FOIA News: Gizmodo Reporter Obtains White House Photos from 1990 Hunt for Red October Screening

The White House Screening of The Hunt For Red October Had Celebrities, Spies and (Maybe) a Sex Scandal

By Matt Novak, Gizmodo, Apr. 26, 2016

President George H. W. Bush hosted a star-studded screening of The Hunt for Red October at the White House on February 19, 1990. The guests included everyone from Tom Clancy and James Earl Jones to the CEO of Paramount and Colin Powell. Robert Gates was there, as was the director of the CIA, and men from the highest ranks of the Navy. But there are some guests who still remain a secret, even to this day.

I obtained photos of the movie screening through a Freedom of Information request to the George Bush Presidential Library. And the photos that have been withheld are nearly as interesting as the photos I got.

It’s sort of a surreal event to imagine, in retrospect. The Hunt for Red October, based on Tom Clancy’s 1984 book of the same name, is notable for being the last American film produced about the Cold War during the Cold War. And this gathering of Hollywood elites and the National Security establishment could almost be seen as both a victory lap for the Cold War and a pre-game meeting for the first Gulf War.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Pentagon's frequent requester revealed

DoD's FOIA 'spammer' steps forward

By Fred Donovan, FierceGovernmentIT, Apr. 26, 2016

Following a Department of Defense report decrying a heavy volume of Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, requests from a single individual, that requester has stepped forward.

Nick Turse, a contributing writer for The Intercept, wrote in an April 20 piece that he's the requester who has filed 415 in the past two years and 308 so far this year.

At least Turse thinks it's him – he got support for his claim from another frequent filer.  But Turse wrote that when he tried to ask DoD's chief FOIA officer, Peter Levine, the official behind the "Chief Freedom of Information Act Officer Report to the Department of Justice" that laments the heavy filing volume, he was bounced around, unable to get anyone to respond.

The report, which cost DoD $41,449 to produce, largely lauded the department's openness efforts, but it said that heavy volume from one requester is a burden because the person tries "to monopolize the system by filing a large number of requests or submitting disparate requests in groups which require a great deal of administrative time to adjudicate."

Turse takes issue with that accusation, stating that Levine has never asked him why he files so many requests.

Read more here.  

FOIA News: Congressional Research Service compares FOIA bills

On April 21, 2016, the Congressional Research Service issued a report that provides a side-by-side comparison of the FOIA bills passed by the Senate and the House.  The report also "provides context related to bill amendments and language additions that occurred between bill versions, when applicable.  Finally, the report provides analysis of certain provisions of the bills." 

Court opinions issued Apr. 21-22, 2016

April 22, 2016

Behrens v. U.S. Attorney (D.D.C.) -- ruling that the government's search was inadequate because the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys failed to search plaintiff's criminal case file for a court order issued in related civil case involving plaintiff and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

April 21, 2016

Am. Civil Liberties Union v. DOJ (D.C. Cir.) (unpublished opinion) -- affirming lower court's decision that the CIA properly relied upon Exemption 1 to withhold records related to the United States’ use of armed drones to conduct “targeted killings.”

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

FOIA News: Update on FOIA reform legislation

FOIA Reform Appears Close, But Not a Done Deal

By Charles S. Clark, Government Executive, Apr. 22, 2016

Bipartisan bills aimed at strengthening the openness requirements of the Freedom of Information Act are heading into House-Senate negotiations, but not without exposing some long-standing trepidation inside the Obama administration.

Though White House spokesman Josh Earnest has said the president would sign the Senate version of the bill passed last month, the measure the House passed in January has some stricter requirements that need to be negotiated. Nothing is guaranteed: In the past Congress, FOIA reform bills also cleared both chambers, but then-Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, declined a floor vote.

In addition, a coalition of 47 transparency advocacy nonprofits last month wrote a letter to the White House expressing displeasure with some Justice Department objections to the earlier bills, which only recently came to light under—of all things—a FOIA request.

