FOIA News: FOIA bill may clear Senate this week

FOIA reform nears Senate finish line

By Mario Trujillo, The Hill, 03/14/16

Legislation to give the public more access to government records could pass the Senate as soon as this week, according to supporters.

After a year of delay, a few holdout senators recently removed their opposition to a bill to update the Freedom of Information Act. Senate backers hope to approve it with unanimous consent during “sunshine week,” which started Monday and is dedicated to highlighting the need for government transparency.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), the bill’s lead sponsor, has been trying to get it approved since last March. At the time, he “hotlined” the bill, hoping to pass it by unanimous consent unless there was any objection.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a former U.S. attorney, put a long-term hold on the bill. But Sessions signaled Thursday he would remove his opposition after some of his changes were accepted by Cornyn’s office.

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) also removed a hold days ago.

“It is very bipartisan,” said Judiciary ChairmanChuck Grassley (R-Iowa), another bill sponsor.

Grassley's office said sponsors are hoping to move the bill this week. Cornyn told National Journal the same last week.

The bill is one of the few pieces of legislation that could make it to President Obama’s desk in a tight election-year schedule.

Read more here. 

FOIA News: DOJ releases FOIA video to celebrate Sunshine Week

U.S. Department of Justice, 50th Anniversary of the FOIA, YouTube,  Mar. 11, 2016

The Department of Justice celebrates Sunshine Week 2016 and the 50th Anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with a short video featuring the Acting Associate Attorney General, who is also the Department’s Chief FOIA Officer, and the Director of the Office of Information Policy. The video recaps the history of the FOIA throughout the past 50 years, including agencies' implementation of this important law and the many ways the law has benefited the public by ensuring an informed citizenry and an open government.

View video here.  

Fiscal Year 2015 FOIA Data Now Available

Check out the data from FOIA.gov

Here's the highlights from DOJ OIP:

OIP is currently in the process of compiling its Summary of Agency Annual FOIA Reports for FY 2015. However, from the data uploaded onto FOIA.gov we can already see that the government overall has achieved significant accomplishments this past year. For example:

• The government overall reported processing a record high 769,903 FOIA requests, which is an increase of 19% from FY 2014, and the first time agencies have reported processing numbers over 700,000 requests.
   
• As a result of these record high processing numbers, the government also reduced its backlog of pending FOIA requests by just over 35%.  
   
• Seventy-one agencies reported having a backlog of fewer than 100 requests, and 29 report have no backlog at all.
   
• This also marks the seventh year in a row where agencies released information in full or in part for more than 91% of the requests processed for a disclosure determination.   

FOIA News: The federal government no longer cares about disclosing public information

The federal government no longer cares about disclosing public information

By Justin Elliott, Washington Post, Mar. 13, 2016

Two years ago last month, I filed a public-records request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency as part of my reporting into the flawed response to Hurricane Sandy. Then, I waited.

The Freedom of Information Act requires a response within 20 business days, but agencies routinely blow that deadline. Eight months later, ProPublica and NPR published our investigation into the Sandy response, but it did not include any documents from FEMA. The agency had simply never gotten back to me.

Finally, this Feb. 10 — 492 business days past the law’s 20-day deadline — I got a curious phone call from FEMA. The agency was starting a “clean search” for the documents I asked for, because the original search “was not done properly.”

Why?

Read more here.

Court opinions issued Mar. 10 & 11, 2016

Mar. 11, 2016

Credico v. Dep't of Homeland Sec. (D.D.C.)

Wadhwa v. Sec'y, Dep't of Veterans Affairs (D.N.J.)

Mar. 10. 2016

Gonzalez-Lora v. U.S. Dep't of Justice (D.D.C.)

FOIA News: DOJ/OIP announces disclosure of FOIA data for FY 2015

FISCAL YEAR 2015 FOIA DATA NOW AVAILABLE

Department of Justice, Office of Information Policy, Mar. 11, 2016

OIP is pleased to announce that all 100 agencies subject to the FOIA have finalized their Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 Annual FOIA Reports and that the Department has uploaded all of the data from these reports onto FOIA.gov. 

Each year, federal departments and agencies are required by law to submit a report to the Attorney General detailing various statistics regarding their agency’s FOIA activities, such as the numbers of requests processed and received, and the time taken to process them. The data from all of these Annual FOIA Reports is then uploaded onto FOIA.gov, the Justice Department’s government-wide FOIA resource, so that the public can easily view it and compare FOIA data by agency and over time.

OIP is currently in the process of compiling its Summary of Agency Annual FOIA Reports for FY 2015. However, from the data uploaded onto FOIA.gov we can already see that the government overall has achieved significant accomplishments this past year. For example:

• The government overall reported processing a record high 769,903 FOIA requests, which is an increase of 19% from FY 2014, and the first time agencies have reported processing numbers over 700,000 requests.
   
• As a result of these record high processing numbers, the government also reduced its backlog of pending FOIA requests by just over 35%.  
   
