FOIA News: Radio interview with GAO about FOIA backlogs

What to do about those ever-rising FOIA request backlogs

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests keep rising every year. Some agencies have trouble responding to them on time, leading to growing backlogs.

Tom Temin, Fed. News Network, Mar. 27, 2024

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests keep rising every year. Some agencies have trouble responding to them on time, leading to growing backlogs. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Justice Department bureau that oversees FOIA activity could improve its guidance on how to get out from under backlogs. For more, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin with GAO’s Director of Strategic Issues, Jay McTigue.

Interview Transcript: 

Tom Temin Give us a sense of FOIA activity. Has it been on the rise? And tell us more about the level of backlogs some agencies, anyhow, are seeing?

Jay McTigue Sure. We looked back over the last decade looking at data from 2013 up through 2022, and we found that backlogs government wide have nearly doubled to a little bit over 200,000 at the end of fiscal year 2022. This reflects a long term trend, a persistent challenge for federal agencies.

Read more here.

Court opinions issued Mar. 22, 2024

Hettena v. CIA (D.D.C.) -- ruling that agency’s Office of Inspector General properly relied on Exemptions 1 and 3 to redact information from its report concerning the death of Manadel al-Jamadian, an Iraqi national who was detained for carrying out an October 27, 2003, terrorist attack on Red Cross offices in Baghdad.

Phillips v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- finding that U.S, Customs and Border Protection properly withheld two videos of detainees pursuant to Exemptions 6 and 7(C) and that it could not reasonably segregate and release non-exempt portions; noting that even if a video “that blurred the individuals’ faces and muted the audio might still convey the detainees’ emotional state, it is unclear that that information would be responsive to the FOIA request—and in any event, that marginal information would be substantially outweighed by the excessive costs of redaction.”

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

FOIA News: FOIA Bootcamp at Yale University

Yale Law School will host a FOIA Bootcamp in person on March 26, 2024, with journalist Nate Jones and criminal defense investigator Nathan Tempey. See more details here.

Jobs, jobs, jobs: Weekly report, 3/25/24

Federal positions closing in the next 10 days

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of the Interior/Bureau of Reclamation, GS 11-12, Remote, closes 3/25/24 (non-public).

Law Clerk, EPA, GS 11, Seattle, WA, closes 3/25/24.

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Justice, OIG, GS 11-12, Washington, D.C., closes 4/2/24 (non-public)

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of State, GS 9-11, Washington, D.C., closes 4/2/24.

Gov’t Info Specialist, Dep’t of State, GS 9-11. Washington, D.C., closes 4/2/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, EPA, GS 13, Lenexa, KS, closed 4/3/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/VHA, GS 12, Seattle, WA, closes 4/3/24 (non-public).

Federal positions closing on or after April 5, 2024

Attorney Adviser Int’l, Dep’t of State, GS 12-13, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24.

Attorney Advisor Int’l, Dep’t of State, GS 14-15, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24.

Court opinion issued Mar. 21, 2024

Judicial Watch v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- holding that DOJ properly relied on Exemption 5’s attorney work-product privilege to withhold handwritten notes taken by two Assistant U.S. Attorneys during meetings regarding the potential criminal activity of Paul Manafort, as well an email exchanged by the same attorneys on the same subject.

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

FOIA News: OIP announces upcoming training

OIP Announces Upcoming FOIA Trainings Dates

By DOJ/OIP, FOIA Post, Mar. 21, 2024

Today, the Office of Information Policy (OIP) announces new dates for Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) training for April through July.  As part of its responsibility to encourage agency compliance with the FOIA, OIP offers numerous training opportunities throughout the year for agency FOIA professionals and individuals with FOIA responsibilities. 

* *. *

The courses and dates scheduled for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2024 are:

Introduction to the Freedom of Information Act
April 3, 2024

Processing a Request from Start to Finish
April 10, 2024

Procedural Requirements, and Fee and Fee Waivers Training
May 7, 2024

Litigation Training
May 21, 2024

Administrative Appeals, FOIA Compliance, and Customer Service Training
May 23, 2024

Exemption 1 and Exemption 7 Training
June 4, 2024

Exemption 4 and Exemption 5 Training
June 12, 2024

Privacy Considerations Training
July 9, 2024

Continuing FOIA Education Training
July 11, 2024

Read more here.

FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee announces three meetings

The FOIA Advisory Committee will meet virtually three more times to conclude its 2022-2024 term:

1. April 4, 2024, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. eastern time (ET);

2. May 9, 2024, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET; and

3. June 13, 2024, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET.

See more details in the notice scheduled to be officially published in the Federal Register on March 21, 2024.

Court opinions issued Mar. 19, 2024

Def. of Freedom Inst. for Policy Studies v. U.S. Dep’t of Education (M.D. Fla.) -- dismissing case on grounds of improper venue after finding that plaintiff did not reside in the Middle District of Florida, but rather was incorporated in Virginia and had its principal place of business in Washington, D.C.; rejecting plaintiff’s argument that venue was proper because plaintiff had “substantial contact” with the district and was registered to do business in Florida.

Def. of Freedom Inst. for Policy Studies v. U.S. Dep’t of Education (M.D. Fla.) -- dismissing case on grounds of improper venue after finding that plaintiff did not reside in the Middle District of Florida, but rather was incorporated in Virginia and had its principal place of business in Washington, D.C.; rejecting plaintiff’s argument that venue was proper because plaintiff had “substantial contact” with the district and was registered to do business in Florida.

Castillo v. U.S. Customs & Border Prot. (N.D. Cal.) -- denying plaintiff’s request for an award of attorney’s fees and costs because even if he were eligible, which the court doubted, plaintiff did not meet the entitlement prong because his interest in obtaining agency records “relevant to a tort claim he is considering filing does not implicate any significant public interests . . . .”

Project on Gov't Oversight, Inc. v. U.S. Office of Special Counsel (D.D.C.) -- determining that OSC properly invoked Exemption 7(C) to withhold the names and identifying information of three Trump administration officials who were investigated for Hatch Act violations, but not the subject of any further law enforcement action.

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

FOIA News: FOIA discussion at Marquette University

On April 2, 2024, Marquette University will host a discussion entitled “The Fight for FOIA: A Conversation About the State of Government Transparency.” The panelists are Professor Margaret Kwoka, USA Today reporter Nick Penzenstadler, and New York TImes reporter Mark Walker. See more details here.

Court opinions issued Mar. 14, 2024

NY Times v. DOJ (2nd Cir.) (unpublished) -- affirming district court’s decision that: (1) DOJ properly relied on Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege to withhold factual material that was "inextricably intertwined" with independent monitor’s subjective analysis; and (2) agency’s declarations described with "reasonably specific detail" how disclosure would result in harm to its deliberative processes, namely, “its ability to ensure candor between the agency and an independent monitor, so that DOJ can enter and effectively enforce plea agreements with companies like VW.”

Ctr. for Inquiry v. HHS (D.D.C.) -- deciding that: (1) FDA did not perform adequate search for communications between certain employees and the Homeopathic Convention of the United States (HPCU); and (2) FDA properly found that entire copies of draft HPUS monographs were “commercial” under Exemption 4 because they are “the very product from which HPCU derives most of its income,” but the agency failed to sufficiently describe remaining withheld material to permit evaluation of its “commercial” nature and it failed to establish that any records were confidential.

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