Virginia lawmaker wants to cut FOIA fees, but some in government are pushing back

Danica Roem, a former journalist who serves in the Virginia House of Delegates, has introduced legislation requiring Virginia public bodies to fulfill records requests for free, unless the request takes more than two hours of staff time to fulfill.

Critics of the bill said FOIA requests sometimes are used to “harass” public officials, and the fees can deter such behavior.

The Virginia Coalition for Open Government supports the concept of eliminating fees for simple FOIA requests.

The Virginia Coalition created a chart of how FOIA fees work in other states. It’s available at the button below.

To read more about the fee legislation in Virginia, see the Virginia Mercury’s story by clicking the button below.