FOIA News: FY 2016 FOIA Data Available

Fiscal Year 2016 FOIA Data Available Now at FOIA.gov

Dep't of Justice, Office of Info. Pol'y, Mar. 16, 2017

OIP is pleased to announce that all 115 agencies subject to the FOIA have finalized their Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Annual FOIA Reports and that the Justice 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.

Read more here.

FOIA News: FOIA Mapper - Who Uses FOIA?

Who Uses FOIA? - An Analysis of 229,000 Requests to 85 Government Agencies

Max Galka, FOIA Mapper, Mar. 13, 2017

When the Freedom of Information Act was enacted in 1966, it was envisioned as a tool for journalists to facilitate government oversight and accountability. Although the FOIA is still generally thought of in this way, inextricably linked to the news media’s role as government watchdog, this view bears little resemblance to the reality of how FOIA is used today.

Read more here.

Court opinions issued Mar. 13, 2017

Jett v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- concluding that: (1) FBI failed to prove that it performed adequate search for records within ELSUR indices; (2) plaintiff was entitled to limited discovery as to whether a search for records in CRS also constitutes search for records in ELSUR indices; and (3) FBI properly withheld certain records pursuant to Exemptions 7(C) and 7(E).

Comp. Enter. Inst. v. OSTP (D.D.C.) -- holding that agency was not required to search employee's non-official email account because employee complied with policy to forward all work-related email from such account to an official OSTP email account. 

Freedom of the Press Found. v. U.S. Dep't of Justice (N.D. Cal.) -- finding that: (1) FBI performed a reasonable search for records concerning issuance of national security letters ("NSLs") to obtain information about media; and (2) FBI properly withheld certain records pursuant to Exemptions 1, 3 (National Security Act of 1947). 5, and 7(E).  

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

FOIA News: OGIS releases its annual report

OGIS Releases its Fiscal Year 2016 Report

OGIS Blog, Mar. 15, 2017

In his welcoming remarks at Monday’s  Sunshine Week celebration at the National Archives (video), the Archivist of the United States noted the substantial effort our agency has put towards improving open government over the last few years, and noted that there is – of course – a lot of work left to do. Our newly-released Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Annual Report shows that OGIS agrees with that sentiment.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Majority of agencies have failed to update FOIA regs

Majority of Agencies Have Fallen Behind on Updating FOIA Rules

By Charles S. Clark, Government Executive, Mar. 14, 2017

This story has been updated with comment from the Justice Department's Office of Information Policy,   

Nine months after President Obama signed a major reform of the Freedom of Information Act, a new survey shows that only 38 of 99 agencies have updated their rules,  according to the private nonprofit National Security Archive.

This lapse could harm transparency, the group said in its 16th such survey since 2002, noting that the 2016 FOIA Improvement Act required agencies to update their internal FOIA regulations within 180 days—making the deadline last Dec. 27.

Read more here. 

FOIA News: FOIA March Madness

It's tip-off time for FOIA March Madness 2017

The battle for most responsive agency begins this Sunshine Week

Beryl Lipton, MuckRock, Mar. 14, 2017

Today’s the day.

They made it through the draft, out the door, onto the floor, through this painful metaphor, and now our FOIA March Madness 2017 requests are ready to be processed and represent their agencies for the position of MuckRock’s Most Responsive Agency.

We’ve asked 64 federal agencies for materials related to their appeal process. Each FOIA office has a process for dealing with Freedom of Information Act requests that the requester feels has been handled inappropriately - it took too long, the fee category was wrong, maybe they got a little liberal with those black boxes. We want to know what that process is and which appeals have made it through successfully.

Read more here.

FOIA News: MuckRock's guide to protests

MuckRock's guide to protests and FOIA

Grace Raih, MuckRock, Mar. 15, 2017

In a democracy, the power of the people comes from the ability to hold their government accountable. We’re launching a project to provide a comprehensive list of FOIA resources that will help you to prepare, participate and investigate protests.

Today, we’ll be looking at what to look out for during a protest.

Read more here.

FOIA News: FHFA amends FOIA regulations

The Federal Housing Finance Agency published an interim final rule to amend its FOIA regulations in today's issue of the Federal Register.  The changes are intended to comply with the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016, among other things.  The rule is effective March 15, 2017.  FHFA is accepting written comments until May 15, 2017.

FOIA News: OIP to help agencies help themselves

Agency FOIA offices to get self-help tool from DOJ

By Meredith Somers, Federal News Radio, Mar. 13, 2017 

The Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy is offering agencies a Freedom of Information Act toolkit, a resource for self-assessments that officials hope will improve government transparency after a record year of information requests.

OIP Director Melanie Pustay said the toolkit will be available later in 2017, and is part of DOJ’s overarching Open Government Plan to “move the ball forward” and help Justice components with their transparency and FOIA mission.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Transparency hearing postponed

The House Oversight Committee has postponed its scheduled March 15th hearing on “Legislative Proposals for Fostering Transparency.”  See notice here.   Witnesses have not been announced by the committee.  Earlier yesterday, however, Judicial Watch announced that its president, Tom Fitton, would be providing testimony.