Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) dismantled a vital tool for transparency when it decommissioned FOIAonline.gov, an online resource that allowed the public to make and track Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to over 20 federal agencies, and to view responsive documents. The EPA, which oversaw FOIAonline on behalf of participating agencies, claims to have fulfilled over 1.5 million requests and attracted 34,000 active registered users over the decade-plus the portal was operating. POGO and MuckRock have partnered to host a publicly available archive of nearly 34,000 documents captured before FOIAonline was shuttered.

We spoke with experts around the country for advice on using the Freedom of Information Act to dig into military contracts. Here are their top tips.