Blog Posts
Reporter Believes D.C. FOIA Used to Slow Access
dcogcadmin | March 10, 2010
In reporting a story on a District couple’s attempts to get their adopted son covered by the mother’s D.C. Public Schools health insurance, reporter Amanda Hess from the City Paper asked to take a look at the District government’s policies regarding insuring adopted children. She notes that:
Although such a policy is hardly sensitive information, and although it should be readily attainable by a DCHR public affairs officer, DCHR refused to answer my questions until I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request. I submitted the FOIA on Feb. 12, and DCHR took its time getting back to me—it took the agency fifteen business days, the maximum allowed, to cough up the policy.
In reporting a story on a District couple’s attempts to get their adopted son covered by the mother’s D.C. Public Schools health insurance, reporter Amanda Hess from the City Paper asked to take a look at the District government’s policies regarding insuring adopted children. She notes that:
Although such a policy is hardly sensitive information, and although it should be readily attainable by a DCHR public affairs officer, DCHR refused to answer my questions until I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request. I submitted the FOIA on Feb. 12, and DCHR took its time getting back to me—it took the agency fifteen business days, the maximum allowed, to cough up the policy.
