FOIA News: Railroad Retirement Board amending FOIA regulations

The Railroad Retirement Board published an interim final rule with request for comments in this morning’s edition of the Federal Register. Among other things, the proposed amendments are being introduced to comply with the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016, as well as to reflect developments in fee caselaw. The interim rule is effective immediately; public comments are due by August 2, 2021.

FOIA News: ATF's FOIA program assailed by media requesters

The ATF's failure to produce public records keeps the gun industry in the shadows

By Alain Stephens & Daniel Nass, The Trace, June 25, 2021

One gun store had hundreds of firearms missing from its inventory. Another transferred a weapon to a convicted felon in a parking lot. Many more sold guns to prohibited buyers or without properly conducting background checks. 

The sweeping analysis that uncovered these law-breaking gun dealers was possible only because the gun control organization Brady waged a years-long legal fight to compel the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to produce records that by law should be public.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Senate bill targets VA's FOIA backlog

Senators Hassan, Tillis Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Help Veterans by Addressing VA Backlog

Bipartisan Bill Builds on Senator Hassan’s Efforts to Address Delays in Veterans’ Records & Benefits Information

Press Release, Sen. Maggie Hassan, June 23, 2021

U.S. Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Thom Tillis (R-NC), both members of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, introduced a bipartisan bill to improve oversight of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and reduce the backlog of requests from veterans for medical and other VA military records. A companion bill passed the House of Representatives earlier this month.

 Veterans will often request access to their military and VA records through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in order to gain more information on a claim from the VA or receive necessary medical documents, but right now, many veterans do not receive a response to their request within the 20 days that FOIA outlines. Compliance with FOIA requests also impacts the work our local and national Veterans Service Organizations do to support our veterans.

Read more here.

FOIA News: ICYMI, DOJ updates FOIA Guide

In early June, the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy posted updated to two sections of the Guide to the Freedom of Information Act: Exemption 3 and Exemption 7(B).

FOIA News: Obscure DHS Databases Make FOIA Impossible, Suit Says

Obscure DHS Databases Make FOIA Impossible, Suit Says

By Melissa Angell, Law360, June 22, 2021

An immigrant advocacy group wants to know more about the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's "obscure" network of databases and how immigration agencies store their enforcement data…

Read more here (subscription).

FOIA News: Reinforcements sought to shrink long FOIA backlog

Reinforcements sought to shrink long FOIA backlog

By Michael Doyle, E&E News, June 21, 2021

The Interior Department's persistent Freedom of Information Act backlog continued to grow during the first months of the Biden administration, even as officials seek significant reinforcements to tackle the issue.

Read more here (subscription).

FOIA News: Split 5th Circ. Annuls Atty's FOIA Helicopter Crash Docs Win

Split 5th Circ. Annuls Atty's FOIA Helicopter Crash Docs Win

By Dave Simpson, Law360, June 17, 2021

A split Fifth Circuit panel ruled that the National Transportation Safety Board does not have to turn over documents about a helicopter crash…

Read more here (subscription).

FOIA News: USCIS seeks dismissal of "public charge" lawsuit

Feds Seek To Ax Trump-Era Suit Over 'Public Charge' Docs

Law360, June 16, 2021

The U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services urged a Massachusetts federal judge Wednesday to toss a lawsuit accusing it of stonewalling a request for records about a leaked draft of a Trump administration-era "public charge rule" that scared immigrants away from using welfare benefits to which the law entitles them. Lawyers for Civil Rights made a Freedom of Information Act request in January 2019 seeking USCIS records relating to the leak of the proposed rule, which would have blocked immigrants from obtaining legal status if they used any local, state or federal social services. But the Trump administration never responded to the. . .

Read more here (accessible with free trial subscription)

FOIA News: Court grants DOJ motion to stay disclosure order re: OLC memo

'No Amount of Apologizing': Judge Scolds DOJ, but Pauses Release of Trump Prosecution Memo

“The department chose not to tell the court the purpose of the memorandum or subject it addressed at all, and no amount of apologizing for ‘imprecision’ in the language it did use can cure the impact of that fundamental omission,” U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson wrote.

By Jacqueline Thomsen, Nat’l Law J., June 14, 2021

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., said Monday that she will pause the release of a legal memo about the Mueller report, but continued to take issue with some of the arguments the Justice Department has made in the case.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District of Columbia last month ordered that an Office of Legal Counsel memo on a potential prosecution of then-President Donald Trump based on Special Counsel Robert Mueller III’s findings be made public, citing discrepancies between DOJ officials’ descriptions of the memo and the memo itself, which she reviewed in private.

The Justice Department said it will appeal part of the ruling and asked Jackson to stay her order while it takes the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. On Monday, Jackson granted that motion, finding “the public interest in disclosure now does not outweigh DOJ’s interest in preserving a privilege that would be lost if the Court were to order disclosure.”

Read more here (accessible with free registration).

FOIA News: DOD seeks FOIA protections in defense bill

Pentagon renews effort to withhold more unclassified records

Biden administration continues what has become a seven-year annual tradition

By John M. Donnelly, Roll Call, June 10, 2021

Pentagon leaders are asking Congress to expand the kinds of unclassified information about military operations that the department can withhold from the public, continuing what has been an annual tradition for seven years and spanning three administrations.

Officials with the Pentagon general counsel’s office are requesting that the Armed Services committees, in writing the fiscal 2022 defense authorization bill, prescribe changes to the Freedom of Information Act that would limit public access to certain data.

Read more here.