FOIA News: DOJ/OIP announces training dates for FY2020

NEW FOIA TRAINING DATES FOR FISCAL YEAR 2020

FOIA Post, Sept. 26, 2019

Today, the Office of Information Policy (OIP) announced new dates for FOIA training during Fiscal Year 2020. As part of its responsibility to encourage agency compliance with the FOIA, OIP offers a number of training opportunities throughout the year for agency FOIA professionals and individuals with FOIA responsibilities.  These courses have been designed to offer training opportunities for personnel from all stages of the FOIA workforce, from new hires to the experienced FOIA professionals or FOIA managers. As Fiscal Year 2020 quickly approaches, we are pleased to announce the new training courses and dates for this upcoming fiscal year, which are also available on OIP’s Eventbrite page.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Six business days to end of federal fiscal year

As transparency advocate Russ Kick noted on Twitter today, fiscal year 2019 will be closing soon and federal FOIA offices are likely to be busy clearing out backlogged requests. Best wishes to all FOIA professionals for a productive week!

FOIA News: Interior watchdog investigating political appointees' review of FOIA requests

Interior watchdog investigating political appointees' review of FOIA requests

By Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill, Sep. 20, 2019

The Department of Interior’s internal watchdog confirmed in letters to two lawmakers that they will review the involvement of the agency’s top officials in crafting agency’s public records process which allows political appointees to review and potentially withhold documents from release.

“Our ongoing review will holistically examine the expanded [Freedom of Information Act] FOIA process, including the involvement of senior officials,” Interior’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) wrote in a letters reviewed by The Hill sent to House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

Grijalva requested an investigation earlier this month of Interior’s Supplemental Awareness Review process, citing evidence that it resulted in inappropriate delays and the removal of entire documents from being released, while Wyden had asked for an investigation into Daniel Jorjani, one of the architects behind the policy, who Wyden says may have lied to Congress about it.

Read more here.

FOIA News: IG Community Seeks New FOIA Exemption for Sensitive IT Reviews

Who watches the watchdog? Lawmakers seek greater transparency from IG council

By Jory Heckman, Federal News Network, Sep. 18, 2019

The IG community seeks to make an explicit exemption in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to prevent disclosure of sensitive reviews of agency IT vulnerabilities.

“Agencies and IGs study federal IT systems and produce detailed reports identifying exploitable weaknesses. Malicious entities could use that information to infiltrate and harm government IT systems,” Buller said.

While FOIA prevents the disclosure of classified and law-enforcement information, no standalone exemption exists for IT vulnerabilities.

“A focused, narrowly tailored exemption would protect information that hackers could use to harm federal IT systems,” she added.

Read more here.

FOIA News: OIP Director will retire after fiscal year, per FOIA-released records

DOJ’s Melanie Pustay, who has been the Director of the Office of Information Policy since 2007, will retire from the government after the fiscal year, according to records obtained via FOIA by reporter Jason Leopold. Her last day will be October 3, 2019.

Additional records are available here.

Court opinion issued Sept. 17, 2019

Shepherd v. CFPB (D.D.C. ) -- ruling that CFPB improperly relied on Exemption 6 to redact certain telephone numbers from records of Leandra English, because agency failed to demonstrate that the numbers belonged to private individuals.

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

FOIA News: D.C. Circuit hears oral argument on meaning of database

DC Circ. Not Sure If IRS Can Slip Database Designation

Law360, Sept. 12, 2019

The D. C. Circuit seemed wary Thursday of the Internal Revenue Service’s argument that a system its manual calls a database isn’t actually one for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act suit it’s trying to get out of. The three judges spend part of their morning quizzing an IRS attorney on how the agency’s Asset Forfeiture Tracking and Retrieval System, or AFTRAK, works, so that they could decide for themselves whether the IRS had a duty to comply with a request for all the information it had on seized assets.

Read more here (accessible with free trial subscription)

Oral argument audio available here.

Copy of district court decision here.

FOIA News: See 9/11 FOIA videos

9/11 FOIA Videos: Street-Level Footage, Aerial Shots (Viewer Warning)

By Tim Haines, RealClear Politics, Sept. 11, 2019

18 years after the 9/11 attacks, a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits brought against the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has led to the release of almost all of the footage that was consulted when writing the 9/11 Commission report. Much of the footage was never aired on television until years later, or seen by the public at all until the age of YouTube.

More here.

FOIA News: IRS improperly withheld records in 8 percent of requests sampled by TIGTA

IRS Wrongly Withheld Info In 8% Of FOIA Filings, TIGTA Says

By Theresa Schliep, Law360,  Sept. 10, 2019

The Internal Revenue Service improperly withheld information in 8% of a sample group of Freedom of Information Act requests sent to the agency, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said...

Read more here (accessible with free trial subscription)

Copy of TIGTA report here.

FOIA News: Groups Denied Win In IRS FOIA Suit Over Immigration Raid

Groups Denied Win In IRS FOIA Suit Over Immigration Raid

Law360, Sept. 9, 2019

A D. C. federal court Monday denied an initial attempt by the Southern Poverty Law Center and National Immigration Law Center to force the IRS to disclose records through an information request about its role in a controversial immigration raid. The two legal groups have not given the IRS an opportunity to respond to their allegations that the agency dodged a Freedom of Information Act request seeking records about an immigration raid at a Tennessee meatpacking plant in April 2018 that resulted in over 100 arrests, U. S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly ruled.

Read more here (accessible with free 7-day trial subscription)