Not the fax, ma'am : DoD out of cash to buy new machine

Sure enough, their fax machine is down … possibly until November. But when an agency accepts FOIA requests by a) fax, b) mail or c) a clunky online request portal that doesn’t play nice with other systems, suddenly that fax machine becomes a technical linchpin. It bears repeating: The office that oversees the most powerful military in history (not to mention the best-funded) is unable to project when its single fax machine will once again be operational. The OSD’s FOIA section chief confirmed the grim news yesterday, responding that his office “will likely need to procure (purchase) a new fax machine. For instance, when the FBI’s digital copying capacity went offline last summer, its FOIA office printed responsive documents at no cost to requesters.