FOIA News: More 2017 annual reports released

Department of the Interior

Department of Labor

Broadcasting Board of Governors

Consumer Product Safety Commission

U.S. International Trade Commission

Overseas Private Investment Corporation

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Amtrak

National Transportation Safety Board

Office of Government Ethics

Court opinions issued Jan. 31, 2018

Huntington v. U.S. Dep't of Commerce (D.D.C.) -- concluding after three rounds of litigation that U.S. Patent & Trade Office performed reasonable search for records concerning its Sensitive Application Warning System.  

Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- finding that: (1) government did not show that it conducted adequate search for records concerning Secure Communities program and Priority Enforcement Program; (2) government failed to establish that it properly withheld draft statistical reports pursuant to deliberative process privilege. 

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

FOIA News: EPA sued for FOIA policy documents

The Energy 202: Sierra Club sues EPA over FOIA request on FOIA requests

By Dino Grandoni, Wash. Post,  Feb. 2, 2018

The Environmental Protection Agency has seen an uptick in requests for emails, memos, calendars, and other public records related to work by top officials aiming to strip President Obama's environmental legacy.

Amid the deluge, one of the many environmental groups opposed to that regulatory rollback has accused the EPA of ignoring a request for information.

Late Thursday, the Sierra Club sued the EPA for not responding quickly enough to a request filed in October under the Freedom of Information Act.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California near the organization’s Oakland, Calif., headquarters, accused the agency of “failing to produce requested agency records” regarding changes to the agency’s FOIA policies made under EPA chief Scott Pruitt.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Op-ed - Why Fannie May and Freddie Mac should be subject to FOIA

Why Fannie May and Freddie Mac Should be Subject to FOIA, and How it Could Happen

Rob Bryson & Maryam Karimi, San Diego Free Press, Feb. 1, 2018

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), enacted in 1967, provides the public, individuals, and corporations, the presumptive right to access and obtain records from any federal government body unless such records meet one of the nine exemptions or is protected under special law enforcement record exclusion.

On April 27, 2017, the House unanimously passed H.R. 1694, the Fannie and Freddie Open Records Act of 2017. H.R. 1694 would make the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) subject to FOIA. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are government-sponsored enterprises and are the two largest corporations that back home mortgages and student loans. Fannie Mae was established in 1938 by amendments to the National Housing Act. Freddie Mac was established in 1970 by the Emergency Homes Finance Act of 1970.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Cohen Milstein Hits SEC With FOIA Suit Tied To KPMG Probe

Cohen Milstein Hits SEC With FOIA Suit Tied To KPMG Probe

By Dunstan Prial, Law360, Feb. 1, 2018

Law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC on Wednesday filed a Freedom of Information Act suit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in federal court in Washington, D.C., claiming the agency has “improperly” withheld documents related to an investigation into whether accounting firm KPMG allowed an energy company to cook its books.

Read more here (subscription). 

FOIA news: FOIA Atty Loses DC Circ. Bid For More Info On FBI Probe

FOIA Atty Loses DC Circ. Bid For More Info On FBI Probe

By Emma Cueto, Law360, Feb. 1, 2018

The D.C. Court of Appeals declined on Wednesday to revive an attorney’s Freedom of Information Act suit against the FBI, upholding a lower court ruling that the bureau had complied with his request for information about its investigation into classified intelligence he received in two underlying suits.

Read more here (subscription).

FOIA News: EPA transferring FOIA to General Counsel's office

EPA moving FOIA division into general counsel's office

InsideEPA.com, Jan. 31, 2018

EPA is moving its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) division into the agency's Office of General Counsel (OGC) a move that General Counsel Matt Leopold says will help the agency comply with deadlines under FOIA and reduce a backlog of information requests. “As you many know, the FOIA office is going to be coming over to OGC,” Leopold told senior agency staff during a Jan. 30 discussion at an EPA National Executive Leadership Development Conference in Washington, D.C. 

Read more here (subscription required)

FOIA News: OGIS Releases FOIA Compliance Self-Assessment Data

OGIS Releases FOIA Compliance Self-Assessment Survey Results

Nat'l Archives & Records Admin., The FOIA Ombudsman, Jan. 31, 2018

We are excited to announce the release of our analysis and observations of FOIA compliance issues based on the responses to FOIA questions included in the 2017 Records Management Self-Assessment (RMSA). The RMSA is a sophisticated agency self-assessment program developed and managed by the National Archives and Records Administration Office of the Chief Records Officer (CRO). Our partnership with the CRO on the RMSA has allowed OGIS to leverage over eight years of experience with conducting agency self-assessments and provided OGIS with the opportunity, for the first time since our doors opened in 2009, to gather comprehensive data about FOIA operations from almost every agency that is subject to FOIA.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Immigration-Restriction Group Files FOIA Lawsuit For Yates's Email

Immigration-Restriction Group's FOIA Suit Seeks Yates' Emails

Steven Trader, Law360, Jan. 31, 2018

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that advocates for reduced immigration, filed a lawsuit Wednesday over access to former acting Attorney General Sally Yates’ emails, specifically ones referencing President Donald Trump, his travel ban or emails she may have exchanged with the American Civil Liberties Union and National Immigration Law Center.

Read more here (subscription required).

FOIA News: DHS releases annual report for FY 2017

The Department of Homeland Security, which receives the largest number of FOIA requests in the federal government, has published its annual FOIA report for fiscal year 2017.   Here are some top line numbers:

Requests received:  366,036   (12% increase from FY 2016)

Requests processed:  367,546  (18% increase from FY 2016)

Backlogged requests:  44,117   (6% decrease from FY 2016)

Appeals received:  5,386

Appeal processed:   5,346

Backlogged appeals: 172

Litigations costs:  $3.37 million

Total costs:  $56.66 million