FOIA News: OGIS issues annual report for FY 2015

The Office of Government Information Services has released its annual report for fiscal year 2015.  The FOIA Ombudsman reported that it received nearly 1,200 requests for assistance, an increase of over 25 percent from the 2014 reporting period.  The report also includes updates on the agency's compliance program, its recommendations on how to improve the FOIA process, and its efforts to better engage its stakeholders.    

FOI News: Nat'l Archives seeks nominations for FOIA Advisory Committee

The National Archives and Records Administration is seeking nominations for membership to its Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee.  The submission deadline is April 30, 2016.  Additional details are available here.   

FOIA News: MuckRock's FOIA March Madness contest

Submit your picks for MuckRock’s FOIA March(es) Madness(es)

Give us your pick for most responsive federal agency and win up to 25 requests!

By Beryl Lipton, MuckRock, Mar. 21, 2016

Ladies, germs, sports fans of all experience levels:

The mid-March doldrums are here, and people everywhere are caught in the throes of Madness. Some of us mean basketball. Some mean (b)5 exemptions. And, yet, not everyone can settle on or in or even anywhere near the court. Which is why this year we’ve brought that unifying tried-and-true bracket bonanza of college ball to the friendly competition of FOIA requests, and we’d like to you to play.

For the next week - that’s from today, March 21 through next Monday, March 28 - we’ll be accepting your March(es) Madness(es) bracket picks. Then, for the next two months, we’ll be keeping track of responses and tallying points.

Then we’ll announce a winner.

And that winner will win 25 requests - a $100 value!

So, here’s how it stands:

Sixty-four agencies have been given a chance to compete in MuckRock’s FOIA March(es) Madness(es).

We’re asking for the same thing from each participating agency: the most current copy of the manual and guidelines used by their FOIA officers to process requests. According to the 5 U.S. Code § 552, “Public information; agency rules, opinions, orders, records, and proceedings,”

The agencies have been broken into four divisions and given affectionately vague division names.

• Admin It To Win It
• (Common) Good Sports
• The Protection (b)Racket
• Workers’ Comp(etition)

Read more here.

Court opinion issued Mar. 18, 2016

Sandy v. Exec. Office for U.S. Attorneys (D.D.C.) -- determining that agency conducted a reasonable search, albeit in vain, for certain personnel records of a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted plaintiff in Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

FOIA News: Nuclear Regulatory Comm'n to host FOIA meeting on Mar. 23, 2016

NRC to Hold Public Meeting March 23 in Rockville, Md., to Discuss FOIA Program

Press Release, U.S. NRC, Office of Public Affairs, NRC News, Mar. 7, 2016

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a meeting March 23 to provide the public an opportunity to comment on the agency’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) program. FOIA gives people the right to request government records. Staff will discuss efforts to improve how the NRC implements the program. Discussions will address transparency, consistency and technology used in the FOIA process.

The meeting will run from 1-3 p.m. in the NRC’s Two White Flint North auditorium at 11545 Rockville Pike in Rockville, Md. The meeting agenda includes presentations by NRC and the National Archives and Records Administration. There will also be specific opportunities for the public to ask questions, express concerns, and make suggestions for additional efficiencies and improvements to the FOIA program.

A telephone bridge line has been set up for those who cannot attend. Those interested should call 1-800-369-1849 and use passcode 1289807. For more information on the issues to be discussed, please contact the NRC’s Roger Andoh at 301-415-5906, or via e-mail at roger.andoh@nrc.gov.

FOIA News: Summary of agency annual FOIA reports

Beefed-Up FOIA Offices Trim Backlog of Requests Governmentwide

By Charles S. Clark, Government Executive, Mar. 18, 2016

As the annual Sunshine Week neared a close, the Justice Department released its governmentwide report on agency Freedom of Information Act responses, showing a record high number of requests processed. Those gains were made possible by more staff handling the requests at a higher cost.

The 100 agencies subject to FOIA transparency requirements received more than 713,168 requests in fiscal 2015 while processing “a record high number of nearly 770,000 requests,” said the annual report posted Thursday. “This strong effort led to a significant 35.6 percent reduction in the government’s overall request backlog of 102,828,” wrote Justice’s Office of Information Policy. The number of FOIA requests received represented a slight decrease of 1,063 from the record set in fiscal 2014.

During the 2015 fiscal year, some 4,122 full-time FOIA staff administered FOIA, an increase of 7 percent over the previous year. For the fifth year in a row, the Defense Department reported the highest number of full-time FOIA staff, though that number fell from 754 in 2014 to 724 currently.

The total estimated cost of all FOIA related activities across government during 2015 rose 4 percent over 2014 to $480,235,968, the report said. For the fifth year in a row, nearly 94 percent of the total cost was attributed to the processing of requests and appeals by agencies, with only 6 percent going to litigation.

For the seventh consecutive year, most document requests (281,138) were directed at the Homeland Security Department, followed by the departments of Justice, Defense, Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs, in that order. These five agencies draw 67 percent of all FOIA requests, the report said.

The five agencies that received the most requests also processed the most. The overall release rate of requested documents—statutory exemptions require agencies to withhold specified types of documents—was 91 percent.

