FOIA News: Remarks at DOJ's Sunshine Week event

Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer Delivers Remarks at 14th Annual Sunshine Week Event

Dep’t of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, Mar. 11, 2024

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Welcome to the Justice Department’s 14th Annual Sunshine Week event. I am so pleased to kick off this important week for those of us who believe that our democracy functions best when the public knows what its government is doing. Sunshine Week is an opportunity to honor the public servants — like so many of you here — who work tirelessly to administer FOIA. But it is also an opportunity to recommit ourselves to the broader principles of openness, transparency, and accountability that FOIA serves.

For more than 50 years, FOIA has been a vital tool for advancing these core democratic principles. Two years ago, the Attorney General reaffirmed the government’s commitment to those principles by issuing comprehensive new FOIA guidelines. The 2022 guidelines direct the heads of all executive branch departments and agencies to apply a presumption of openness in administering FOIA: “In case of doubt,” the guidelines instruct, “openness should prevail.” The guidelines make clear that the Justice Department will not defend nondisclosure decisions that fail to apply such a presumption. And, finally, the guidelines emphasize the importance of making proactive disclosures, removing barriers to accessing government information, and reducing FOIA processing backlogs.

Read more here.

FOIA News: The worst agency responses of 2023

The Foilies 2024

Muckrock, Mar. 10. 2024

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The Foilies are our attempt to call out . . .violations each year during Sunshine Week, an annual event (March 10-16 this year) when advocacy groups, news organizations and citizen watchdogs combine efforts to highlight the importance of government transparency laws. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and MuckRock, in partnership with the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, compile the year’s worst and most ridiculous responses to public records requests and other attempts to thwart public access to information, including through increasing attempts to gut the laws guaranteeing this access—and we issue these agencies and officials tongue-in-cheek “awards” for their failures.

Read more here.

Jobs, jobs, jobs: Weekly report, 3/11/24

Federal jobs closing in the next ten days:

FOIA and Privacy Technician, Dep’t of Def./DCSA, Boyers, PA, GS 7, closes 3/11/24.

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of State, Arlington, VA, GS 13, closes 3/12/24 (non-public).

Records Management Assistant (FOIA/PA), Fort Belvoir, VA, GS 7, closes 3/14/24 (non-public).

Attorney-Adviser, EPA, Washington, D.C., GS 11-12, closes 3/15/24.

Gov’t Info. Specialist, EPA, Washington, D.C., GS 13, closes 3/15/24 (non-public).

Sup. Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/VBA, Washington, D.C., closes 3/15/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Justice/ATF, GS 12, Washington, DC, closes 3/15/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/VHA, GS 9, Columbia, SC, closes 3/18/24 (non-public).

Sup. Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs, GS 14, Overland, MO, closes 3/19/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs, GS 12, Durham, NC, closes 3/20/24 (non-public).

Sup. General Attorney, Dep’t of Justice/Crim., GS 15, Washington, D.C., closes 3/20/24.

Court opinions issued Mar. 6, 2024

United for FBI Integrity v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- ruling that: (1) DOJ improperly issued Exemption 6 and 7(C) Glomar responses as to the existence of records that concern former FBI employee’s role in the loss of plaintiff’s security clearance and any records about allegations that the SAC violated plaintiff’s constitutional rights; and (2) DOJ properly issued Exemption 6 and 7(C) Glomar responses as to the existence of various records concerning sexual misconduct allegedly committed by the same former FBI employee.

Scarlett v. OIG (D.D.C.) -- on renewed summary judgment, deciding that National Science Foundation’s Office of Inspector General reasonably described its search for records pertaining to plaintiff or her company.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.

FOIA News: With FOIA backlogs on the rise, do agencies need direct-hire authority?

With FOIA backlogs on the rise, do agencies need direct-hire authority?

By Justin Doubleday, Federal News Network, Mar. 7, 2024

With Freedom of Information Act backlogs continuing to rise, a federal advisory committee is advancing some potential solutions to the FOIA staffing challenges that have plagued many agencies.

The FOIA Advisory Committee, during a March 5 meeting, discussed a draft report on “staffing/personnel” from the resources subcommittee.

Read more here.

Court opinions Mar. 1, 2024

Leopold v. DOJ (D.C. Cir.) -- reversing and remanding district court’s decision because neither the agency nor the lower court fully addressed whether the disclosure of information withheld from an independent monitor’s report under Exemption 8 met the statute’s foreseeable harm test.

Tobias v. U.S. Dep't of the Interior (D.D.C.) -- ruling that agency properly relied on Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege to withhold internal agency communications concerning how to respond to arguments in a permit applicant’s white paper, and that the agency adequately demonstrated foreseeable harm.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.

FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee meeting

In case you missed it, the federal FOIA Advisory Committee met on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. Here is a replay of the action, as well as the meeting materials. The Committee will meet next on April 4, 2024.

FOIA News: OIP releases 2023 Litigation and Compliance Report

On March 4, 2024, the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy released its 2023 Litigation and Compliance Report. Among other things, DOJ reported that requesters filed 834 FOIA lawsuits in 2023. a four percent increase from 797 claims in 2022 .

FOIA News: Agencies received nearly 1.2 million requests in FY 2023

According to updated data posted on Foia.gov, agencies received 1,199,644 requests in fiscal year 2023, a whopping 29 percent increase from 928,353 in FY 2022. The Department of Homeland Security alone received 674,856 of those requests, or 56 percent, which is on par with recent years.

Further, agencies collectively processed 1,122,166 requests, a 27 percent increase from 878,420 requests processed in FY 2022.

The government’s request backlog increased slightly from 206,720 in FY 2022 to 208,282 in FY 2023. The appeals backlog decreased slightly from 4,709 to 4,646.

Total FOIA costs were $659,719,904, with $610,629,248 in administrative costs and $49,090,656 in litigation costs, all of which were higher than in FY 2022 ($585 million total). Only $2,333,293 in fees were collected from requesters, but this was higher than in FY 2022 ($2,192,645).

Jobs, jobs, jobs: Weekly report, 3/4/24

Federal jobs closing in the next ten days

Supervisory Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Agric., OCIO, remote, GS 14, closes 3/4/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of the Air Force, Arlington, VA, GS 12, closes 3/4/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Fed. Deposit Ins. Corp., multiple locations, CG 12, closes 3/4/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of the Army, Fort Belvoir, VA, GS 11, closes 3/6/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of the Navy, Washington, D.C., GS 13, closes 3/6/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/VHA, Salt Lake City, UT, GS 12, closes 3/7/24.

Gov’t Info, Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/VHA, Northern California, GS 12, closes 3/8/24 (non-public).

FOIA and Privacy Technician, Dep’t of Def./DCSA, Boyers, PA, GS 7, closes 3/11/24.

Federal positions closing after 3/14/2024

Attorney-Adviser, EPA, Washington, D.C., GS 11-12, closes 3/15/24.