FOIA News: Senators propose expanding FOIA to Federal Reserve Banks

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Pat Toomey unveiled a bill on Friday, December 9, 2022, that would subject all regional Federal Reserve Banks to the Freedom of Information Act. Press release is here. Summary of the bill is here.

FOIA News: Academic Commentary on Campaign Legal Center v. DOJ (Part III of III)

Campaign Legal Center v. DOJ - FOIA Postscript to Department of Commerce v. New York (Part III)

Bernard Bell, Yale J. on Reg., Notice & Comment Blog, Dec. 4, 2022

Can an agency properly invoke the deliberative process privilege to shield internal deliberations over a sham memo requesting that another agency take action, knowing that the recipient agency will use the request to hide the real reason for its contemplated action? Earlier this year, the D.C. Circuit answered in the affirmative. Campaign Legal Center v. DOJ, 34 F.4th 14 (D.C. Cir. 2022). This is the third in a series of three posts addressing Campaign Legal Center. Having discussed the D.C. Circuit’s dismissive treatment of a potential “government misconduct” exception argument (Part I), and then laid out the caselaw regarding that exception (Part II), this third post will provide my own analysis of the issue at the heart of the case.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Academic Commentary on Campaign Legal Center v. DOJ (Part II of III)

Campaign Legal Center v. DOJ - FOIA Postscript to Department of Commerce v. New York (Part II)

Bernard Bell, Yale J. on Reg., Notice & Comment Blog, Nov. 29, 2022

Can an agency properly invoke the deliberative process privilege to shield internal deliberations over a sham memo requesting that another agency take action, knowing that the recipient agency will use the request to hide the real reason for its contemplated action? Earlier this year, the D.C. Circuit answered in the affirmative. Campaign Legal Center v. DOJ, 34 F.4th 14 (D.C. Cir. 2022). This is the second in a series of three posts discussing Campaign Legal Center. The first post provided the factual background for Campaign Legal Center and described the D.C. Circuit’s resolution of the issue. This post lays out the history of the “government misconduct” exception to the deliberative process privilege.

Read more here.

FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee hosts expert panel to discuss FOIA challenges

NARA’s Federal FOIA Advisory Committee held its most recent meeting on December 1, 2022. As part of the meeting, the Committee hosted a special panel of experts, who discussed complex FOIA requests and litigation. The panelists were Anne Weismann, formerly of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington; Katie Townsend, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press; and Ryan Mulvey, Americans for Prosperity Foundation (and contributor at FOIA Advisor).

A recording of the meeting is available here on YouTube.

The panel discussion begins roughly at the 18’ 30” mark.

FOIA News: New Academic Commentary on Campaign Legal Center v. DOJ

Campaign Legal Center v. DOJ - FOIA Postscript to Department of Commerce v. New York (Part I)

Bernard Bell, Yale J. on Reg., Notice & Comment Blog, Nov. 27, 2022

Can an agency properly invoke the deliberative process privilege to shield internal deliberations over a sham memo requesting that another agency take action, knowing that the recipient agency will use the request to hide the real reason for its contemplated action? Earlier this year, the D.C. Circuit answered in the affirmative. Campaign Legal Center v. DOJ, 34 F.4th 14 (D.C. Cir. 2022). The case might be described as the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) addendum to Department of Commerce v. New York, —U.S. —, 139 S. Ct. 2551 (2019). This series of posts discusses the rarely referenced “government misconduct” exception to the deliberative process privilege and its applicability to the communications sought in Campaign Legal Center v. DOJ.

Read more here.

FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee meeting Dec. 1, 2022

The FOIA Advisory Committee will meet remotely on Thursday, December 1, 2022, from 10am to 12:30pm. Meeting materials and registration details are available here.

FOIA News: DOJ unveils redesigned website for OIP

The Office of Information Policy has an updated website as of November 15, 2022, which includes a version in Spanish.

FOIA News: Trouble at the Park Service?

Park Service Lack of Transparency Created Its Huge FOIA Backlog

By Jeff Ruch, Pub. Employees for Envtl. Responsibility, Nov. 18, 2022

The National Park Service is drowning in unanswered Freedom of Information Act requests. According to the Interior Department’s latest quarterly report, NPS led all other Interior agencies in both new requests and in its backlog of 1,421 unprocessed requests.

This backlog has nearly doubled during the past two years while both the number of requests the Park Service received and its backlog continue to spiral up with each passing month.

By contrast, the Fish & Wildlife Service, which manages more than 500 wildlife refuges and has significant regulatory and enforcement responsibilities (e.g., administering the Endangered Species Act), currently has a backlog of only 347 requests, less than a quarter that of NPS, and that backlog is shrinking while the Park Service’s continues to swell.

What explains the difference?

Read more here.

FOIA News: FOIA tech talk on Dec. 1st

The America Society of Access Professionals will host a virtual discussion about FOIA technology on December 1, 2022, from 3pm to 4:15pm. Participants include Glenn Melcher, CFPB; Michael Sarich, Department of Veterans Affairs; and Nick Witeenberg, Deloitte. Registration details are here.

FOIA News: FEC pays $23.5k to settle FOIA suit with Senator Hawley's campaign

On November 17, 2022, the Federal Election Committee announced that it had agreed to pay $23.5 in attorney’s fees to settle a FOIA lawsuit brought by Senator Josh Hawley’s campaign in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The “plaintiff had a right to the requested documents under FOIA, and the Commission was wrong to try to withhold them,” stated Commissioner Sean Cooksey. Hawley’s campaign had sought records related to FEC enforcement actions against it. Related court documents are available here.