Court opinions issued Mar. 17, 2016

Salmonson v. Internal Revenue Serv. Dep't of Treasury (M.D. Fla.) -- dismissing plaintiff's claim after determining that plaintiff failed to administratively appeal the agency's FOIA response; further ruling that plaintiff was not entitled to paper copies of records because he had previously accept a CD.   

Shapiro v. Cent. Intelligence Agency (D.D.C.) -- finding that plaintiff's request to the CIA concerning Nelson Mandela might have been unreasonably burdensome, but agency failed to provide the court with evidence of burden; further finding that National Security Agency's Glomar response was proper with respect to any requested information concerning Nelson Mandela as an intelligence target, but that agency was required to search for all other records that plaintiff sought.  

Electronic Frontier Foundation v. Nat'l Sec. Agency (N.D. Cal.) -- ruling that the NSA properly invoked Exemption 1, 3, and 5 (deliberative process privilege) to withhold a document pertaining to protocols and principles used by the government in deciding whether and when to disclose computer security flaws. 

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

FOIA News: FOIA lawsuit for Petraeus records

FOIA suit seeks records on Petraeus investigation

By Josh Gerstein, POLITICO, Mar. 18, 2016

A newly filed Freedom of Information Act lawsuit is demanding that the federal government fork over records from the investigations that led to former Central Intelligence Agency Director Gen. David Petraeus' guilty plea last year to a charge of mishandling classified information.

The suit, filed Friday in federal court in Washington by Daily Beast reporter Shane Harris and a pro-transparency organization, the James Madison Project, seeks information from three federal agencies — the Justice Department, the Defense Department and the CIA.

Petraeus pleaded guilty in February 2015 to a single misdemeanor count of mishandling classified information by retaining notebooks containing highly classified information at his home without permission and sharing some of those materials with his biographer and paramour, Paula Broadwell. She was an officer in the Army reserve but was not officially authorized to receive the classified materials.

A federal judge in North Carolina sentenced Petraeus to two years probation and a $100,000 fine.

Harris and the transparency group filed a series of FOIA requests last month seeking details on various inquiries the FBI, the CIA and the Pentagon pursued beginning in 2012 after a Florida woman, Jill Kelley, reported to the FBI that she had received messages from someone who appeared to be familiar with her movements as well as those of top military officers and Petraeus.

Read more here.

Court opinions issued Mar. 15, 2016

Platsky v. FDA (2nd Cir.) -- summarily affirming district court's decision that FDA conducted a reasonable search.  

Bustillo v. U.S. Dep't of of Justice (D.D.C.) -- granting summary judgment in favor of Federal Bureau of Prisons because the agency provided access to all records responsive to plaintiff's requests.  

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

FOIA News: Judicial Watch names Clinton aides to be deposed

Judicial Watch names Clinton Aides to be deposed

By Mark Tapscott, The Libertarian Republic, Mar. 16, 2016

Eight present and past Department of State officials linked to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s private email scandal will be deposed by Judicial Watch in the non-profit government watchdog’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit if the federal judge hearing the case agrees.

Judicial Watch attorneys told U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Emmet G. Sullivan Tuesday it wants to depose the following individuals and could complete the depositions within two months of beginning:

• Stephen D. Mull, executive secretary of the State Department from June, 2009, to October, 2012. Mull proposed Clinton use a State Department BlackBerry for email. Her identity would have been protected but the messages would have been subject to the FOIA.
• Lewis A. Lukens, executive director of the department’s executive secretariat from 2008 to 2011. Lukens suggested to Under Secretary of State for Management Patrick F. Kennedy and Clinton Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills that Clinton have a government computer to read messages sent to her clintonmail.com address.
• Patrick F. Kennedy preceded Clinton at the department, having served since 2007. He became Clinton’s primary adviser on technology and information services issues.
• Donald R. Reid, senior coordinator for security infrastructure in the department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, a position he has held since 2003. Judicial Watch believes Reid participated in discussions in 2009 about Clinton’s use of the Blackberry and other communications devices to conduct official government business.
• Cheryl Mills, chief of staff throughout Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.
• Huma Abedin, deputy chief of staff for the entirety of Clinton’s tenure. Abedin also had an email account on the Clinton server and accompanied Clinton whenever she was seen in public.
• Bryan Pagliano, Clinton’s IT guru from her unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign and the individual who kept the private server located at her New York residence operational while she was at the department.
• The eighth individual would be somebody designed by the department to provide information on the process by which FOIA requests are processed in the agency.

Clinton’s deposition “may be necessary” but would only occur with the judge’s approval and would be “based on information learned during discovery.”

Sullivan granted Judicial Watch’s motion for discovery Feb. 23, 2016, and he is expected to announce his decision on the deposition plan after April 15.

Judicial Watch’s original FOIA request was filed six years ago and unsuccessfully sought information and documents concerning Abedin’s employment status. The litigation was reopened when Clinton’s use of the private server and email address to conduct official business became known in March, 2015.

“This discovery will help Judicial Watch get all of the facts behind Hillary Clinton’s and the Obama State Department’s thwarting of FOIA so that the public can be sure that all of the emails from her illicit email system are reviewed and released to the public as the law requires,” said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton.