• The website of FOIA.gov displays FOIA meta-data collected and aggregated from all federal agencies. The website does not comprehensively list actual pieces of information released by the government; rather, it only contains information and statistics about the quantity of FOIA requests received and processed by the federal government and specific agencies.
• Although there is no comprehensive database for accessing specific records that have been released, FOIA.gov does have a news/highlight feature that links to high-profile releases, such as the FBI’s background check on Steve Jobs.
• The site contains interactive features allowing users to create their own reports based on the type of information they want (ex.- amount of requests, processing time per request, exemptions claimed, or amount of backlogged requests). The information is depicted in bar graphs and spreadsheets. Users can combine multiple reports in order tocompare the same data across different fiscal years.
• The costs associated with FOIA requests can be found by creating a new report based on the heading “Administration” and the subheading “FOIA Costs.”
The following is a sample FOIA report generated at FOIA.gov. The agency selected is NASA and the bar graph depicts how many FOIA requests were received, processed, and are pending during fiscal year 2012.
FOIA.gov has a "FOIA News Spotlight" feature that lists popular FOIA requests in the news. Here are a few examples:
1972 CIA Spy Satellite Capsule Recovery
- Helpful directory information for contacting most government agencies with FOIA questions.