Happy April, FOIA friends! Spring is threatening to unleash loveliness across America, but here at MuckRock HQ, we still have three weeks to reap the effects of a mad, mad March. We’re continuing to celebrate the annual competition to bring the transparency from the federal government and to the public, and we’ve reached the end of Round One in the fiercest faceoff in FOIA: FOIA March Madness.
We asked our audience to send their picks for winners in four brackets, the whole competition, and a separate Department of Interior bracket. We then filed 64 Freedom of Information Act requests with 64 federal agencies, asking for the same information from each one. And now we’ll announce who is advancing.
After seven days of waiting, we’ve already had multiple agencies provide responses they consider complete. We’ve also had plenty of agencies remain totally silent. Sometimes, making the call between two unresponsive offices seems like rewarding bad behavior, but we proceeded nonetheless, using historical MuckRock data to advance the agency that historically, on average, responds the most quickly.
Is the Army or the Secret Service speedier on the FOIA response? The Bureau of Prisons or Customs and Border Protection? The Copyright Office or the Internal Revenue Service?
Is your bracket still in tact? Check out below the agencies competing in Round Two.
(Adm)in It To Win It
(Common) Good Sport
The Protection (B)racket
Workers’ Comp(etition)
Congrats to everyone who’s still in it, and check back next week for Round Three!
