FOIA News: Media opposes delay of PPP loan disclosure

News Orgs Rip Feds' Bid To Pause COVID-19 Relief Disclosure

By Khorri Atkinson, Law360, Nov. 17, 2020

Several news outlets fired back Monday at the Trump administration's bid to pause a recent D.C. federal court order to disclose records that would ​identify and provide information on all businesses that have received COVID-19 relief funds, arguing that the data is vital to the public's evaluation of the government's response to the pandemic.

Five major news organizations, including the New York Times, the Washington Post and Bloomberg, that secured a win earlier this month in their Freedom of Information Act suit for access to the records told U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg in an opposition brief that the U.S. Small Business Administration must not be allowed to delay its disclosure obligations further by requesting a stay of his Nov. 5 order pending possible appeal to the D.C. Circuit.

Read more here.

FOIA News: OGIS Releases FOIA Advisory Committee Recommendations Dashboard

OGIS Releases FOIA Advisory Committee Recommendations Dashboard

Nat'l Archives & Records Admin., The FOIA Ombudsman, Nov. 17, 2020

Ever wonder what happens to all the recommendations made by the FOIA Advisory Committee? Thanks to OGIS’s new dashboard tool, you can check on their status yourself!

Thirty FOIA Advisory Committee recommendations for improving FOIA administration across the government can now be tracked in one place: a recommendations dashboard on the OGIS website. The dashboard provides descriptions of each recommendation, actions taken to fulfill each, and links to reports, correspondence and other related material. We plan to update the dashboard at least quarterly. 

Read more here.

FOIA News: SBA tells court that it may appeal decision on PPP loan data

SBA seeks to delay release of loan records following court order

The agency asked for more time to consider whether it should appeal. It could further delay public access to data on 87 percent of Paycheck Protection Program loans.

By Nate Jones & Aaron Gregg, Wash. Post, Nov. 17, 2020

The Small Business Administration has asked a federal judge to delay release of records involving millions of small businesses that received Paycheck Protection Program loans, arguing that publicizing those records would do “irreparable harm” to millions of businesses by exposing allegedly confidential information.

A federal judge ruled Nov. 5 that the SBA must release borrower and loan information about the federal Paycheck Protection Program by Nov. 19. The Washington Post and 10 other news organizations prevailed in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to win the information’s release. But in a Nov. 12 court filing, the agency said it needed more time to determine whether it should appeal.

Read more here.

Q&A: Par for the course?

Q. Can I use FOIA to obtain Foreign Service Institute School of Professional and Area Studies curriculum and syllabi? I do not think this information is classified, but rather “For Official Use Only.”

A. The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) is a component of the Department of State. Thus, FSI records are subject to FOIA requests. Whether the content of those records can be released in full or in part, however, is not something that I can accurately predict. I have not found a federal court opinion in which access to FSI course material was disputed. Note that you would not be the first person to make such a request. Here is a request that was filed about three weeks ago:

Q. As this is my first FOIA request, what is a typical window for expecting a response? Further, will I receive a response from the State Department no matter what, even if it’s to say my request cannot be filled?

A. The State Department is notoriously slow in responding to FOIA requests. In fiscal year 2019, the Department took an average of 119 days to complete "simple" requests and an average of 307 days to complete "complex" requests. And the pandemic has worsened the Department's response times. The Department should first send you an "acknowledgment" letter and assign a reference number to your request. That is supposed to occur within 10 business days, but in my experience it's likely to take one month or more. Even if all of the records you requested are exempt, the Department will (eventually) issue a substantive response identifying the FOIA exemptions and notifying you of your appeal rights.

Court opinion issued Nov. 12, 2020

Am. Civil Liberties Union v. Dep’t of Def. (S.D.N.Y.) - on renewed summary judgment, and following in camera review ordered earlier this year, ruling that defendant agencies properly withheld certain military orders; there was no official acknowledgment because the records at issue were “clearly more specific than any information previously disclosed by the Government.”

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

FOIA News: Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission to Update FOIA Regulations

SUMMARY:

The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) is amending its regulations implementing the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The amendments to the FOIA regulations concern minor issues that have arisen since the regulations were last revised in 2016.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Recap of artificial intelligence meeting

OIP HOSTS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE EVENT FEATURING CFO COUNCIL TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE WORKING GROUP

DOJ/OIP, FOIA Post, Nov. 10, 2020

More than 400 federal government employees and contractors attended a presentation featuring the Chief FOIA Officers (CFO) Council Technology Committee working group on artificial intelligence (AI), held virtually on November 5, 2020.  The event, "Artificial Intelligence 101," provided agency Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) professionals a primer on different types of AI and AI-adjacent technologies, key terms, and possible applications to the FOIA process.  It also allowed attendees to share information regarding currently-utilized technologies with each other.

Read more here.

FOIA News: FOIAonline to be offline for maintenance

The government’s FOIA website FOIAonline will be offline for planned maintenance from 6:00 AM on November 11, 2020 through 6:00 PM November 15, 2020.

FOIA News: VHA claims 50 percent backlog reduction

VHA cuts FOIA backlog in half, thanks to telework infrastructure

By Jory Heckman, Fed. News Network, Nov. 10, 2020

Agency Freedom of Information Act professionals, like much of the federal workforce, have spent much of this year rethinking the way they do their jobs under mandatory telework.

The Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy, back in May, encouraged agency FOIA offices to seek out IT workarounds to keep running, “even at a diminished pace,” during the pandemic.

Six months after that memo, Michael Sarich, FOIA director for the Veterans Health Administration, said the agency had an “incredible year” and cut its case backlog by more than half. The goal of processing 600 cases in its backlog, he said, helped unify staff around a goal during a challenging time for the federal workforce.

Read more here.

Court opinion issued Nov. 9. 2020

Swick v. Dep’t of the Army (D.D.C.) -- on renewed summary judgment, ruling that Army performed adequate search for plaintiff’s psychiatric evaluation but not for her personnel file, which Army averred was maintained by the National Personnel Records Center.

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