FOIA News: High on Exemption 5

HHS Releases Highly Redacted Rescheduling Letter to DEA: An Analysis of Exemption 5 to FOIA

By Agustin Rodriquez et. al., Troutman Pepper, Dec. 12, 2023

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The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently drew the ire of transparency advocates when it heavily redacted a recommendation letter to the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) concerning the rescheduling of cannabis,[3] citing Exemption 5 as justification.[4] This decision has prompted questions about the appropriate use of redactions in FOIA requests, as redactions have become a battleground for debates over the balance between necessary secrecy and the public’s right to government information. In this blog post, we will discuss Exemption 5 of FOIA and evaluate its applicability to HHS’s redaction of the bulk of the rescheduling recommendation letter.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Artificial intelligence takes on FOIA exemptions

On December 10, 2023, the journal Artificial Intelligence and Law published a paper describing “a novel deliberative-language detection model . . . , the FOIA Assistant, that ingests documents responsive to an open-records requests, suggests passages likely to be subject to deliberative language, privacy, or other exemptions, and assists analysts in rapidly redacting suggested passages.”

See more here.

FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee meeting

The Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee met for seventh time during the 2022-2024 term on December 7, 2023. Meeting materials are available here. A video of the remote meeting, which ran for three hours, is available here.

FOIA News: DoD Finalizes Amendments to FOIA Regulations

The Department of Defense published a rule in the Federal Register amending its FOIA regulations. The rule goes into effect on January 4, 2024 and DoD “determined that public comment is unnecessary before finalizing these amendments as they are administrative and are internal to DoD and the management of DoD's FOIA Program.”

FOIA News: Peace Corps to amend FOIA regulations

The Peace Corps plans to revise its FOIA regulations as set forth in a proposed rule published in the Federal Register on November 28, 2023. Comments must be received by December 28, 2023.

FOIA News: Recap of CFO Council meeting

Chief FOIA Officers Meeting Recap

By NARA/OGIS, FOIA Ombudsman, Nov. 16, 2023

The Chief FOIA Officers Council (CFOC) met on November 9 to discuss a variety of topics of interest to Chief FOIA Officers and FOIA professionals. Deputy Archivist of the United States, Debra Steidel Wall, and Associate Attorney General of the United States, Vanita Gupta, offered opening remarks to the attendees. You can view the entire meeting on the National Archives YouTube channel. Below is a recap of the meeting. 

• Deputy Assistant Secretary for Global Information Services at the U.S. State Department, Eric Stein, provided a brief overview of two artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning pilots launched at the State Department in the last year. One was on declassification review and the second on processing FOIA requests. 

Read more here.

FOIA News: FOIA backlogs can be reduced with E-discovery, says VP of E-discovery firm

The government’s FOIA policy changes are adding to work levels and requests — but e-Discovery can help

By Amy Hilbert, Casepoint LLC, NextGov/FCW, Nov. 15. 2023

The federal government is working to improve the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) — making it easier to access public records. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued new FOIA guidelines in March, and the Office of Information Policy has updated its FOIA self-assessment toolkit to assist agencies in conducting self-assessments of their FOIA programs.

However, this has led to a growing strain on the staff and budgets of the government agencies and departments that need to comply with FOIA requests.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Nuclear board to amend its FOIA regulations

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has proposed to amend its FOIA fee schedule and four subsections of its fee regulation, according to a notice scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on November 15, 2023. The agency will accept public comments for 30 days.

FOIA News: CFO Council meeting

A recording of the Chief FOIA Officers Council meeting that took place on November 9, 2023, is available online here. It is approximately one hour and 45 minutes long.

FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Commitee meeting on Dec. 7th

The National Archives and Records Administration announced that the federal FOIA Advisory Committee will meet virtually on December 7, 2023, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. More details are available in the Federal Register notice published on November 7, 2023. Meeting materials will be posted by the Office of Government Information Services here.