FOIA News: DHS Announces Move to New Case Management System

Change is Underway at DHS Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

DHS FOIA is moving to a NEW system which will allow us to process records faster. We expect to begin moving to the system in June. There may be a temporary delay in response to your request while launching the new system. 

The move will be staggered across DHS FOIA processing centers to minimize disruptions. We will provide dates for impacts at each DHS FOIA processing center as soon as they are available. We are giving you advance notice so that you can plan accordingly. We appreciate your patience as we move forward with this new technology.

PLEASE NOTE: This change event will NOT affect requests sent to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the United States Secret Service.  

If you have a Public Access Link (PAL) account at https://foiarequest.dhs.gov, you will need to create a new account after the move. Documents in your PAL account will remain available until the move to the new system is complete.  Please download any content from your PAL account you may need later!

Read more here.

FOIA News: GSA withholding names of Trump and Pence staffers

Trump staffer records should remain secret, Biden administration lawyers argue

Dave Levinthal, Insider, June 3, 2022

• Insider filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking records about Trump and Pence's post-presidency transition offices.

• General Services Administration officials refused to release some records, and Insider sued.

• The lawsuit is pending in federal district court.

There is "no discernible public interest" in disclosing the identities of six taxpayer-funded staffers who worked for former President Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence after they left office, Biden administration lawyers told a federal district court Wednesday. 

Releasing the Trump and Pence staffers' names would "constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of their privacy," according to a motion filed by Department of Justice attorneys, including US Attorney Matthew Graves, who President Joe Biden nominated. 

Read more here.

FOIA News: FOIA training for NPR

National Public Radio will provide a free FOIA training session on June 15, 2022, from 3pm to 4pm.

FOIA News: Billionaires use FOIA, too (but presumably can afford to pay all fees)

Billionaire Koch Brother Files FOIA Against FBI in Crusade Against Counterfeit Wine

Am. L. Media, May 31, 2022

Bond, Schoeneck & King filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the FBI Saturday in New York Southern District Court on behalf billionaire and collector Bill Koch and wine commentator Bradley Goldstein.

The complaint, which arises from Koch’s attempts to expose alleged fraud within the international rare wine market, seeks records related to wine distributor Royal Wine Merchants and deceased wine counterfeiter Meinhard Gorke a/k/a ‘Hardy Rodenstock’ and ‘Meinhard Lehner.’

The case is 1:22-cv-04421, Koch et al v. Federal Bureau Of Investigation.

A copy of the complaint is here.

FOIA News: OGIS releases annual report

On May 26, 2022, the Office of Government Information Services released a report of its activities for fiscal year 2021, which included handling approximately 4,200 requests for assistance. OGIS also made four recommendations to Congress to improve the administration of FOIA.

FOIA News: Final meeting of the 2020-2022 FOIA Advisory Committee

FOIA Advisory Committee meets June 9 for final meeting of 2020-2022 term

OGIS, The FOIA Ombudsman Blog, May 23, 2022

The final meeting of the 2020-2022 term of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Advisory Committee is Thursday June 9, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. EDT. This virtual meeting is open to the public and registration is required for those wishing to make oral public comments. Please register here by 11:59 p.m. ET on Tuesday June 7, to receive an email with instructions for accessing the meeting via WebEx. We also will livestream the meeting on the National Archives YouTube channel (with a slight transmission delay). We will monitor the chat function via WebEx and YouTube

Read more here.

FOIA News: Panel discussion on FOIA

On Friday, May 20, 2022, the National Press Club’s Journalism Institute hosted a remote panel discussion entitled “My First FOIA: Open records are for everyone.” The three panelists were: (1) Kirsten Mitchell, the compliance team lead for the Office of Government Information Services, which is the federal FOIA ombudsman, and designated federal officer for the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration’s FOIA Advisory Committee; (2) Lulu Ramadan, an investigative reporter at The Seattle Times and a distinguished fellow with ProPublica's Local Reporting Network; and (3) Mark Walker, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, where he previously was its FOIA coordinator, and the president of Investigative Reporters & Editors.

The 58-minute video is here.

FOIA News: 2nd Circuit hears argument in Exemption 5 case

On May 18, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit entertained oral argument in American Oversight v. DOJ, which concerns the propriety of DOJ’s use of Exemption 5 to withhold FBI interviews related to campaign finance investigation of Michael Cohen.

The lower court’s decision is available here.

FOIA News: Progress report at Interior Dep't

Interior seeks FOIA reinforcements amid mixed backlog progress

The agency has cut down on the number of outstanding public records requests for the secretary's office and some other agencies. Other divisions haven't seen progress.

By Michael Doyle, Politico Pro, May 16, 2022

The Interior Department’s latest Freedom of Information Act report reveals both progress and slippage on the persistent backlogs that officials hope to whittle down with the help of a budget proposal coming before Congress this week.

The progress:

In the second-quarter report of 2020, the backlogged FOIA requests at Interior’s Office of the Secretary numbered 1,863. That particular backlog has since been cut to 1,252, according to the new fiscal 2022 quarterly report published this month.

FOIA request backlogs likewise fell compared to a comparable period two years ago at Interior agencies including the Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and U.S. Geological Survey, among others

Read more here.

FOIA News: Veterans Affairs using tech to reduce FOIA delays

VA Increased FOIA Processing Thanks to Automation

The agency is using capacities like RPA to expedite FOIA review, decreasing the time between request and document release.

Adam Patterson & Amy Kluber, GovCIO Media & Research, May 11, 2022

* * *

In fiscal year 2021, the agency received more FOIA requests than it did in fiscal year 2019 — from 21,336 to 27,762. From a preliminary glance at the full list of these requests, one can see many of the requests received in 2021 pertained to things like COVID debt relief data, vaccination rates and other matters that were pertinent to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

The amount of requests it was able to process dipped in fiscal 2020. This is in part due to the disruption in working location, the need for increased remote access to systems and the influx of paper mail. Plus, like many U.S. hospitals, the agency had to handle unprecedented numbers of patients sick with COVID-19 and stand up a nationwide vaccination effort quickly.

The number of requests the agency processed, however, rose again in fiscal 2021 and surpassed the amount processed before the pandemic. Part of this is thanks to its FOIA office introducing more automation into its workflows.

Read more here.