The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday sued the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs because the agency won't release records about the closing of the Highland Drive hospital unless it is paid a $17,000 fee.

The ACLU, which filed the suit on behalf of a veterans group that wants to keep the hospital open, said the VA is violating the Freedom of Information Act by charging for the documents.

Witold Walczak, ACLU legal director, said the agency's demand is unreasonable because the veterans group, the Coalition of Veterans Advocates, can't afford the fee and the information requested is in the public interest.

The VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System refused comment on the suit other than to say it follows the law in processing information requests.

In May 2004, the VA decided to close the Highland Drive facility, the largest of the area's three hospitals, saying the consolidation of services would save money while not diminishing care for patients.

Veterans were skeptical of that claim and wanted to know how the VA reached its conclusion. So in June, the coalition filed a Freedom of Information Act request for any documents and data on which the VA relied.

The agency agreed to give up the documents but refused to waive the processing fees.

Under the law, a FOIA request is free only if the requester can show that the information is in the public interest and will "significantly contribute" to public understanding of how government operates.

The VA said the coalition is a narrow special-interest group that is not in a position to disseminate the information to the public and set the fee at $30,369.

The veterans group then submitted a revised request for fewer documents, which would reduce the fee, and explained that the information would be given to the media and U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter.

The VA adjusted the fee to $17,238 but still would not waive it. The agency also said the veterans group wouldn't be able to understand all the technical data enough to make it intelligible to the public.

The ACLU rejected that argument.

"FOIA does not require a person requesting records to meet some minimal educational level," the suit said.

In addition, the suit said, if the veterans group can't even get the documents, how can it evaluate them to know if they are too technical or not in the public interest?

On June 21, the VA denied an appeal of the earlier decision to waive the fee.

Ironically, Walczak said, the agency just a week later admitted to Congress that it had underestimated the funding needed for health care by more than $1 billion.

Walczak said that disclosure underscored the real reason the VA won't waive the fee.

"It's not that the records wouldn't be informative, it's that they would be too informative" in showing the agency's failings, he said.