FOIA News: NY Times, WaPo Sue Gov't For Info On Virus Relief Loans

NY Times, WaPo Sue Gov't For Info On Virus Relief Loans

By Hailey Konnath, Law360, May 12, 2020

Five major news outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and Bloomberg, slammed the U.S. Small Business Administration for purportedly illegally rebuffing public records requests regarding its Paycheck Protection Program, telling a D.C. federal court Tuesday the SBA has "no basis" to withhold the information sought.

Those publications, along with investigative nonprofit ProPublica and Wall Street Journal parent company Dow Jones, said in their complaint that they've all requested SBA records that would identify and provide basic information about businesses that have received public assistance from the agency during the COVID-19 pandemic. That public assistance includes both the agency's Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, per the suit.

Read more here (subscription).

FOIA News: NYT editorial board bemoans FOIA delays

No, Your FOIA Request Cannot Wait ‘Until This Emergency Is Over’

Ignoring Freedom of Information Act requests during the crisis damages democracy.

NY Times Ed. Bd., May 12, 2020

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Unfortunately, far too many agencies have also interpreted the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic and necessary shelter-in-place orders as a justification for either further delaying or failing entirely to respond to FOIA requests. But local and federal government agencies continue to operate, albeit under altered circumstances, and the delays degrade the public’s trust in elected officials.

Taxpayers have a right to know how and where their money is being spent in the efforts to buy ventilators, masks and other essential supplies — and whether agencies are being forthright about their efforts. While the work of government continues, citizens are losing a fundamental right to transparency. That’s a threat to good government and democracy.

Read more here.

FOIA News: D.D.C. restores access to court opinions

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has restored access to its database of court opinions, which was inaccessible over the weekend. Our website links to those opinions likewise have been restored.

FOIA News: DHS Privacy Office Joins Twitter

The DHS Privacy Office is now on Twitter! Follow us @DHS_PRIV for updates on DHS Privacy Office activities, publications, and events.

— DHS Privacy Office (@dhs_priv) May 8, 2020

Join us in welcoming the DHS Chief #FOIA and #Privacy Officer to Twitter. @dhs_priv

— FOIAPost (@FOIAPost) May 11, 2020

FOIA News: OGIS Announces Next FOIA Advisory Meeting

SUMMARY: We are announcing an upcoming Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Advisory Committee meeting in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act and the second United States Open Government National Action Plan. We are also providing an opportunity for the public to provide comments on the FOIA Advisory Committee’s final draft report to the Archivist of the United States.

DATES: The meeting will be on June 4, 2020, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. EDT. You must register by midnight EDT June 2, 2020, to attend the meeting. We will post the Federal Advisory Committee’s final draft report to the Archivist of the United States by May 18, 2020 and will accept public comments on the draft report through June 2, 2020.

Read more here.

FOIA News: D.D.C. court opinions unavailable

Please note that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia’s database of court opinions is currently inaccessible, presumably due to a technical malfunction. Accordingly, our links to D.D.C. FOIA decisions do not work. We regret the inconvenience. We will link future D.D.C. decisions to Fastcase until the court fixes its database.

FOIA News: Immigration association features the FOIA

The American Immigration Lawyers Association has added a FOIA page that compiles resources on how the statute can be used to obtain immigration records. The page also includes noteworthy FOIA requests filed by AILA and other organizations.

FOIA News: A profile of the Black Vault's John Greenewald

Inside the Black Vault

A FOIA obsessive’s UFO-filled empire

By Shaun Raviv, Columbia Journalism Rev., May 6, 2020

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For twenty-four years, Greenewald, now thirty-nine, has been the proprietor of the Black Vault, an archive that holds more than two million pages, all obtained by FOIA request. Each month, the site attracts at least three hundred thousand unique visitors, who together download about ten terabytes of documents. Recently, Greenewald began hosting a popular podcast, which he uses to drill deeper into the documents he obtains and to discuss them with experts on the topics they cover. He has also written two books and appeared on TV discussing the files he’s unearthed. 

Read more here.

FOIA News: OIP offers remote FOIA training

OIP NOW OFFERS VIRTUAL FOIA TRAINING FOR AGENCY FOIA PROFESSIONALS

Office of Info Policy, FOIA Post, May 5, 2020

Today, the Office of Information Policy (OIP) announced dates for our new virtual FOIA training during the month of May. OIP offers a number of training opportunities throughout the year for agency FOIA professionals and individuals with FOIA responsibilities.  Due to COVID-19 and maximum telework, OIP is pleased to offer virtual training sessions that will be taught in real-time by OIP instructors. 

Read more here.

FOIA News: Senators ask OIP about FOIA compliance during pandemic

U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy, Diane Feinstein, John Cornyn, and Charles Grassley sent a letter to the Office of Information Policy today that asks OIP to identify how agency FOIA operations have been impacted by the pandemic and what steps it has taken to protect the public’s right to access to information.

See related article here.