The Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee will host a virtual meeting on April 7, 2022, from 10:00AM to 1:00PM. The purpose of this meeting is to hear updates from and consider any recommendations from the four subcommittees: Classification, Legislation, Process, and Technology.
See more details here.
DOJ’s Office of Information Policy posted an updated version of Exemption 7(A) of the United States Department of Justice Guide to the Freedom of Information Act on March 22, 2022, as well as an updated version of Exemption 7(C) on March 29, 2022.
On March 31, 2022, the Congressional Research Service released Access to Government Information: An Overview, which includes a discussion of the Freedom of Information Act.
The Obama FOIA timebomb
By Alex Thompson, Josh Gerstein & Max Tani, Politico, Mar. 31, 2022
For JOE BIDEN, there have been a lot of advantages to having once served as vice president: familiarity with the office, established relationships with powerful people, and a team of advisers with relevant experience.
But there is also a distinct disadvantage: People can dig through the archives of your prior work.
Starting on January 20, 2022 — five years since BARACK OBAMA left office — inquisitive journalists, opposition researchers, and amateur conspiracy theorists began filing a barrage of Freedom of Information Act requests (also known as “FOIAs”) to the Obama library.
Read more here.
The National Archives and Records Administration hopes to reduce the time it takes to start complex FOIA requests for unclassified records by fiscal year 2026, according to its 2022-2026 Strategic Plan. NARA’s most complex FOIA requests can take as long as eight years before NARA can begin reviewing responsive records.
Read more here.
'There is a big problem': Senators unite to slam FOIA compliance
The premier transparency law is hobbled by backlogs and mountains of electronic data, lawmakers are told.
By Josh Gerstein, Politico, Mar. 29, 2022
The often bitterly divided Senate Judiciary Committee had little difficulty Tuesday finding consensus that the nation’s premier transparency law, the Freedom of Information Act, isn’t working well.
“My conclusion from this is: there is a big problem,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said during an oversight hearing on the federal government’s ongoing struggle to implement the records-access law in a timely way.
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) said he believes the half-century-old statute allowing journalists, advocacy groups and members of the public to request federal agency records appears to be failing to live up to its original ambitions.
Read more here.
The Department of Justice and Government Accountability Office have released the prepared remarks of their witnesses who appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 29, 2022.
Here are the prepared remarks of Bobak Talebian, Director, Office of Information Policy.
Here is the testimony of James R. McTigue, Jr., Director, Strategic Issues, Government Accountability Office.
Here is the testimony of Alina Semo, Director of the Office of Government Information Services.
The Department of Justice issued an announcement on March 25, 2022. requesting information from vendors to implement a “guided workflow or wizard assisting the public in using the National FOIA Portal.”
See the Request For Information here.
On Tuesday, March 29, 2022, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing entitled “The Freedom of Information Act: Improving Transparency and the American Public’s Right to Know for the 21st Century.” Witnesses include Bobak Talebian, Director, Office Of Information Policy; Alina M. Semo, Director, Office Of Government Information Services, and James R. McTigue, Jr., Director, Strategic Issues, Government Accountability Office. Live video will be available at 10:00 AM here.
According to annual data available on FOIA.gov, the following five agencies reported the highest median number of days to process simple, perfected requests in fiscal year 2021:
National Archives and Records Administration: 179 days
United States Institute of Peace: 173 days
Office of Management and Budget: 170 days
Advisory Council of Historic Preservation: 106 days
U..S Agency for Global Media: 99 days
Seven agencies reported median response times of one (1) day in FY 2021 for simple, perfected requests:
Department of Agriculture
Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation
Administrative Conference of the United States
Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission
Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council
Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation