FOIA News: DOJ-OIP Releases Summary of FY2018 Chief FOIA Officer Reports

Summary and Assessment of Agency 2018 Chief FOIA Officer Reports Issued

Dep't of Justice, Office of Info. Pol'y, July 19, 2018

Today OIP released the summary and assessment of agencies’ 2018 Chief FOIA Officer Reports.  The Chief FOIA Officer Reports, which detail the steps their agencies have taken to embrace the Department of Justice's FOIA Guidelines, serve as a valuable resource for agencies to describe the various initiatives undertaken to improve their administration of the FOIA. This past March marked the ninth year that agency Chief FOIA Officers submitted these reports to the Department of Justice.

OIP’s summary is broken down into five parts detailing the efforts of agencies in each of the five key areas addressed in the Department's FOIA Guidelines:

• Applying the Presumption of Openness,
• Having Effective Systems for Responding to Requests,
• Making Information Available Proactively,
• Utilizing Technology, and
• Reducing Backlogs and Improving Timeliness.

Agencies and the public are encouraged to read both OIP’s summary and each agency’s individual report to learn more about the various efforts and steps taken over the last reporting year to improve the administration of the FOIA across the government.

Read more here.

FOIA News: News organization argues FOIA case before 11th Circuit

News Org. Asks 11th Circ. To Revive FOIA Suit For 9/11 Docs

Carolina Bolado, Law360, July 19, 2018

A Florida news organization urged the Eleventh Circuit on Thursday to revive its bid for access to documents related to potential Saudi involvement in the 9/11 attacks, arguing there is evidence the FBI’s response to the records request was not done in good faith.

In oral arguments in Miami, Thomas Julin of Gunster, who argued on behalf of independent news outlet Florida Bulldog and its founder and editor Dan Christensen, asked for the appeals court to reverse a summary judgment order based on vague assertions from the FBI about where and how it had looked for records responsive to Christensen’s Freedom of Information Act request.

Read more here (subscription required).

Court opinions issued July 18, 2018

Wild Horse Freedom Fed'n v. U.S. Dep't of the Interior (D.D.C.) -- ruling that: (1) Bureau of Land Management failed to perform adequate search for various records pertaining to Wild Horse and Burro Program; (2)  agency properly withheld certain (but not all) information from one exhibit pursuant to Exemption 5, and that redactions on second exhibit could not be reviewed until agency provided court with clean copy.

W. Values Project v. U.S. Dep't of Justice (D.D.C.) -- holding that government improperly issued Glomar response based on Exemption 5 for request pertaining to Office of Legal Counsel opinions, and that it performed reasonable search for remaining requested records.

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

Court opinions issued July 17, 2018

Judicial Watch v. DHS (D.C. Cir.) -- in a 2-1 decision, reversing district court's decision that plaintiff's complaint failed to adequately allege “policy or practice” claim against Secret Service based on history of delayed responses.  

Trautman v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- determining that National Archives & Records Administration failed to adequately describe search of three agency offices for records pertaining to investigation of former Archivist Archivist of the United States, Allen Weinstein.

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

FOIA News: OGIS issues guidance on agency-requester communications

Today the Office of Government Informations Services issued guidance -- inexplicably referred to as an "Advisory Opinion" -- concerning agency communications with requesters.  In sum, OGIS recommends that agencies  provide, at a minimum, a contact name along with email and mailing addresses, and telephone and fax numbers of the agency; include information regarding the FOIA Public Liaison’s duties; and clearly state that contacting the FOIA Public Liaison or OGIS does not stop the 90-day appeal clock.

Last month, DOJ issued guidance to agencies on the importance of providing "quality requester services."

FOIA News: Another E-Discovery Tool Marketed as FOIA Solution

Could New Software Speed Up FOIA Responses?

Charles S. Clark, Gov't Exec., July 17, 2018

Attorneys have long been using what are called e-Discovery tools to organize documents gathered as evidence.

But now, according to one San Francisco-based software marketer, federal agencies could exploit such electronic tools to accelerate their responses to Freedom of Information Act requests.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Group seeks expedited review of Kavanaugh docs

Activists Want to See SCOTUS Nominee Brett Kavanaugh's Documents—Now

Transparency advocates on Monday asked a federal court in Washington to expedite release of thousands of documents related to U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s previous government positions.

By Tony Mauro, Nat'l L.J., July 16, 2018 

Transparency advocates on Monday asked a federal court in Washington to expedite release of thousands of documents related to U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s previous government positions, material that otherwise might not be made public for years or decades.

Fix the Court, aided by American Oversight, sought injunctions against the National Archives and Records Administration and the Department of Justice. It argued the agencies’ failure to respond adequately to previous Freedom of Information Act requests will deprive the public of “information essential to ensure that Judge Kavanaugh’s appointment receives rigorous, informed debate—in the Senate and among the general public—appropriate for a critical post in a representative democracy.”

Read more here.

FOIA News: EPA's politicized FOIA review was established under Obama, says top agency official

EPA OFFICIAL EXPLAINS TO ELIJAH CUMMINGS THAT FOIA POLICIES HE CALLED ‘TROUBLING’ WERE PUT IN PLACE UNDER OBAMA

Michael Bastasch, Daily Caller, July 16, 2018

Environmental protection Agency (EPA) policies put in place that a top House Democrat railed against were actually put in place under the Obama administration, according to the agency’s top ethics official.

EPA attorney and designated ethics official Kevin Minoli told Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings the processes he called “particularly troubling” were first implemented under the Obama administration.

In a letter to Cummings, Minoli wrote that former Acting EPA Administrator Bob Perciasepe asked him to create the FEAT system in 2013 because the agency “was routinely the subject of litigation, public criticism, and Congressional oversight.”

Read more here.

FOIA News: EPA responds to House Oversight about FOIA procedures

Second 'minibus' pulls in

Kelsey Tamborrino, Politico/Morning Energy, July 16, 2018

EPA ETHICS OFFICIAL DEFENDS FOIA PROCESS: Kevin Minoli, EPA's principal deputy general counsel, replied last night to the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, who on Friday pressed for a subpoena over the agency’s handling of FOIA requests. In his letter, Minoli offers to brief Congress on the agency’s FOIA Expert Assistance Team that was created in 2013 to “make the FOIA process at EPA better.”

Read more here (subscription required to access internal links)

FOIA News: Government FOIA jobs available

• Manager, Freedom of Information Act, Bd. of Governors Fed. Reserve Sys., Washington D.C.  
• FOIA Program Manager, Nat'l Archives & Records Admin., College Park, MD 
• Attorney-Advisor, Envtl. Prot. Agency, Washington, D.C.
• Gov't Information Specialist, Equal Employment Opportunity Comm'n, Dallas, TX
• Gov't Information Specialist, Equal Employment Opportunity Comm'n, Memphis, TN
• Gov't Information Specialist, Equal Employment Opportunity Comm'n, Saint Louis County, MO
• Gov't Information Specialist, Dep't of the Air Force, Peterson AFB, CO