Today, Treasury is announcing an important step that will help us continue strengthening our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request process.
As part of our agency’s
Open Government Plan, we’re introducing a new “e-FOIA” initiative. Starting today, you can now submit and track FOIA requests online by visiting
www.onlinefoia.treasury.gov.
Those who prefer to submit their
FOIA requests by paper can still do so by mail or fax. But we believe that those who choose to take advantage of our new online option will find that it improves the efficiency and transparency of the FOIA process. Additionally, it has the added benefit of supporting our “Paperless Treasury” initiative, which has helped our agency both
save taxpayer dollars and
cut down on environmental waste.
President Obama has made open government an
important priority for his Administration. And we’re working hard here at Treasury to fulfill that commitment.
Last fiscal year, we reduced our agency’s FOIA backlog by more than 28 percent, and we believe that our new e-FOIA initiative will help us build on that progress. We also proactively publish hundreds of pages of reports and other documents on our website about the Troubled Asset Relief Program (
TARP); our
borrowing plans; the performance of our foreclosure prevention program
Making Home Affordable; the
speeches and
activities of top agency officials; our
holdings of international currency; foreign holdings of
Treasury debt; Secretary Geithner's
calendar; and many other issues. Additionally, Treasury
voluntarily discloses the meetings that our senior officials hold with outside groups on the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer ProtectionAct.
We believe that these efforts help provide a window into the work we’re doing on behalf of the American people here at Treasury. We strongly believe in the principle of open government, and, moving forward, we’ll continue to work to strengthen transparency at our agency.
Melissa Hartman is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Privacy, Transparency, and Records and Senior Agency Official for Implementing Open Government at the Treasury Department