FOIA News: CRS publishes access to government information overview

On March 31, 2022, the Congressional Research Service released Access to Government Information: An Overview, which includes a discussion of the Freedom of Information Act.

FOIA News: Obama Library bombarded with FOIA requests

The Obama FOIA timebomb

By Alex Thompson, Josh Gerstein & Max Tani, Politico, Mar. 31, 2022 

For JOE BIDEN, there have been a lot of advantages to having once served as vice president: familiarity with the office, established relationships with powerful people, and a team of advisers with relevant experience.

But there is also a distinct disadvantage: People can dig through the archives of your prior work.

Starting on January 20, 2022 — five years since BARACK OBAMA left office — inquisitive journalists, opposition researchers, and amateur conspiracy theorists began filing a barrage of Freedom of Information Act requests (also known as “FOIAs”) to the Obama library.

Read more here.

FOIA News: NARA aims to reduce start time for complex FOIA requests

The National Archives and Records Administration hopes to reduce the time it takes to start complex FOIA requests for unclassified records by fiscal year 2026, according to its 2022-2026 Strategic Plan. NARA’s most complex FOIA requests can take as long as eight years before NARA can begin reviewing responsive records.

Read more here.

Court opinions issued Mar. 28, 2022

Neese v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- determining that: (1) Office of Professional Responsibility performed adequate search for records concerning its investigation of plaintiff for professional misconduct, and (2) OPR and/or FBI properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 3 (grand jury material), 5 (deliberative process privilege), and 6 & 7(C), but FBI failed to meaningfully explain applicability of Exemption 7(E)

Cabezas v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- finding that FBI conducted adequate search for records concerning plaintiff’s criminal case and that it properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 5, 6, 7(C) and 7(E).

Informed Consent Action Network v. FDA (S.D.N.Y.) -- concluding that plaintiff’s request for certain clinical trial records was not reasonably described because it contained several latent ambiguities, and that FDA’s willingness to process broader set of records satisfied agency’s obligation to assist plaintiff.

Judicial Watch v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- ruling that multiple components of DOJ performed reasonable searches for records concerning a 2018 meeting with Associated Press reporters, but that DOJ failed to ask EOUSA to search email account of one Assistant United States Attorney who had attended meeting at issue.

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

FOIA News: Recap of Senate FOIA hearing

'There is a big problem': Senators unite to slam FOIA compliance

The premier transparency law is hobbled by backlogs and mountains of electronic data, lawmakers are told.

By Josh Gerstein, Politico, Mar. 29, 2022

The often bitterly divided Senate Judiciary Committee had little difficulty Tuesday finding consensus that the nation’s premier transparency law, the Freedom of Information Act, isn’t working well.

“My conclusion from this is: there is a big problem,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said during an oversight hearing on the federal government’s ongoing struggle to implement the records-access law in a timely way.

Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) said he believes the half-century-old statute allowing journalists, advocacy groups and members of the public to request federal agency records appears to be failing to live up to its original ambitions.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Opening statements of Senate FOIA witnesses

The Department of Justice and Government Accountability Office have released the prepared remarks of their witnesses who appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 29, 2022.

Here are the prepared remarks of Bobak Talebian, Director, Office of Information Policy.

Here is the testimony of James R. McTigue, Jr., Director, Strategic Issues, Government Accountability Office.

Here is the testimony of Alina Semo, Director of the Office of Government Information Services.

FOIA News: DOJ seeks market information to improve national FOIA portal

The Department of Justice issued an announcement on March 25, 2022. requesting information from vendors to implement a “guided workflow or wizard assisting the public in using the National FOIA Portal.”

See the Request For Information here.

FOIA News: Senate FOIA hearing on March 29, 2022

On Tuesday, March 29, 2022, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing entitled “The Freedom of Information Act: Improving Transparency and the American Public’s Right to Know for the 21st Century.” Witnesses include Bobak Talebian, Director, Office Of Information Policy; Alina M. Semo, Director, Office Of Government Information Services, and James R. McTigue, Jr., Director, Strategic Issues, Government Accountability Office. Live video will be available at 10:00 AM here.

FOIA News: Fastest & slowest agencies of FY 2021

According to annual data available on FOIA.gov, the following five agencies reported the highest median number of days to process simple, perfected requests in fiscal year 2021:

1. National Archives and Records Administration: 179 days

2. United States Institute of Peace: 173 days

3. Office of Management and Budget: 170 days

4. Advisory Council of Historic Preservation: 106 days

5. U..S Agency for Global Media: 99 days

Seven agencies reported median response times of one (1) day in FY 2021 for simple, perfected requests:

1. Department of Agriculture

2. Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation

3. Administrative Conference of the United States

4. Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission

5. Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council

6. Office of the Director of National Intelligence

7. Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation

Court opinions issued Mar. 25, 2022

Sanders v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- ruling that FBI properly relied on Exemption 7(E) in refusing to confirm or deny existence of records concerning an initiative of the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency to tackle child sexual exploitation.

Brown v. FBI (D. Or. 2022) -- finding that FBI properly relied on Exemptions 6 and 7(C) in refusing to confirm or deny existence of records concerning witness to 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attack and declining to credit plaintiff’s allegation that shooting was episode of government-sponsored terrorism.

Cayuga Nation v. U.S. Dep't of the Interior (D.D.C.) -- concluding that Bureau of Indian Affairs failed to perform reasonable search for records concerning agency’s 2020 visit to plaintiff’s reservation; (2) BIA failed to justify withholding certain redacted portions of a “trip report” pursuant to Exemption 5’s deliberative process, attorney work-product, or attorney-client privileges; and (3) with limited exceptions, BIA properly withheld portions of a “briefing report” pursuant to the attorney-client privilege and Exemptions 7(C) and 7(D), but it failed to justify its deliberative process privilege claims.

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