/article/foia-exemptions-sunshine-law

Anyone can request information from U.S. officials under the Freedom of Information Act, a law designed to allow people to know what their government is up to.

When a government agency withholds information from a requester, it typically must invoke one of nine FOIA exemptions that cover everything from national security to personal privacy <1>. But among that list is an exemption—known as b(3) for its section in the FOI Act—that allows an agency to apply other statutes when denying information requests.

Some of those statutes allow exemptions that seem quite reasonable, for example to protect medical or financial information. Many others are more puzzling.

Citing the Watermelon Research and Promotion Act <2>, for example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has withheld lists of watermelon growers.

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