FOIA News: NYT soliciting feds on FOIA layoffs

Following highly publicized layoffs at HHS FOIA offices, the New York Times has published an online questionnaire that asks federal employees to provide information about staffing levels, layoffs, and buyouts at agency FOIA offices.

Court opinion issued Mar. 30, 2025

Farris v. Garland (D.D.C.) -- determining that: (1) the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys conducted a reasonable search for certain records related to plaintiff’s conviction for drug trafficking, and it had no obligation to obtain records maintained by other federal or local agencies; (2) government properly withheld certain information from investigative “DEA 6 Reports” pursuant to Exemptions 7(C), 7(D), and 7(E).

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2025 are available here. Earlier opinions are available for 2024 and from 2015 to 2023.

Court opinion issued Mar. 28, 2025

Ctr. for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Forest Serv. (D.D.C.) -- finding that: (1) federal contractor’s appraisal of a land exchange between the government and defendant-intervenor, a private mining company, qualified as an “agency record” because the agency “constructively controlled” the appraisal based on the four-factor test set forth in Burka v. HHS, 87 F.3d 508 (D.C. Cir. 1996); using the same test, finding that the contractor’s documents containing data underlying the appraisal were not agency records; (2) agency justified withholding information that would result in foreseeable economic harm to defendant-intervenor, but offered only inadmissible hearsay as to whether withheld information that would result in foreseeable harms to the appraiser and third-party experts’ business interests; (3) agency properly invoked Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege to withhold the appraisal, summary, and technical report as pre-decisional and deliberative, but rejecting the reasonableness of the harms foreseen by the agency; and (4) agency’s segregability analysis was insufficient because the agency inconsistently processed an appraisal summary and a technical report.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2025 are available here. Earlier opinions are available for 2024 and from 2015 to 2023.

FOIA News: HHS slashes FOIA staff at multiple agencies; centralized FOIA office in the works, says HHS.

RFK Jr. purges CDC and FDA's public records teams, despite "transparency" promises

By Alexander Tin, CBS News, Apr. 1, 2025

Teams handling Freedom of Information Act requests at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration were gutted Tuesday as part of the widespread job cuts ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., multiple officials said. 

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All of the workers in the CDC's FOIA office were cut, two officials said. Two-thirds of the Food and Drug Administration's records request staff were also cut, down to 50 remaining. 

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Many FOIA staff at the National Institutes of Health were also let go, one official said, but not all. No explanation was given for why some were cut while others remain on the job, the official said, in an apparent violation of the federal government's procedures for prioritizing for some employees based on their military and federal service.

The goal of the cuts is to create a central place to handle FOIA requests for the entire department, an HHS official said, making it easier for the public to submit their requests. 

Read more here.

[Earlier in the day, Bloomberg News reported that the FDA, CDC, and the NIH had sacked all of their FOIA employees.]

FOIA News: Heritage's oversight project to become independent entity

The Heritage Foundation announced yesterday that it s oversight project led by Mike Howell is becoming an independent 501(c)(4) organization. Since its launch in 2022, the project has reportedly filed over 100,000 FOIA requests; it also has filed more than 100 lawsuits.

FOIA News: This and that

• The FBI’s “Vault” has posted material on comedian Richard Pryor, U.S. Senator John Glenn, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

• Bloomberg reported that the FBI agents and FOIA staff are working overtime to review Jeffrey Epstein files.

• See the following article for tips on making FOIA requests to improve nonprofit grant applications.

• DOJ/OIP has collected and posted agency Chief FOIA Officer Reports for 2025 here.

• The Office of Government Information Services has posted a profile of federal FOIA Advisory Committee member Margaret Kwoka.

FOIA News: Recent trends with FOIA requests

News Media and Non-Profits Probe New Trump Initiatives

FOIAengine: Leading Topics Include DOGE, Executive Orders and Confidential Data

By Randy Miller, Law St. Media, Mar. 26, 2025

As President Donald Trump moves quickly to implement his ambitious agenda, media organizations and non-profits are accelerating and sharpening their use of Freedom of Information Act requests in an attempt to find out more.  FOIA requests from both groups have become increasingly specific and more expansive in terms of the records sought, according to a new PoliScio Analytics analysis of newly released February requests.

The groups’ most recent FOIA requests to federal agencies seek such things as various agencies’ plans for implementing Trump’s executive orders; the extent to which the Department of Government Efficiency has access to (and use of) confidential data; agencies’ interactions and contractual agreements with DOGE; and internal communications about the firing and hiring of government employees.

Read more here.

FOIA News: House Dems update FOIA guide (link updated)

Last week, the Democratic members of the U.S. House ‘s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a partially updated edition of A Citizen’s Guide to Using the Freedom of Information Act to Request Government Records.

Court opinions issued Mar. 18, 2025

Berlant v. U.S. Election Comm’n (D. Oregon) -- denying pro se plaintiff’s motion for reconsideration because it was filed one day too late under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e), and her simultaneously filed appeal with the Ninth Circuit deprived the court of jurisdiction to entertain plaintiff’s motion under Rule 60; alternatively, plaintiff’s motion failed because she identified no new evidence, clear error, or intervening change in the law.

Emesowum v. NSA (D. Md.) -- in case concerning existence of video showing vehicles arriving at agency’s front gate, denying agency’s motion to dismiss because NSA had not (yet) provided adequate documentation to support its contention that the video was “routinely deleted before the NSA could practicably retrieve it.”; further, dismissing plaintiff’s claim for punitive damages and dismissing an individual NSA employee as a party.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2025 are available here. Earlier opinions are available for 2024 and from 2015 to 2023.

FOIA News: OIP announces more training for FY 2025

OIP Announces Additional FOIA Training Dates for Fiscal Year 2025

DOJ/OIP, FOIA Post, Mar. 20, 2025

Today, the Office of Information Policy (OIP) announces new dates for Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) training for April through July.  As part of its responsibility to encourage agency compliance with the FOIA, OIP offers numerous training opportunities throughout the year for agency FOIA professionals and individuals with FOIA responsibilities. 

These courses are designed to offer training opportunities for personnel from all stages of the FOIA workforce, from new hires to the experienced FOIA professionals or FOIA managers.  OIP will continue to offer virtual training sessions that will be taught in real-time by OIP instructors.  As we move into the Spring of Fiscal Year 2025, we are pleased to announce these virtual training courses, which are also listed on OIP’s Training page.

Read more here.