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.

FOIA News: More updates to OIP's FOIA Guide

The Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy has recently published updates to several sections of its Guide to the Freedom of Information Act: (1) Exemption 7(D)​ (posted Sept. 9, 2022); (2) Attorney Fees (updated Oct. 14, 2022); and (3) Exemption 7(E)​ (posted Oct. 27, 2022). The oldest section of the Guide is “Litigation Considerations,” which has not been updated since September 2019.

FOIA News: EPA proposes amendments to FOIA regulations

The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a proposed rule that would revise its Freedom of Information Act regulations. Of note, EPA has proposed adding a provision that would permit the expedition of FOIA requests “if the records sought pertain to an environmental justice-related need and will be used to inform an affected community.”

Comments must be received on or before December 19, 2022.

FOIA News: The FOIA wizard

DOJ looks to improve the FOIA experience with new ‘wizard’

A new FOIA search tool is under development, while forthcoming shared business standards aim to streamline case management systems.

By Natalie Alms FCW, Nov. 10, 2022

The Department of Justice is creating a wizard to help Americans making requests under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA.

The project is meant to help people locate any information that is already public, and in the case that a FOIA request is still needed, help them make better requests, said Bobak Talebian, director of the DOJ’s Office of Information Policy, during the Chief FOIA Officers Council meeting on Nov. 3.  

Read more here.

FOIA News: Recap of Chief FOIA Officers Council meeting

Justice Department, GSA working on common standards for FOIA tech

By Justin Doubleday, WFED, Nov. 8, 2022

The Freedom of Information Act community is developing new technology standards to help improve FOIA processes and standardize common services like case management tools across government.

The Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy and the Office of Government Information Services at the National Archives are working with the General Services Administration’s Office of Shared Services and Performance Improvement to advance shared FOIA business standards, according to Lindsay Steel, chief of FOIA compliance staff at OIP.

The GSA office administers the Business Standards Council, an interagency team that has helped shepherd shared standards across areas like grants management and electronic records. Now, the council is turning its attention to FOIA.

Read more here.

See video of CFO Council meeting here.

FOIA News: Justice Department, GSA working on common standards for FOIA tech

Justice Department, GSA working on common standards for FOIA tech

By Justin Doubleday, Federal News Network, Nov. 8, 2022

The Freedom of Information Act community is developing new technology standards to help improve FOIA processes and standardize common services like case management tools across government.

The Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy and the Office of Government Information Services at the National Archives are working with the General Services Administration’s Office of Shared Services and Performance Improvement to advance shared FOIA business standards, according to Lindsay Steel, chief of FOIA compliance staff at OIP.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Frequent FBI requester, Ernie Lazar, dies at 77

Ernie Lazar, Who Trawled for Secret Government Documents, Dies at 77

By pursuing his “unusual hobby” of filing as many as 10,000 Freedom of Information requests about extremist groups, he proved invaluable to historians and journalists.

By Sam Roberts, NY Times, Sept. 7, 2022

Ernie Lazar, an unheralded hero of researchers who mined his vast digital and documentary archive of government records on political extremists to invigorate their books, articles and arguments and to warn against “it can’t happen here” complacency, died on Nov. 1 at his home in Palm Springs, Calif. He was 77.

His death was confirmed by the Coroner’s Bureau of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. He reported online a few months ago that he was receiving home hospice care for kidney disease.

Read more here.

Court opinion issued Nov. 4, 2022

Kinnucan v. Nat'l Sec. Agency (W.D. Wash.) -- in case concerning records of an attack by Israeli forces on a U.S. naval intelligence ship during the 1967 Six-Day War, ruling that government properly redacted one document pursuant to Exemption 1 but failed to establish the adequacy of its segregability analysis or its remaining withholdings pursuant to Exemptions 1 and 3.

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.

Court opinions issued Nov. 2, 2022

Cato Inst. v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- finding that: (1) FBI performed adequate search concerning plaintiff notwithstanding agency’s decision not to search database identified by plaintiff; and (2) FBI properly relied on Exemption 7(C) to withhold names and identifying information of third parties of investigative interest.

Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility Proj. v. U.S. Customs & Border Prot. (E.D.N.Y.) -- after reviewing representative sample of disputed records in camera, ruling that agency’s declaration and Vaughn Index failed to adequately describe and justify withheld information concerning “Tactical Terrorism Response Teams,” and that agency failed to provide reasonably specific segregability analysis.

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.

FOIA News: OGIS Part 4

Understanding the Office of Government Information Services (part 4/4)

Office of Gov’t Info. Serv., FOIA Ombudsman, Nov. 2, 2022

In our previous blog posts “Understanding the Office of Government Information Services,” parts 1, 2 and 3,  we provided a basic overview of OGIS and highlighted our dispute resolution and compliance work. In this wrap-up post we’ll further explain the important work of the FOIA Advisory Committee and the Chief FOIA Officers Council. 

What is the FOIA Advisory Committee? 

The federal FOIA Advisory Committee, composed of 20 FOIA experts from inside and outside of government, advises the Archivist of the United States on FOIA matters. NARA established the Committee in 2014 in accordance with the U.S. Second Open Government National Action Plan and the Federal Advisory Committee Act to bring together perspectives from all parts of the FOIA community. Under its charter, the Committee fosters dialogue between the Administration and the requester community, solicits public comments, and develops consensus recommendations for improving FOIA administration and proactive disclosures. 

Read more here.