Office of the Secretary: District of Columbia Freedom of Information Act

The District of Columbia Freedom of Information Act ("DC-FOIA"), like the federal FOIA upon which it was modeled, was enacted in 1976 to divest government officials of broad discretion in determining what, if any, government records should be made available to the public upon receipt of a request for information. In this regard, the DC-FOIA was "designed to promote the disclosure of information, not inhibit it." ¹

The DC-FOIA embodies "[t]he public policy of the District of Columbia . . . that all persons are entitled to full and complete disclosure of information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those who represent them as public officials and employees." ²

In order to accord full force and effect to the spirit and intent of the DC-FOIA, officials of public bodies are required to construe its provisions "with the view toward expansion of public access and the minimization of costs and time delays to persons requesting information." ³ Thus, the policy underlying the DC-FOIA favors the broad disclosure of official records in the possession, custody or control of public bodies of the government of the District of Columbia, unless such records (or portions thereof) fall squarely within the purview of one or more of the nine categories of information which are expressly exempted from the disclosure mandate. ⁴ The nine statutory exemptions enumerated in the DC-FOIA, which protect certain types of confidential and/or privileged information from disclosure, "are to be construed narrowly, with ambiguities resolved in favor of disclosure." ⁵

¹	See Subcommittee on Administrative Practice & Procedure of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, 95th Cong., 2d. Sess., Freedom of Information: A Compilation of State Laws (Comm.Print 1978); see also Washington Post v. Minority Business Opportunity Commission, 560 A.2d 517, 521 (DC 1989).
²	DC Official Code § 2-531; see Donahue v. Thomas, 618 A.2d 601, 602 n.2 (DC 1992); Newspapers, Inc. v. Metropolitan Police Department, 546 A.2d 990, 993 (DC 1988); Barry v. Washington Post Company, 529 A.2d 319, 321 (DC 1987).
³	DC Official Code § 2-531; see Washington Post, 560 A.2d at 521; Newspapers, Inc., 546 A.2d at 993.
⁴	See Washington Post, supra; Newspapers, Inc., supra.
⁵	Washington Post, supra. * This document is presented in Portable Document Format (PDF) and a PDF reader is required for viewing. Download a PDF reader or learn more about PDFs.