• Seventy-one agencies reported having a backlog of fewer than 100 requests, and 29 report have no backlog at all.
   
• This also marks the seventh year in a row where agencies released information in full or in part for more than 91% of the requests processed for a disclosure determination.   

We encourage everyone to visit FOIA.gov to view each agency's data as well as government-wide FOIA statistics.

The Department looks forward to seeing all of the registered attendees at our Sunshine Week Kickoff Celebration on Monday, March 14th and at our FOIA IT Working Group meeting on Thursday, March 17th. Please continue reading FOIA Post for additional Sunshine Week 2016 announcements as well as for the release of the Department’s Summary of Agency Annual FOIA Reports in the coming weeks.

OGIS Blog on Sunshine Week Events

Federal agencies holding Sunshine Week events include: National Archives, Department of Justice, Department of Commerce, and U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Get all of the details here.

FOIA News: FOIA 'Reading Room' Case Heads for Do-Over

FOIA 'Reading Room' Case Heads for Do-Over

By Adam Klafeld, Courthouse News Service, Mar. 10, 2016

A watchdog group must try again if it wants to force the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel to share documents in a so-called "FOIA Reading Room," a federal judge ruled.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a Washington-based advocacy group, has been fighting for nearly three years to get the Justice Department to automatically subject its subagency's legal opinions to public scrutiny.

Currently, the public can use the Freedom of Information Act to force the department to release specific legal opinions upon request.

Hoping to streamline this process, the watchdog sued the department under the Administrative Procedure Act to make the Office of Legal Counsel set up an online "reading room" for all such documents.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta found that the case must be filed again under the FOIA statute in order to have any chance of succeeding.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Progress on FOIA reform bill

Sessions set to remove opposition to FOIA reform bill

By Mario Trujillo, The Hill, Mar. 10, 2016

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) signaled Thursday that he would remove his opposition to a bill to reform the government's open records laws after some of his changes were accepted. 

That could mean the bill to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act is free to move forward on the Senate floor. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the lead sponsor, previously told National Journal he was hoping to advance the bill in the next week. 

"So are we now OK with it?" Sessions asked one of his staffers during a brief interview with The Hill, after a staffer told him that some of his changes had been accepted. 

After the staffer signaled that the changes would allow him to support the bill, Sessions said with a smile, "OK."

Sessions, who had not been fully briefed on the deal, did not describe what changes he had been looking for. Cornyn's office did not respond to a request for comment. 

The Judiciary Committee approved the bill early last year, but it has not received a vote on the floor. A similar bill passed the House in January. 

Last March, Cornyn had attempted to move the bill on the floor through unanimous consent. But Sessions had put a hold on it, according to emails between his staffers and the Justice Department that were released Wednesday. The emails revealed the Justice Department strongly opposed similar legislation last Congress. 

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) also had a brief hold on the bill. But he dropped it days ago, according to an aide. One congressional source said those were the only two holds on the bill. 

Court opinions issued Mar. 4, 7, & 9, 2016

March 9, 2016

Ladeairous v. U.S. Dep't of Justice (D.D.C.) -- finding that it was reasonable for FBI to search for records concerning plaintiff by searching agency's main and cross-reference files by plaintiff's name and social security number.

Lowery v. Hart (E.D. Cal.) -- denying plaintiff's motion to set aside 1998 court decision concerning plaintiff's request for photographs of a experimental Piper Tomahawk aircraft, which plaintiff now alleges were deliberately hidden by an NTSB air safety investigator. 

Orlansky v. Dep't of Justice (D.D.C.) -- holding that Executive Office for United States.Attorneys properly invoked Exemption 5 to withhold records concerning the recusal of a U.S. Attorney from certain cases; further holding that EOUSA was not required to answer plaintiff's questions about why such recusal was necessary. 

March 7, 2016

Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Wash. v. U.S. Dep't of Justice (D.D.C.) -- dismissing suit to compel DOJ to publish the legal opinions of the Office of Legal Counsel pursuant to section 552(a)(2) of FOIA, because plaintiff brought its suit under the Administrative Procedure Act instead of FOIA.   

Am. Ass'n of Women v. U.S. Dep't of Justice (D.D.C.) -- ruling that the FBI properly withheld records pertaining to the subject matter of a Los Angeles Times article pursuant to Exemptions 1, 3 , 6, 7(A), 7(C), 7(D), and (7)(E).  The court further ruled that plaintiff failed to establish that the FBI had officially acknowledged or disclosed the requested records.

March 4, 2016

Competitive Enter. Inst. v. U.S. Envtl. Prot. Agency (D.D.C.) -- denying without prejudice EPA's motion for summary judgment because EPA failed to demonstrate that it timely responded to plaintiff's administrative appeal before plaintiff filed suit; ordering EPA to provide a technical and complete explanation of the technology used to process plaintiff's appeal, including an explanation of how EPA received plaintiff's appeal only four days after plaintiff emailed it.   

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.