FOIA Bills Recently Introduced in Illinois House
We have seen a number of bills introduced in the Illinois house that propose various amendments to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Below is a summary of three of these bills:
HB 5020: HB 5020, if passed, would amend FOIA to require
public bodies to take all reasonable steps to provide
requested records in a format that is "readable" by the requester. That includes making
the record available in any format that is available to the public body. As you know, FOIA
already requires public bodies to provide requested records in the electronic
format specified by the requester, if
feasible, or in the format in which the records are maintained by the
public body.
HB 5021: A second bill would, if passed, prohibit a public body from charging a fee to a requester
who is a taxpayer within the public body’s jurisdiction unless the FOIA request is made for a commercial purpose. Currently, FOIA permits
public bodies to reduce or waive fees if a requester states a specific purpose
for the request and indicates that the waiver or reduction is in the public
interest.
HB 5022: The third FOIA bill would, if passed, eliminate a public body’s unilateral right to extend the
time for a response by an additional 5 days and instead require a public body to obtain the requester’s agreement in
writing to extend the time for response.
Post Authored by Eugene Bolotnikov and Julie Tappendorf, Ancel Glink
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