FOIA News: Nat' l Endowment for Arts reopens proposed FOIA regs

The National Endowment for the Arts and the Humanities has reissued a proposed rule for amending its FOIA regulations, which initially was proposed on June 9, 2017. NEA further amended its proposed amendments in response to public comments. A new comment period will be open through December 6, 2018.

FOIA News: Businesses are weaponizing requests

Industries Turn Freedom of Information Requests on Their Critics

By Elizabeth Williamson, NY Times, Nov. 5, 2018

Dennis J. Ventry Jr., a law professor at the University of California, Davis, drew the ire of tax preparation companies like Intuit and H&R Block this summer by criticizing a deal they have to provide a free tax filing service through the Internal Revenue Service.

The companies promptly hit back with a tactic that corporations, lobbyists and interest groups are increasingly using against academic researchers: Their trade coalition filed a public records request with the university in July seeking everything Mr. Ventry had written or said about the companies this year, including emails, text messages, voice mail messages and hand-jotted notes.

Read more here.

Court opinion issued Nov. 2, 2018

Roseberry-Andrews v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- granting agency’s renewed summary judgment after finding that agency’s supplemental declaration demonstrated adequacy of search for plaintiff’s employment records and that agency had segregated and released all non-exempt material.

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

Court opinion issued Nov. 1, 2018

Baker v. CFPB (D.D.C.) --denying plaintiff’s motion for preliminary injunction seeking production of as many as 630,000 pages of responsive records about Zillow Group, because plaintiff failed to show that he has a likelihood of success on the merits, that he will face irreparable harm, or that the balance of the hardships and the public interest weigh in plaintiff’s favor.

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

FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee to meet Nov. 29

The National Archives and Records Administration has announced that its FOIA Advisory Committee will convene on November 29, 2018, from 10am to 1pm, in Washington, D.C. The meeting is open to the public with advanced registration, and it will be live-streamed on the National Archives’ YouTube channel at https:// www.youtube.com/user/ usnationalarchives.

FOIA News: Docs shed light on NARA’s role in release of Spanberger’s personnel file

The National Archives Passes the Buck on Spanberger

By Scott R. Anderson & Benjamin Wittes, Lawfare, Nov. 1, 2018

Late on Friday, we received the first set of responsive documents to our “meta-FOIA request” regarding the release of congressional candidate—and former postal inspector and CIA officer—Abigail Spanberger’s unredacted SF-86 form. It came from the National Archives and Records Administration, whose National Personnel Records Center is reported to have initially received the FOIA request from the conservative group America Rising. The personnel records center then claims to have forwarded Spanberger’s personnel record, including her SF-86, to her former employer, the U.S. Postal Service, for processing. USPS then made what it claims was a mistake in releasing the SF-86 form to America Rising unredacted.

Read more here.

[Note: The author of this post submitted America Rising’s FOIA request to NARA]

Court opinion issued Oct. 30, 2018

Beard v. U.S. Army Corps of Eng'rs (E.D. La.) -- summarily ruling after in camera review of disputed documents that agency properly withheld records pursuant to deliberative process and attorney-client privileges.

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

FOIA News: Office of Science & Technology to amend FOIA regs

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has proposed amendments to its FOIA regulations, principally to incorporate the changes mandated by the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016. Comments are due by November 30, 2018.

FOIA News: Government employees may see FOIA work as "punishment"

Why a FOIA workforce shortage? Employees may see work as ‘punishment’

Jory Heckman, Fed. News Network, Oct. 30, 2018

Agencies receive more Freedom of Information Act requests now than ever before. But their workforces haven’t kept up with the growing demand.

“This is particularly challenging the federal government , especially lately where there has been a perception that the FOIA is where employees are assigned as a form of punishment,” Alina Semo, the director of the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) said last week at a forum on records management at the National Archives and Records Administration.

Last year, the government received more than 800,000 FOIA requests, but agencies only have about 4,500 FOIA officers to handle that growing caseload.

Anecdotally, agency employees have viewed details to FOIA offices as a disciplinary measure. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reportedly reassigned employees to the agency’s FOIA office during his tenure. The agency has one of the higher FOIA backlogs in government.

Officials told news outlets that getting sent to work in the FOIA office was like getting sent “to Siberia.” Secretary Mike Pompeo stopped the so-called “FOIA surge” once he took over.

Read more here.

Q&A: Figuring out Social Security

Q. I am trying to find out a way I might be able to complete a FOIA request with the Social Security Administration for a deceased person’s records, besides the two standard options made available on SSA’s website for requesting a deceased individual's social security record. Also, Is there some way that I could request certified copies?

A. You can send a FOIA request to the Social Security Administration via the government website FOIAonline. Alternatively, you may mail a request to: Social Security Administration, Office of Privacy and Disclosure, 617 Altmeyer Building, 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21235. No special form is required. In either case, I would suggest submitting proof of the subject’s death (e.g., obituary, death certificate), or evidence that the deceased was born more than 100 years ago.

Neither the Freedom of Information Act nor SSA's FOIA regulations require the agency from certifying copies of responsive records.  But SSA may agree to provide that service. See  20 C.F.R.  § 402.165(e) (“Certifying that records are true copies. This service is not required by the FOIA. If we agree to provide it, we will charge $10 per certification.)