FOIA News: Attorney concedes error; refiles new suit

MoneyGram Atty Refiles As Plaintiff After CFPB Rips FOIA Suit

By Anna Bongardino, Law360, Apr. 14, 2023

A Vinson & Elkins partner representing MoneyGram in a records request suit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has dropped the company's suit and launched a new complaint naming himself as the plaintiff in response to the agency's argument in its dismissal bid that the request was filed by the money services giant's attorney instead of the company itself.

Read more here (access with free subscription).

FOIA News: Coalition of media companies sues for Jan. 6 tapes given to Fox News' Tucker Carlson

Coalition of media companies sues for Jan. 6 tapes given to Fox News' Tucker Carlson

By Megan Lebowitz, NBC News, Apr. 12, 2023

A coalition of nine media companies, including CNN, The New York Times and Politico, have sued for copies of the surveillance videos from the Capitol riot that Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave exclusively to Fox News.

In the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, the media companies demanded that the Justice Department's Office for U.S. Attorneys and the FBI "promptly" provide copies of the footage from Jan. 6, which they characterized as "the most significant assault on the Capitol since the War of 1812."

Read more here.

FOIA News: Pfizer and Moderna are FOIA Targets

FOIAengine Reveals Plaintiffs’ Lawyers, Anti-Vaxxers in the Hunt

By John A. Jenkins, Law Street, Apr. 5, 2023

Who might be contemplating getting a jump on Covid litigation once the moratorium expires?  This week, FOIAengine takes a look at some who are bombarding the Food and Drug Administration and other federal agencies with Freedom of Information Act document demands about Pfizer and Moderna.  There are so many noteworthy FOIA demands that we’ll return to this again next week. 

Read more here.

FOIA News: Reporters Committee Sunsets iFOIA Platform

We’re sunsetting iFOIA. Here’s what you need to know.

Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Apr. 5, 2023
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press created iFOIA in 2013 to provide people a simpler way to create, file, and manage FOIA requests. We’re proud to share that since its creation, thousands of users have filed more than 11,000 public record requests and exchanged tens of thousands of communications with government agencies through iFOIA.

…

We’re not software developers or engineers — we’re attorneys, and the need for legal services is only growing.
For that reason, the Reporters Committee is sunsetting iFOIA as of August 2023. No new requests can be submitted as of April 30, 2023.

…

We will send you a monthly reminder about the retirement, through July, and iFOIA will be retired in August. If you have any questions about this process, please email ifoia@rcfp.org.

FOIA News: CFPB Says MoneyGram Can't Sue Over FOIA Its Atty Filed

CFPB Says MoneyGram Can't Sue Over FOIA Its Atty Filed

By Jon Hill, Law360, Apr. 4, 2023

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has moved for dismissal of a MoneyGram International Inc. lawsuit accusing the agency of stonewalling a potentially damaging public records request, telling a D.C. federal court that the money services giant can't sue over a request that it didn't itself file.

Read more here (subscription).

See copy of complaint here.

See copy of the request here.

FOIA News: Chief FOIA Officers Council to meet 4/25

Virtual meeting of the Chief FOIA Officers Council

DOJ/OIP, FOIA Post, Mar, 28, 2023

The Office of Information Policy (OIP) is pleased to announce that the Chief FOIA Officers (CFO) Council will hold a virtual meeting on Tuesday, April 25, 2023 from 10:00 AM to 11:30 PM EST.     

The CFO Council meeting is open to all agency FOIA professionals and members of the public.  Time will be provided for members of the public to address the Council.  Registration is required on Eventbrite if you wish to provide oral comments.  All attendees must register by 11:59pm (EST) on Sunday, April 23, 2023.  The meeting will also be livestreamed on the National Archives' YouTube channel. 

In accordance with the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016, the Chief FOIA Officers Council is tasked with developing recommendations, sharing best practices, and developing and coordinating initiatives to improve agency FOIA administration.  The Council is co-chaired by the Directors of OIP and OGIS and is comprised of each agency Chief FOIA Officer and the Deputy Director for Management of the Office of Management Budget.

