FOIA Amended in Late-Session Override of Quinn's Total Veto

On Wednesday, December 3, the 98th General Assembly successfully completed an override of former Governor Pat Quinn's total veto of House Bill 3796.  HB 3796 was originally passed by both the Illinois House and Senate, but was vetoed by then Governor Quinn on June 27, who stated in his veto message that "House Bill 3796 is a bill that reduced government transparency by limiting the ability of citizens to seek public records under the Freedom of Information Act."  According to the constitutional provisions related to overrides, the bill became law in its originally vetoed form effective immediately, as Public Act 98-1129.

P.A. 98-1129 creates a new "voluminous request" category within the Freedom of Information Act.  It also creates new authority to charge fees for electronic delivery of records and allows the public body to point a requester towards information that is published on the public body's website instead of providing the record.  If the electronic records requested is in PDF format, up to a $100 charge can be levied if the file is larger than 160 megabytes.  If it isn't in PDF format, the charge could be up to $100 for more than four megabytes of data.  (See table below).  Voluminous requests are now, along with requests for records for a commercial purpose and requests by a recurrent requester, outside the standard time periods for FOIA compliance and subject to extended timelines.

The definition of "voluminous request" is seemingly narrow:

(h) 'Voluminous request' means a request that: (i) includes more than 5 individual requests for more than 5 different categories of records or a combination of individual requests that total requests for more than 5 different categories of records in a period of 20 business days; or (ii) requires the compilation of more than 500 letter or legal-sized pages of public records unless a single requested record exceeds 500 pages." 

'Single requested record' may include, but is not limited to, one report, form, e-mail, letter, memorandum, book, map, microfilm, tape, or recording.

5 ILCS 140/2(h).  Government watchdogs and skeptics of Illinois government criticize the bill, calling it a "watchdog tax" and noting that delaying FOIA timelines due to the new "voluminous request" extensions can prevent citizens from giving fully informed feedback to legislators prior to a vote.  These watchdogs don't point out the exception that allows news media and non-profit, scientific, or academic organizations to escape the new "voluminous request" provisions.  Supporters said the bill is a way to help municipalities deal with a comparative handful of people who file excessive requests, tying up employees who could better be used doing other work.  "It was intended to fix maybe an unintended consequence of people abusing the FOIA," said Rep. Bob Rita, D-Blue Island, who drafted the bill.  "It's not intended to hide information from people."

The Act sets forth the specific procedure for responding to a "voluminous request".  If a District receives something you suspect may fit the definition, it is best to contact counsel to assure the FOIA Officer follows the appropriate procedures.

Fee Scale for Electronic Records: