FOIA News: CSPAN airs 50th anniversary conference for 1974 FOIA amendments

On December 19, 2024, CSPAN will air a program commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1974 FOIA amendments. Speakers will include Ralph Nader and Congressman Jamie Raskin.

FOIA News: SSA issues final FOIA regs

The Social Security Administration has issued a rule finalizing its revisions to its FOIA regulations, a process that began in June 2023. The rule is effective January 17, 2025.

FOIA News: DOJ lowered backlogged requests by 50 percent in FY 2024

According to quarterly data available on FOIA.gov for fiscal year 2024, the Department of Justice received 131,219 FOIA requests, processed 157,586 requests, and ended the year with 21,625 backlogged requests—a 50 percent backlog reduction from FY 2023 (43,927 backlogged requests). This marks DOJ’s lowest number of backlogged requests since the end of FY 2018 (17,411). The number of requests received and processed by DOJ are both record highs (as of 2008, the oldest data available on FOIA.gov), and both exceeded DOJ’s FY 2023’s totals (110.934 and 144,065, respectively).

DOJ typically receives the most requests annually behind the Department of Homeland Security, whose data for the fourth quarter of FY 2024 has not yet been posted.

FOIA News: Court orders FDIC to reprocess crypto letters

FDIC Must Reconsider Redactions Of Crypto 'Pause' Letters

By Aislinn Keely, Law 360, Dec. 12, 2024

A Washington, D. C. federal judge told the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Thursday to "make more thoughtful redactions" of certain crypto-focused letters it handed over in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed on behalf of crypto exchange Coinbase, since the regulator's heavy-handed first pass seemed to lack a "good-faith effort."

A text order from the U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes directed the FDIC to re-review four heavily redacted crypto letters and submit updated versions by Jan. 3. Judge Reyes warned that the agency “should be prepare to defend each new redaction in an ex parte discussion with the Judge.”

The letters are at the center of a legal battle between the FDIC and History Associates, a research consultancy with experience in FOIA requests that Coinbase hired to chase down any paper trail of an alleged “deliberate and concerted effort by the FDIC and other financial regulators” to box crypto out of the banking system.

Read more here (accessible with free trial subscription).

FOIA News: Border Protection Says It’s Swamped

Border Protection Says It's Swamped With FOIA Requests

By Tom Lotshaw, Law360, Dec. 12, 2024

U. S. Customs and Border Protection told a judge it is working to hand over records Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton requested months ago, but said a spike in document requests has made it "almost impossible" to meet Freedom of Information Act deadlines..

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In a joint scheduling report filed Tuesday, CBP said a staff of 31 full-time employees works to respond to FOIA requests on a “first-in, first-out basis,” but added that it received nearly 180,00 such requests in fiscal year 2024—a 25% jump from the prior year.”

Read more here (accessible with free trial).

FOIA News: Replace FOIA personnel with artificial intelligence, opines think tank

Government Efficiency Starts with Rejuvenating FOIA

By Marc Joffe, Cato Inst., Dec. 11, 2024

The new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is a promising adjunct to the second Trump administration that proposes to identify and root out billions or even trillions of dollars of federal waste, fraud, and abuse. To properly manage the problem of government inefficiency, it is best to measure it with big data on federal spending. But as those of us who have been studying wasteful federal programs know, getting the necessary data has become more and more difficult.

The primary tool available to outside analysts is the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), a 1966 law that allows members of the public to obtain government documents. Sadly, the heydays of executive branch compliance with FOIA are long behind us. Today, departments and agencies rarely respond to complex requests within the twenty working days specified by the law and often have to be taken to court to disclose anything at all. FOIA includes a variety of exceptions that bureaucrats interpret liberally, claiming the right to heavily redact documents or withhold them.

Read more here.

FOIA News: OIP updates two sections of the FOIA Guide

The Office of Information Policy recently posted updated versions of two sections of the Department of Justice Guide to the Freedom of Information Act, specifically the Introduction (posted 12/3/24) and Exemption 7 (posted 12/5/24). A cursory examination of these updates indicates that OIP should not be taking a bow, however.

The Guide’s Introduction, which OIP had not updated since February 14, 2020, now contains a concluding paragraph addressing Attorney General Garland’s March 15, 2022 FOIA memorandum. Many of the revisions on the preceding pages are purely stylistic, for example, replacing straight quotes with smart quotes. For math lovers, this update to the 12-page Introduction took a whopping 1754 days. Granted, no update may have been really needed here until March 15, 2022, but the delay from that later date is still eye-opening at 994 days. Camelot this was not.

Regarding section Exemption 7, which OIP had not updated since January 27, 2022 (1043 days), OIP makes a startling statement in an asterisk footnote: “This section primarily includes case law, guidance, and statutes up until March 31, 2023. While some legal authorities after this date may be included, for a comprehensive accounting of all recent court decisions, please visit OIP’s Court Decisions webpage (https://www.justice.gov/oip/court-decisions-overview).” In other words, OIP apparently had better things to do than completing this Guide section. True to its word, OIP cited only three decisions from 2023. A search of OIP’s Court Decisions site, however, reveals that at least 20 more Exemption 7 threshold decisions—10 from 2023 and 10 from 2024—were on point.

FOIA News: Radio interview with creator of FOIA comedy show

On December 10, 2024, Tom Temin, the host of The Federal Drive on WFED radio, interviewed Cutis Raye, the creator of the “FOIA Love” comedy show. Listen to the interview or read the transcript here. Upcoming performances are in Washington, D.C. on December 11th and 12th.

FOIA News: Access to intelligence records

Using FOIA to Access Intelligence Community Records

By NARA/OGIS, FOIA Ombuds Observer (No. 2025-02), Dec. 9, 2024

Requesters regularly contact the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) about their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for access to records held by the Intelligence Community (IC), a group of 18 federal government agencies that collect, analyze and deliver intelligence and counterintelligence to U.S. leaders. As with any FOIA request, requesters need to know which agency holds the records they seek and how to submit a request.

Read more here.

FOIA News: DOJ extends nomination deadline for FOIA awards

Deadline Extended: Nominate FOIA Professionals for the 2025 Sunshine Week FOIA Awards

DOJ/OIP, FOIA Post, Dec. 5, 2024

**Deadline Extended to Friday, December 13, 2024**

The Department of Justice, Office of Information Policy (OIP) is pleased to announce that nominations are open for the 2025 Sunshine Week FOIA Awards, recognizing the contributions of FOIA professionals from around the government.  As the Attorney General recognized in his FOIA Guidelines issued in March 2022, “[t]he federal government could not process the hundreds of thousands of FOIA requests that are received every year without its dedicated FOIA professionals.”  Agency FOIA professionals are at the center of ensuring successful FOIA administration and we look forward to celebrating the work of these individuals from around the government.  For this year’s event, OIP is seeking nominations for five categories of awards:

Read more here.