Getting to Know the FOIA Advisory Committee: Linda Frye

This World War II-era poster is titled “Hold on to your Social Security Card” and is from the Office of Government Reports.

Today we present an interview with Linda Frye, Government Information Specialist with the Social Security Administration (SSA) and a member of the 2020-2022 FOIA Advisory Committee. This is part of a series of posts on the Committee, whose members are FOIA experts from inside and outside of government and who are appointed by the Archivist of the United States.

Why did you seek to serve on the FOIA Advisory Committee?

Serving on the FOIA Advisory Committee provides the opportunity to talk to people from the requester community and advocacy groups that I have previously not had access to. 

What do you hope to accomplish?

I want to help the FOIA community to make improvements/efficiencies to the FOIA process that will assist both the requester community and the processing agencies.

What is FOIA’s biggest challenge?

FOIA’s biggest challenge is locating responsive records in a timely manner to meet the 20-day processing deadline.

Tell us about your favorite FOIA moment. 

I love the variety of FOIA requests and the sometimes odd request. Some of my favorites are when someone asked if the Queen of England was in charge of the Social Security trust funds; and when someone asked us for the cargo manifest for the Mayflower.