Federal Test 5
5 min40 WPM required319 words
Click on the passage and start typing to begin.
The Freedom of Information Act, enacted in 1966 and significantly amended in 1974 and 1996, establishes a presumption of openness in government and requires all executive branch federal agencies to make their records available to any person upon written request, subject only to nine specified exemptions covering matters such as classified national security information, internal personnel rules, trade secrets and commercial information obtained from private parties, deliberative process and attorney-client privileged communications, personal privacy of individuals, law enforcement records whose disclosure could interfere with investigations or endanger informants, financial institution supervision records, oil and gas well data, and information protected by specific statutes other than the Freedom of Information Act itself. FOIA officers, analysts, and administrative staff employed in the FOIA offices of federal agencies process thousands of individual requests annually from news organisations, researchers, advocacy groups, private citizens, businesses, and attorneys seeking access to government records for a wide variety of purposes including investigative journalism, academic research, litigation support, policy advocacy, and personal interest. The processing of each request involves searching the agency's records systems to identify responsive documents, reviewing the retrieved documents to determine which portions may be released in full or in redacted form and which may be withheld entirely under an applicable exemption, preparing a formal determination letter that describes the records released, specifies the exemption or exemptions claimed for any withheld portions with sufficient detail to allow the requester to understand the basis for withholding, and informs the requester of the right to administratively appeal the agency's determination within the agency and then to seek judicial review in federal district court if the administrative appeal is denied. Administrative personnel who type FOIA determination letters must be precise and thorough because these letters have legal significance and because requesters who believe a determination is incorrect or inadequate may challenge it in court proceedings where the agency's response letter becomes a central document in the litigation.