FOIA News: Information technology and FOIA

FOIA officials confront pandemic challenges in meeting records requests

By Jory Heckman, Fed. News Network, Oct. 19, 2020

The rush to mandatory telework in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic laid bare the state of agencies’ investment — or lack thereof — in IT infrastructure.

That same lesson holds true for agency offices tasked with fulfilling Freedom of Information Act requests at a time when employees, in some cases, have limited access to records while teleworking, especially if a FOIA request queries sensitive or classified records.

In some cases, agencies have enabled remote access for some FOIA processing tools, but not enough that would allow this work to be completed by employees working from home.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Court demands more info on Trump's tweet re: Mueller Report

U.S. judge: Do Trump’s tweets or White House lawyers speak for president on declassifying entire Russia probe?

By Spencer S. Hsu, Wash. Post, Oct. 16, 2020

A federal judge rebuked the Justice Department and the White House Counsel’s Office on Friday for dismissing without explanation President Trump’s “emphatic and unambiguous” tweets ordering the declassification of all documents in the government’s probe of Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

“I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax,” the president tweeted Oct. 6. “Likewise, the Hillary Clinton Email Scandal. No redactions!”

Trump’s blanket statement came the day after he returned to the White House from three days of treatment for the novel coronavirus at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. The tweet has since created a headache for government lawyers in pending open-records lawsuits filed by news organizations seeking fuller disclosure of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report and investigative materials.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Agency FOIA training on artificial intelligence

UPCOMING EVENT ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR FOIA PROFESSIONALS

DOJ/OIP, FOIA Post, Oct. 16, 2020

OIP is pleased to announce an upcoming “Artificial Intelligence 101” session for agency FOIA professionals presented by the Chief FOIA Officer (CFO) Council Technology Committee.  This session will be held remotely on Thursday November 5, 2020 at 10am.

Across the government, agencies are exploring how artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-adjacent technologies, such as technology assisted review, can be leveraged to fulfill agency missions and better serve the public.  Leveraging these technologies holds great potential to improve efficiency and accuracy in agency FOIA administration.  

Read more here.

FOIA News: Chief FOIA Officers Council meeting

The Chief FOIA Officers Council met for the first time this year on October 14, 2020. The meeting agenda, presentation slides, and video are available here.

FOIA News: Group Files 'Largest FOIA of All Time'

Group Files 'Largest FOIA of All Time'

By Matthew Gault, Vice News, Oct. 16, 2020

Reclaim the Records—a group of activist genealogists, historians, journalists, teachers—has filed what may be the largest Freedom Of Information Act Request of all time. The group wants the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to release billions of digital images and their associated metadata to the public.

NARA is a government agency that preserves and archives the American government’s historical records. It’s also supposed to increase public access to those records. To accomplish that goal, NARA partnered with private companies such as genealogical website Ancestory.com to digitize and upload census records, immigration records, and other historical documents. 

Digitizing these records is a massive task, one NARA likely couldn’t accomplish on its own. In exchange for its help, NARA granted the private companies limited exclusivity to the records. That means that billions of documents related to America’s history are behind paywalls on sites like Ancestry, FamilySearch, and Fold3.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Office of National Drug Control Policy implements new FOIA regulations

The Office of National Drug Control Policy, a component of the Executive Office of the President, published a final rule in today’s issue of the Federal Register implementing new FOIA regulations. The updates are intended to comport with the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 and revised best practices. THe new regulations are effective October 19, 2020.

FOIA News: Federal Reserve to update FOIA regs

The Federal Reserve has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would amend the Federal Open Market Committee’s FOIA procedures. Comments may be submitted on or before December 14, 2020.

FOIA News: PBGC to revise FOIA regs

On October 13, 2020, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation issued a proposed rule that would amend the agency’s FOIA regulations. Comments will be accepted through December 14, ,2020.

FOIA News: ICYMI, DOJ updates two sections of FOIA Guide

The Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy recently updated two section of its Guide to the Freedom of Information Act: Exemption 2, which was updated on September 29, 2020; and Fees and Fee Waivers, which was updated on September 16, 2020.

FOIA News: DOJ tells court that Trump tweet was not a declassification order

DOJ: Trump's 'total declassification' of Russiagate docs has no effect

DOJ attorneys told a judge that the White House Counsel's Office effectively told DOJ to disregard Trump's tweets on the matter.

By Kyle Cheney, Politico, Oct. 13, 2020

What happened: When Donald Trump tweeted last week that he authorized the "total declassification of any & all documents" related to the long-running Russia investigation and Hillary Clinton's emails — "No redactions!" he tweeted — he really didn't mean it, the Justice Department argued in court Tuesday.

DOJ attorneys told a judge that the White House Counsel's Office effectively told DOJ to disregard Trump's tweets on the matter. They weren't accompanied by an actual declassification order, and DOJ will proceed as though the tweets hadn't occurred, continuing to redact and release documents at its discretion.

Read more here.