FEMA puts a price tag on the truth - $209,099

"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." -- John 8:32

Provided, of course, you have the cash.

In this case, $209,099 -- the price that FEMA recently attached to its willingness to comply with a Katrina-related Freedom of Information Act request from The Advocate, the newspaper in Baton Rouge, La.

The newspaper was looking into maintenance and inspection contracts awarded by FEMA after the 2005 hurricanes.

These contractors were in charge of minor repairs and monthly inspections of travel trailers and mobile homes occupied by evacuees from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

FEMA quickly jumped on this request -- processing it in a mere 17 months. That's warp speed for the Bush Administration.

FEMA decided that it would take about 2 million documents to comply with this request and that they would charge 10 cents a copy to do so. Unfortunately, FEMA, said, these documents are not available electronically.

But they are willing to send a staff person to the paper to try to help reduce the cost somehow. Isn't that special.

Here's my solution. The newspaper sends reporters to the room where the documents are and they can make their own copies of whatever they want.

But wait. There's more!

Apparently charging to copy documents only applies to certain FOI requests:

The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Sun-Sentinel said it had been given copies of well over a million applications for FEMA’s individual assistance program on a compact disc and it was never asked to pay for the copies.

Or maybe it only applies to certain hurricanes -- special hurricanes like, oh say, Katrina.

FEMA's foot-dragging is not restricted to one newspaper, as Sen. Mary Landrieu points out:

On October 5, 2005, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Mark Schleifstein of the New Orleans Times-Picayune filed a FOIA request with FEMA regarding its disaster response operations and planning. After a year of no response, the agency contacted him to ask if he was still interested. He replied with an emphatic “YES.”  

Another year went by. Then, like a character in a monster movie asking “is it gone yet?” FEMA asked again whether the paper was still interested, and again it still was. That was in January. It is now late March, and FEMA has yet to act.

Well, hell! It's only been two and half years. They're probably still on their lunch break.

Sen. Landrieu also points out the irony that this is "Sunshine Week" and that maybe in the future this kind of crap might be hard for government agencies to pull.

As we mark national “Sunshine Week,” I am proud to report that Congress is making headway in attempts to assure greater government openness and transparency.  

On New Year’s Eve, the President signed into law the OPEN Government Act of 2007, which I co-sponsored with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. The bill restores meaningful deadlines for agencies to respond to FOIA requests, and among other key reforms, sets up hot lines and an ombudsman’s office to aid requesters.

In addition, we are working to pass legislation to shield journalists from undue prosecution for protecting whistle-blowers, and I have introduced a bill to ensure that local officials determine media credentialing in a disaster -- not Washington bureaucrats.

Keep after it, Senator. If you keep beating your head against a wall, eventually it cracks. The wall, that is.