Who files the most requests for public access to government documents under the Freedom of Information Act? If you answered “reporters,” then try again.

Although “FOIA” and “journalist” are as linked in the public’s mind as Woodward and Bernstein, the news media accounted for only 6 percent of the 6,439 requests submitted to six federal agencies and 11 Cabinet departments, a study last year by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government found. It says more than 60 percent of the FOIA filings came from commercial interests — data brokers, lawyers and others wanting to plumb the federal files to advance their businesses, whether through background checks on prospective employees or by listening to cockpit voice recordings that might advance a lawsuit. A third came from private citizens, including veterans asking about benefits and people researching their genealogy.

“We knew it was small, but we didn’t know how small,” says Pete Weitzel, coordinator of the journalists’ coalition. Why? “It’s probably a combination of things, but one would be the obvious: that it takes so long to get your FOIA request fulfilled.”

As many reporters have learned, waiting for a FOIA request to be answered can seem like waiting for the Chicago Cubs to get back to the World Series. Media and public interest groups argue that the notoriously long delays are one reason the law needs to be changed. Just before the summer recess, the Senate quietly passed a rewrite of the FOIA that would add new enforcement mechanisms to compel agencies to respond to requests within the required 20 days, including a system for tracking requests and an ombudsman to mediate disputes when requests are rejected so that fewer fights end up in court. To help the press in particular, the bill would allow freelancers and bloggers the same sort of fee waivers now available to “regular” reporters. And it would allow successful FOIA applicants to seek repayment of attorneys’ fees if an agency was found to have dragged its feet before turning over the files.

The House passed its version of the bill in March, and supporters say the differences are small and easily resolved. The White House says it’s working to improve FOIA compliance on its own and doesn’t want any changes legislated, but its has not threatened a veto.

Given the low regard so many politicians have for the media, it may be attractive for them to derail or ignore legislation designed to aid reporters. But it’s not quite as easy to oppose a measure that’s statistically more likely to benefit businesses and regular voters.

While the press was the main intended beneficiary when the law was written 41 years ago, that’s no longer the case. The drop-off in filings may be partly because of newsroom cutbacks, but it also surely has to do with the frustration that comes with filing FOIA requests that are granted (and then only partially) just 64 percent of the time, according to another CJOG study. Twenty years ago, writing a FOIA request was a right of passage for a cub reporter, and often the result was a decent story in the records that were turned over.

In July, it was revealed that the longest pending FOIA requestwas filed in the Reagan administration. It dates to 1987, according to the National Security Archive, the independent, non-governmental research institute at George Washington University, which publishes documents obtained through FOIA. It felt compelled to file FOIA requests just to learn the precise depth of the delays, by asking 87 agencies for their “10 oldest open or pending” requests. The State Department reported that all the requests on its top 10 list had been pending more than 15 years. Other agencies with similarly ancient requests included the Air Force, CIA, FBI andJustice Department.

Talk about blowing a deadline.

“There is a terrible backlog,” said Meredith Fuchs, general counsel for the National Security Archive. “Part of the purpose of this bill is to close the loopholes that allow FOIA requests to fall through the cracks. It doesn’t substantially change FOIA, but it clarifies deadlines, requires better reporting and puts in incentives to encourage agencies to process requests in a more timely manner.”

It’s not surprising that all that waiting has soured many journalists on FOIA. “The only recourse right now is litigation,” said Christine Tatum, a features editor at The Denver Post, who just stepped down as president of the Society of Professional Journalists. Which is why, she said, reporters should be happy about the language in the House and Senate bills that would require the government to pay news organizations’ legal bills in slow-walking cases.

The funny thing is that while FOIA is used by more citizens than journalists right now, the public doesn’t always know much about the public’s right to know. David Cullier, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Arizona, has conducted surveys and found that only about 10 percent of the population understands what’s at stake. “Most people are really unaware of what they have a right to see,” he says. “It isn’t a press issue. It isn’t a media issue. This is something that everybody can use.”

Elizabeth Wasserman is a Washington freelance writer. She can be reached at ewasserman@cq.com.