FOIA March Madness is heading into the Elite Eight matchups this week, folks, and after three weeks of our competition to provide talking point emails, eliminations were the toughest yet.
None of our contenders have yet been able to offer up the whole ask - a sweeping request for communications related to “talking points” and the press for the period between Election 2016 and the FOIA March Madness 2018 tip-off - but a number of them have been actively working with us to narrow our request and understand just why such a request is too much to handle in a month’s time. At this point in the game, when most players are stumbling on similar problems, active communication helped some advance when the call was close; others were discerned from their competitors by their preexisting statistics. It was particularly tough to not pass the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was able to provide materials responsive to another FOIA request …
but also sent along a bill for $88,800.
Is your top pick still in the running for Most Responsive Agency, FOIA March Madness 2018 Edition? Here’s the standings so far:
b(1) Finals
Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review vs. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
b(2) Finals
Department of Energy vs. National Park Service
b(4) Finals
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation vs. Securities and Exchange Commission
b(9) Finals
Department of the Navy, Office of the General Counsel vs. Federal Communications Commission
Check out the remaining contenders below, and tune back in next week when we’ll announce the Final Four in our annual battle to hush the haters and help the public secure its right to know.
b(1)
b(2)
b(4)
b(9)
Image by Pete Souza via the Obama White House Archives
