FOIA News: Fiscal year ends Friday. Enter FOIA request contest!

As FOIA personnel look forward to the end of the fiscal year on September 30, 2022, we remind our readers to submit by that date their best guesses as to how many FOIA requests the government received over the past 12 months. We’ll give away gifts cards for the three closest entrees— or play just for the fun of it! See our earlier post for full details.

FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee is off and running

FOIA Advisory Committee Organizes into Three Subcommittees

By Kimberlee Ried, FOIA Ombudsman, Sept. 19, 2022

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Advisory Committee shared information and heard ideas from previous Committee terms to organize itself into three subcommittees for the 2022-2024 term. 

Each subcommittee is led by two co-chairs, one of whom is a federal employee, the other a representative from the requester community. The subcommittees will do much of the work of the Committee, which consists of 20 FOIA experts — 10 government FOIA professionals and 10 requester community representatives appointed by Acting Archivist of the United States Debra Steidel Wall.  

Read more here.

FOIA News: OIP issues FOIA-Privacy Act Guidance

OIP ISSUES GUIDANCE ON FOIA-PRIVACY ACT INTERFACE

DOJ/OIP, FOIA Post, Sept. 15, 2022

Today, the Office of Information Policy (OIP) published new guidance on the interface between the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Privacy Act.  This guidance provides practical insight for agency FOIA professionals who process access requests for Privacy Act records.  Both the Privacy Act and FOIA are long-established mechanisms for individuals to seek access to government records.  The Privacy Act and FOIA can overlap, and it is critical that FOIA professionals understand this interface to make disclosure determinations that provide requesters the full scope of access to which they are entitled under both statutes. 

Read more here.

FOIA News: FOIA Ruling Yields New Argument For Challenging Exemption 4

FOIA Ruling Yields New Argument For Challenging Exemption

By John McCarthy, Anuj Vohra, and Dan Wolff, Law360, Sept. 14, 2022

Last month, in Seife v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit became the first appellate court to address a significant question regarding Exemption 4 left unanswered by the U.S. Supreme Court's 2019 FOIA decision in Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media.

Read more here (accessible with free trial subscription).

FOIA News: OIP Releases 2023 Chief FOIA Officer Report Guidelines

New 2023 Chief FOIA Officer Report Guidelines Now Available

Dep’t of Justice, Office of Info. Policy, Sept. 14, 2022

The FOIA requires agency Chief FOIA Officers to report to the Attorney General on their performance in implementing the law.  Accordingly, since 2009, the Department of Justice has directed agency Chief FOIA Officers to “review all aspects of their agencies’ FOIA administration” and to report annually to the Department of Justice on the efforts undertaken “to improve FOIA operations and facilitate information disclosure at their agencies.”  Every year, OIP provides specific guidance to agencies on the content and timing of agency Chief FOIA Officer Reports and today we have issued the guidelines for agency 2023 Chief FOIA Officer Reports. 

In their 2023 Chief FOIA Officer Reports, OIP requires agencies to report steps taken in five key areas of FOIA administration highlighted in the Attorney General’s 2022 FOIA Guidelines:

1. FOIA Leadership and Applying the Presumption of Openness,

2. Ensuring Fair and Effective FOIA Administration,

3. Proactive Disclosures,

4. Steps Taken to Greater Utilize Technology; and

5. Steps Taken to Remove Barriers to Access, Improve Timeliness in Responding to Requests, and Reduce Backlogs.

Read more here.

FOIA News: ATF prevails in case involving Hunter Biden's gun episode

Judge won't force disclosure of records on alleged episode with Hunter Biden's gun

The privacy interests of President Joe Biden's son trump a blogger's Freedom of Information Act suit, the federal court rules.

By Josh Gerstein, Politico, Sept. 13, 2022

A court has rejected a lawsuit seeking to force the public disclosure of federal records about a 2018 episode in which a gun belonging to President Joe Biden’s son Hunter was allegedly thrown in a trash can.

In a ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras found that the public interest in the handling of any investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives into the episode was “significant,” but that the importance of Hunter Biden’s privacy as a private citizen outweighed the value of releasing any such records to the public.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Court upholds majority of EPA's revised FOIA regulations

EPA Beats Challenge to New Freedom of Information Act Process

By Samantha Hawkins, Bloomberg Law, Sept. 13, 2022

• Agency made changes to streamline FOIA requests

• Changes won’t slow FOIA process, judge says

The Environmental Protection Agency defeated claims brought over changes it made to its internal policies for handling Freedom of Information Act requests, after a federal judge in Washington, D.C. ruled that the changes wouldn’t slow down requests or subject them to political interference.

In 2019, the agency removed the option of submitting FOIA requests direct to regional offices of the EPA, authorized the EPA administrator to make final FOIA determinations, authorized agency officials to withhold a portion of a record on the basis of responsiveness, and modified the language related to its aggregation of FOIA requests.

See full article here (subscription required).

Read court’s decision in “Court Opinions” post below.

FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee meeting

The Committee is meeting for the second time this month on Wednesday, September 14, 2022, from 10am to noon. Additional meeting information is available here.

FOIA News: FDA finalizes FOIA regulations

The Food and Drug Administration issued a final rule today amending its FOIA regulations, which will become effective on October 13, 2022. The amendments incorporate statutory revisions from 2007 and 2016, and “reflect changes to the organizational structure of FDA, . . . make the FOIA process easier for the public to navigate, and . . . make provisions clearer.”

FOIA News: CNCS finalizes updates to FOIA regulations

The Corporation for National and Community Service has completed the process of amending its FOIA regulations, issuing a final rule appearing in the Federal Register on September 9, 2022. The amendments were made “to reflect changes made in the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 and to make the regulations more user friendly through plain language.” This final rule takes effect on October 11, 2022.