Do you have ideas for future meeting topics and potential panelists?  Please email us at DOJ.OIP.FOIA@usdoj.gov. 

FOIA News: FOIA Advisor staff in the public eye

Although the staff of FOIA Advisor is focused on reporting new FOIA developments, we occasionally make the news ourselves in connection with our other FOIA (and non-FOIA) activities. Below is a list of our appearances in the news media during the first quarter of calendar year 2023.

• Ryan Mulvey & Kevin Schmidt, “Federal officials keep using personal emails for government duties,” NY Post, Mar. 18, 2023, Op-ed.

• Sara Fischer, “Government struggles with record FOIA boom,” Axios, Media Trends, Mar. 14, 2023 (quoting Allan Blutstein).

• Kevin Schmidt & Thomas Kimbrell, “Covid Exposed the Damage Done by Certificate-of-Need Rules,” Wall St. J., Feb. 24, 2022, Op-ed.

• Chris Brennan, “Top GOP researcher probing mayoral race,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 17, 2023 (discussing Allan Blutstein’s public records requests).

• Kevin Bogardus, “EPA shutters public records portal,” Greenwire, Feb. 13, 2023 (quoting Allan Blutstein) (full article here).

  Kevin Bogardus, “EPA eyes FOIA tweaks to boost environmental justice,” Greenwire, Jan. 20, 2023 (quoting Allan Blutstein) (full article here).

FOIA News: Momentum building to extend FOIA to Fed reserve banks

By Zach C. Cohen, Bloomberg, Mar. 30, 2023

Senate’s Push for Fed Transparency Gains Support After Bank Failures

Support is growing in Congress for imposing greater transparency requirements on the Federal Reserve as the central bank faces increasing scrutiny for its response to recent bank failures.

Senators Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina and Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, plan to introduce legislation that would subject the Fed to the Freedom of Information Act. A copy of the bill was obtained by Bloomberg News.

“Because of the SVB failure, more people have seen the direct consequences of regulators who take their eye off the ball, and work for the industry instead of on behalf of the public,” Warren said in a brief interview on Capitol Hill.

The Fed’s 12 regional branches are currently exempt from public records requests because they are quasi-private. The proposal would remove that barrier by having them considered federal agencies for the purposes of a FOIA request from a member of Congress

Read more here.

FOIA News: DOL office laboring to handle submitter notice process

Tiny Labor Agency Struggles to Meet Huge Diversity Data Request

• FOIA includes thousands of company diversity reports

• Agency has made errors on non-objector list

By J. Edward Moreno, Bloomberg Law, Mar. 16, 2023

Federal contractors have until March 17 to object to their diversity data being disclosed by the Labor Department as part of an open-records request process that has now taken over six months and has been riddled with delays and errors.

The DOL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has struggled to produce an accurate list of contractors who don’t object to their workforce diversity data being disclosed in response to a massive Freedom of Information Act request from a journalism nonprofit.

The small subagency that enforces antidiscrimination laws and standards on companies that do business with the government has released lists of non-objectors that contained errors and has rolled over the deadline to object several times. Information from companies that don’t object—such as Oracle Inc. and Laboratory Corp.—will be released first, then the agency will make a call on whether the objections submitted are valid or not.

Read more here.

FOIA News: “Citizen's Guide to the Freedom of Information Act”updated

House Democrats Release a New Citizen's Guide to the Freedom of Information Act

Journalists, educational institutions, nonprofits, private corporations and members of the public make use of the records law.

By Courtney Buble, Gov’t Exec., Mar. 16, 2023

In recognition of Sunshine Week, House Democrats released on Thursday an updated citizen's guide to the Freedom of Information Act. 

The annual Sunshine Week celebrates and champions open government and transparency. Journalists, educational institutions, nonprofits, private corporations and members of the public make use of the records law. 

“American democracy depends on openness for government accountability,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, in a statement. “Committee Democrats are empowering the public by making it easier to access government records with this citizen’s guide to FOIA. By boosting transparency, we offer all citizens the ability to serve as a fundamental check on government officials abusing our democratic institutions.”

Read more here.