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Freedom of information act goes digital

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Amber Kelly-Woodward
  • 375th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  The U.S. Freedom of Information Act was established to allow public access to government records. 

Now taking advantage of the FOIA at an Air Force installation has become easier because Scott has created a way to make a FOIA request online. 

When a FOIA request is made, the Air Force has 20 business days to get the information to the person requesting it. Previously, the Air Force was not meeting this deadline due to the high demand of FOIA requests. 

After facing a lawsuit, the Office of Warfighting Integration and Chief Information Officer tasked the Air Force Communications Agency last year to create an online request form.
An initial version has been created and it is currently undergoing testing at Langley Air Force Base, Va. 

"It was a joint effort with engineers, a project manager, contractors and budget people trying to determine Air Force needs, how to interoperate this program and what all the responsibilities would be," said Brad Koerkenmeier, Air Force Communications Agency electrical engineer. 

Once the testing is finished at Langley AFB, the eFOIA is slated to go Air Force wide, making it the first public FOIA request system. 

AFCA won the FOIA team award for working on this project.