Food & Water Watch intern Gabrielle Rosenthal shares what she learned working on our project to look into water privatization across the country.

In this week’s FOIA round-up, House Democrats look to increase funding to the Interior Department’s FOIA office, records show Amazon collaborated with local law enforcement on sting operations to deter package theft, and a Cornell University law student sues a South Carolina county for excessive fees.

While the 2016 reforms to Massachusetts Public Records Law brought some key changes, such as a cap on copying fees and agency response times, Bay State requesters can still face hefty financial barriers to getting their records.

Crafting an appeal can be daunting, but the results are worth it. Here’s some quick tips on what you can do to get an agency to reconsider your fee category, which can result in drastically reduced costs.

MuckRock is currently taking submissions of your FOIA fee stories. With just one week into our crowdsource, requesters far and wide have brought their issues to the table. While submitted responses vary, overall they show major discrepancies in the FOIA fee system across the country.