The goal of the legislation is to require agencies to operate under a “presumption of openness” when considering the release of government information under FOIA and curb “overuse of exemptions to withhold information from the public,” according to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a longtime advocate. The bills would enhance the ability of the Office of Government Information Services—run out of the National Archives and Records Administration—to help mediate FOIA disputes. 

Read more here.

FOIA News: MuckRock identifies FOIA's environmentally unfriendly agencies

FOIA's worst environmental offenders
Our Earth Day round-up of the most wasteful agencies in public records

By JPat Brown, MuckRock, Apr. 22, 2016

As I am happy to tell anyone who will listen, and several more who won't, envelopes are the worst part of working at MuckRock. They say nothing that couldn't have been said in email, they're infuriatingly time consuming to scan and process, and you have to take them seriously in case somebody snuck a “respond to this in five days or we'll close your request immediately” letter in something post-marked six days ago. They exist soley to contribute as little as possible and then be cataloged. They are the quantum particles of pointless bureaucracy.

They're also a huge waste – in an age where we are routinely asked to not print things if we can help it, government agencies see nothing wrong with single-siding off a few thousand “yeah, still working on it” letters and cramming them in a mailbox at fifty sense of postage a piece.

So, in the spirit of Earth Day, we decided to fight back - we ran through the stats to identify FOIA's worst wastrels, and now we're ready to engage in a healthy bit of envelope shaming. System's simple - we checked out which agencies had sent us the most mailed communications (MCs), and that ran that against the number of total requests we've received.

Read more here. 

Court opinion issued April 20, 2016

Schotz v. U.S. Dep't of Justice (D.D.C.) -- finding that the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys performed adequate searches in response to inmate's ten requests; further finding that BOP properly redacted certain telephone numbers pursuant to Exemption 7(C).  

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

FOIA News: OGE to provide tips on releasability of ethics documents

On April 21, 2016, the U.S. Office of Government Ethics will broadcast a training session on three laws that govern the release of ethics documents: the Freedom of Information Act, the Ethics in Government Act, and the Privacy Act. Watch the live stream here at noon.  

Court opinion issued April 18, 2016

Harvey v. Lynch (D.D.C.) -- denying plaintiff an award of costs after determining that his lawsuit was not the catalyst for the release of records by the Federal Bureau of Prisons; rather, the court found that BOP initiated its search shortly after receiving the request and that its delayed response was due to limited resources and the agency's first-in/first out policy for processing requests.  

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

FOIA News: Recap of FOIA Advisory Committee meeting

Government only as transparent as its technology, advocates say

By Bianca Spinosa, FCW, Apr. 19, 2016

The National Archives and Records Administration's Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee met in Washington on April 19, and called for several reforms to ensure the FOIA process better serves the public interest.

Committee members voted to ask the Office of Management and Budget to update its fee guidelines for FOIA requests, last changed in 1986. They also passed several motions aimed at bringing FOIA processes into the 21st century, including allowing agencies to release requested documents via email and recognizing online media as media sources.

The committee also hosted Margaret Kwoka, an assistant professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, who shared her research on the commercial use of FOIA at six federal agencies. In a paper titled  "FOIA, Inc.," Kwoka argued that corporations have overrun FOIA processes at some agencies, clogging the system and "crowding out" journalists and other government watchdogs. Her report urges agencies to affirmatively disclose records that are routinely requested through FOIA.

Kwoka's research seemed to resonate with the committee, which was established in 2013 as part of the United States' second Open Government National Action Plan.  "It really changed my mindset," committee chair James Holzer said of the study.

Committee member Clay Johnson, a former Presidential Innovation Fellow and founder of the Department of Better Technology, also applauded Kwoka's critiques, and said dated technology is at least partly to blame for FOIA's shortcomings.

"I came to the conclusion that government can only be as transparent as its technology vendors will allow for it to be," he said.

Read more here.