Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Newspaper presses FOIA fight for food stamp payment data - POLITICO.com
It would seem like a non-issue to release it unless it's really embarassing.
I guess I answered my own question...
At Politico.com, Josh Gerstein recently called attention to this:
"South Dakota's Argus Leader newspaper urged a federal appeals court Wednesday to reverse a ruling blocking the newspaper from receiving data on how much the federal government pays to stores that redeeem food stamp benefits.
Jon Arneson, an attorney for the newspaper, told a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit that a lower court judge misinterpreted the law by ruling that a confidentiality provision for retailer applications allowed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to withhold all data on payments to those retailers. Under the Freedom of Information Act, the newspaper requested the data on annual payments to each retailer approved to take part in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP."
