FOIA Bill Addresses Repeated Commercial Requests

FOIA Bill Addresses Repeated Commercial Requests

  Monday, March 13, 2017    Julie Tappendorf

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Another FOIA bill has been introduced. House Bill 4003 would amend section 3.1 of FOIA, the "commercial purposes" provision, to allow a public body to deny a request that meets all of the following three parameters:

1. the request was made for a commercial purpose; 
2. the request is made by the same person for the same records previously provided; and
3. the request is made less than 6 months after the previous request.

It is not clear what type of request this bill would cover that isn't already covered by section 3(g) of FOIA. Section 3(g) already addresses repeated requests from the same person and is arguably broader than the new bill since it is not limited to commercial requests or repeated requests made within 6 months. That section provides as follows:

Repeated requests from the same person for the same records that are unchanged or identical to records previously provided or properly denied under this Act shall be deemed unduly burdensome under this provision.

We will keep you posted on this bill.

Post authored by Julie Tappendorf