Legislative History

Introduction
Originally signed by President Lynden B. Johnson in 1966, FOIA became effective in 1967 and has been amended several times since then, most recently in June of 2016.

2016 Amendments: FOIA Improvement Act of 2016
In June 2016, President Obama signed the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016.

Two of the law’s biggest changes impose new limits on FOIA’s exemptions.
 * First, the “foreseeable harm” standard has been codified into law. This means that even if a record requested by a journalist falls within one of FOIA’s nine exemptions, the agency still has to release it unless either (1) it reasonably foresees that disclosure would harm an interest protected by an exemption, or (2) disclosure is prohibited by law. The legislative history of the 2016 amendments makes clear that agencies must determine whether the release of “particular documents” will cause foreseeable harm, not simply generic categories of records..
 * Second, the amendments imposed a 25-year sunset on the deliberative process privilege, which is part of Exemption 5.

The Act requires agencies to proactively post records that have been requested three or more times in an electronic format online.

Other provisions of the Improvement Act of 2016 strengthened OGIS, created the Chief FOIA Officers Council, and required the creation of a consolidated online request portal.