FOIA News: OGIS to host webinar with CDC

On May 12, 2020, the Office of Government Information Services will host a conversation with CDC’s FOIA leadership during which the agency will “provide background on its FOIA process, share how the CDC is responding to COVID-19 requests, and provide tips for successful FOIA requests for COVID-19 records.” Read more here.

FOIA News: More government FOIA jobs

Bureau of Land Mgmt., Gov’t Info. Tech., Salt Lake City, UT (GS-7), closes 5/7/2020

Exec. Office for U.S. Attorneys, Supervisory Go. Info. Specialist, Wash., D.C. (GS-14), closes 5/8/2020

Dep’t of the Navy, Info. Release Ass’t, Norfolk, VA (GS-7), closes 5/11/2020

U.S. Dep’t of Housing & Urban Dev., Gov. Info. Specialist (GS-13), Wash., D.C., closes 5/15/2020

Veterans Health Admin., Gov’t Info. Specialist (GS-12), Anchorage, AK, closes 5/21/2020

FOIA News: Examining D.C. Circuit’s nonacquiescence case

The Deliberative Process Privilege and Nonacquiescence

By Bernard Bell, Yale Journal on Regulation, May 2, 2020

Agencies can withhold documents pursuant to Freedom of Information Act’s (FOIA) deliberative process privilege only if the documents are both predecisional and deliberative.[1]  If an agency refuses to apply a court of appeals decision outside of that Circuit, that is, if it engages in “intercircuit nonacquiescence,”[2] when is “the decision” to do so made?  In other words, at what point do the internal discussions regarding the agency’s exercise of its authority in other Circuits no longer remain pre-decisional, and thus shielded from FOIA requests?  The D.C. Circuit’s recent decision in Hall & Associates v. EPA, 2020 WL 1921534 (D.C. Cir. April 21, 2020), could transform resolution of such questions into issues of fact resolvable only by trial.  And, presumably, such trials will require testimony from agency decision-makers, an exercise of authority trial courts have long been admonished to avoid

Read more here.

FOIA News: OMB proposes revisions to fee guidlines

The Federal Register made available today for pre-publication inspection the Office of Management and Budget’s notice for revisions to the Uniform Freedom of Information Act Fee Schedule and Guidelines. OMB finalized its fee schedule and guidelines in 1987, and has never updated them. The agency now seeks to revise them in light of various legislative and judicial developments. Public comments will be accepted over the next thirty days. The notice is scheduled for publication on May 4, 2020.

FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee releases May 1st meeting materials

The FOIA Advisory Committee has released an agenda, presentation slides, and three handouts in advance of its virtual meeting on May 1, 2020. The Committee will next meet on June 4, 2020.

FOIA News: RCFP Briefer on Deliberative Process Case in the D.C. Circuit

What is the ‘deliberative process’ privilege? And why is it used so often to deny FOIA requests?

By Ryley Graham, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Apr. 30, 2020

In January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard oral arguments in a case concerning the application of the “deliberative process” privilege of the federal Freedom of Information Act, a provision of the law that has long been criticized as a catch-all exemption for denying public records requests.

The case, Machado Amadis v. Department of Justice, has yet to be decided. But it represents one of the first opportunities for a federal appellate court to interpret amendments Congress made to FOIA in 2016, specifically what’s known as the “foreseeable harm standard,” which lawmakers intended, in part, to curtail the use of the deliberative process privilege.

Read more here.

FOIA News: FBI to resume limited FOIA operations on April 29

The Department of Justice has informed the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that the FBI’s FOIA staff, known as the Records/Information Dissemination Section (RIDS), will resume limited operations on April 29. RIDS personnel will be divided into three teams and only one team will be allowed to work on any given day, according to DOJ’s court filing (available in part on Twitter here).

FOIA News: Navy officially releases UFO videos

The Navy Has Officially Released the UFO Videos

We were never supposed to see them.

By Andrew Daniels. Popular Mechanics, Apr. 27, 2020

• The U.S. Navy has officially published three famous UFO videos, wich leaked several years ago.

• In 2019, the Navy confirmed the legitimacy of those videos—which show bizarre encounters between Navy fighter pilots and “unexplained aerial phenomena,” but said they were never intended for public release.

• Popular Mechanics interviewed several Navy pilots who said they saw a longer, better video of the encounter than the one released to the public.

The U.S. Navy has officially published three videos that show UFOs are genuine, several years after the notorious clips first leaked online and properly ushered in the UFO renaissance. Last year, the Navy confirmed the three videos, taken by Navy pilots, indeed show “unexplained aerial phenomena,” but the service also said the footage should have never been released to the public in the first place.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Government FOIA jobs available

• Dep’t of the Navy, Gov’t Info. Specialist (GS-11), Washington, DC, closes 4/27/2020

• Dep’t of the Treasury, Att'y-Advisor (GS-15), Washington, DC, closes 4/27/2020

• Citizenship & Immigration Serv., Gov’t Info. Specialist (GS-07-09), Missouri, closes 4/29/2020

• Dep’t of the Air Force, Gov’t Info. Specialist (NH-3), Utah, closes 4/29/2020

• Occupational Safety & Health Admin., Gov’t Info. Specialist (GS-09), Multiple locations, closes 4/30/2020

• Sec’y of Defense, Gov’t Info. Specialist (GS-13), Virginia, closes 5/4/2020

• Fed. Aviation Admin., Gov’t Info. Specialist (FV-1), Washington, DC, closes 5/11/2020

FOIA News: HUD settles FOIA case re: White House bible study

FFRF, CREW settle lawsuit over HUD open records denial

Press Release, Freedom From Religion Found., Apr. 23, 2020

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is pleased to announce that it has successfully settled a federal lawsuit today over the denial of its Freedom of Information Act request by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

FFRF, a national state/church watchdog, teamed up with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a governmental watchdog, after HUD Secretary Ben Carson dodged records requests related to the White House bible study.

Read more here.