FEMA sets price for documents at $209,990

• By SANDY DAVIS
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Mar 18, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 1:30 a.m.

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FEMA is requiring The Advocate to pay $209,990 for documents the newspaper requested for a story about the agency’s post-hurricane contracts.

Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency said they will not provide the documents until the newspaper pays the fee.

To fulfill The Advocate’s freedom-of-information request, FEMA determined it would take more than 2 million documents and the agency says none of the documents are stored on computers. The Advocate has not been able to determine if the 2 million figure is justified.

James McIntyre, a FEMA spokesman, said the agency will often waive fees for the news media.

“However, when the request is so large or complex that the agency has to pull staff from their regularly scheduled, official duties to complete the research and compile the data in response to an FOIA request, the agency will assess fees to the requester,” McIntyre said in a written response Monday.

“The requester can either accept the fees or the request will be closed,” he added.

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La, called FEMA’s response “an absurd price for the truth.”

She said she co-sponsored legislation, signed into law by President Bush in December, called the Open Government Act.

“It directs all federal agencies to comply more quickly to FOIA requests in the future and ensures the costs for journalists are kept to a minimum,” Landrieu said.

She also questioned why the documents are not stored on computers.

“That FEMA would respond that these documents are not available electronically is at best unlikely given the vast amount of information the government now stores electronically,” Landrieu said.

“At worst, it is plain foolishness,” she added. “As many Louisianians learned in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the catastrophic levee breaks, it is unwise to keep only one paper copy of vital documents in a flood zone. FEMA should know this too.” The Advocate first requested the documents under the federal Freedom of Information Act in a Sept. 21, 2006, letter to FEMA.

In the letter, the newspaper asked for copies of contracts, billing invoices and payments along with documents regarding inspection and maintenance contracts FEMA awarded after hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck Louisiana.