FOIA News: Hedge funds, FOIA, and the FDA

How Hedge Funds Use FOIA to Stay Ahead of the Market

FOIAengine: Warning Letters and Inspection Reports in the Spotlight

By John A. Jenkins, Law St. Media, Jan. 14, 2026

Freedom of Information Act requests filed with the Food and Drug Administration by hedge funds last month revealed big financial players closely eyeing warning letters, enforcement documents, and inspection reports for major drug manufacturers and biopharma companies.

At the forefront was a sweeping request from Greenwich, Conn.-based Deep Track Capital for all Form 483 inspection reports issued by the FDA over nearly three years to two companies – CG Oncology (NASDAQ: CGON), which develops immunotherapies for bladder cancer; and Biovire, a contract manufacturer specializing in the final step of packaging “novel drugs and medical devices” for patient use.

Deep Track, focused exclusively on the life sciences industry, has $5.2 billion in assets under management and invests in public and pre-IPO biotechnology companies.  Form 483 reports, which the hedge fund is seeking, describe plant-inspection observations made by the FDA. 

Read more here.

FOIA News: Litigation over EEO-1 reports continues

Ninth Circuit Decision on EEO-1 Reports Is In, But the Case Is Not Over

By Laura A. Mitchell, JacksonLewis, Jan. 13, 2026

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit case involving EEO-1 reports and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has taken another procedural turn. The court’s July 2025 decision in Center for Investigative Reporting v. U.S. Dep’t of Labor upheld the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California’s finding that workforce composition data in federal contractors’ EEO-1 reports was not protected commercial information under FOIA’s Exemption 4 and as a result, OFCCP improperly withheld release of the reports. After a lengthy delay, the federal government declined to file for reconsideration and the Ninth Circuit’s decision became final December 29, 2025.

Read more here.

Court opinions issued Jan. 9, 2026

Am. First Legal Found. v. U.S. Gov’t Accountability Office (D.D.C.) — granting the government’s motion to dismiss, and concluding that the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) is not subject to FOIA” because it is a legislative-branch agency; explaining that the APA’s exclusion of “the Congress,” which is incorporated into the FOIA’s definition of “agency” at sec. 552(f), is best read as the “entire legislative branch,” including its agencies; rejecting the requester’s arguments that GAO is, in fact, an “establishment in the executive branch” or an “independent regulatory agency.”

Williams & Connolly LLP v. Dep’t of Homeland Sec. (D.D.C.) — issuing an amended version of the Court’s Oct. 31, 2025 opinion, which concluded that ICE conducted an adequate search for records related to individuals involved in a sanctions evasion case in the Southern District of New York, and that CBP and USCIS properly withheld records pursuant to FOIA Exemptions 6 and 7(C) and met the statute’s foreseeable harm and segregability requirements; explaining in an accompanying order that the amendment was necessary to clarify how resolution of the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment was not “final” and “appealable” because plaintiffs claims against the Department of the Treasury and Department of State “have not yet been adjudicated.”

Kitlinski v. Dep’t of Justice (D.D.C.) — holding that DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility failed to conduct an adequate search because it did not attempt to identify “journaled emails,” or other archived messages that might have been deleted by the relevant custodian, through its Microsoft M365 document system.

Summaries of published opinions issued in 2026 are available here. Earlier opinions are available for 2025, 2024, and from 2015 to 2023.

FOIA News: Dick Huff, founding OIP director, leads National FOIA Hall of Fame class of 2026

Sixteen inducted into 2026 National FOIA Hall of Fame

Brechner News, Jan, 13, 2026

Sixteen champions of government transparency will be inducted this March into the National FOIA Hall of Fame for their outstanding contributions to advancing the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

Honorees include Richard L. Huff, founding director of what is now called the Office of Information Policy, Michael Morisy, co-founder of MuckRock, Kirsten Mitchell and Alina Semo of the Office of Government Information Services, and David McCraw, general counsel for The New York Times.

“These champions of transparency have dedicated themselves to improving U.S. FOIA, which is more important than ever,” said David Cuillier, director of the University of Florida Brechner Freedom of Information Project. “They are an inspiration to us all in advocating for more accountable government.”

Read more here.

FOIA News: Register for second annual Sunshine Fest

In recognition of Sunshine Week, the University of Florida Brechner Freedom of Information Project, MuckRock, and the National Freedom of Information Coalition are organizing the second-annual in-person conference to find solutions to pressing problems in freedom of information across all disciplinary and geographic boundaries – local, state, federal and global!

When: March 15-March 17, 2026

Where: Washington, D.C.

See here for schedule, speakers, registration, and travel information.

Jobs, jobs, jobs: The Fab Four

Gov’t Info Specialist, Dep’t of the Air Force, GS 13, Arlington, VA, closes 1/13/26 (non-public)

Gov’t Info Specialist, Dep’t of Housing & Urban Dev., GS 13, Wash., DC, closes 1/16/26 (internal to agency)

Gov’t Info Specialist, Dep’t of Def./DCSA, GG 12, Ft. Meade, MD, closes 1/19/26 (or first 100 applications) (non-public)

Gov’t Info Specialist, Dep’t of Def./DCSA, GG 9, Boyers, PA, closes 1/19/26 (or first 100 applications) (non-public)

Court opinion issued Jan. 6, 2026

Legal Eagle, LLC v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- ruling that plaintiff failed to exhaust its administrative remedies because it neither appealed OIP’s determination that its FOIA request was not reasonably described nor resubmitted a narrowed request; rejecting plaintiff’s argument that no administrative appeal was required, explaining that OIP affirmatively offered both an appeal and an opportunity to reformulate the request, which plaintiff declined; further, dismissing plaintiff’s expedited-processing claim as moot, since OIP had already issued a final response to the FOIA request and there was nothing left to expedite.

Summaries of published opinions issued in 2026 are available here. Earlier opinions are available for 2025, 2024, and from 2015 to 2023.

FOIA News: Actor John Cusack on FOIA-based reporting

John Cusack Wants to Talk About Paywalls

The movie star says that by selling their public-records-based reporting, news outlets are compromising one of journalism’s essential civic roles.

By Carolina Abbott Galvão, Columbia J. Rev., Jan. 7, 2026

* * *
One of the things you’re particularly interested in at the moment is the Freedom of Information Act, and specifically, ensuring that FOIA-based reporting isn’t kept behind paywalls. Why do you think that’s important? 

There’s an irony in the fact that FOIA-based reporting often ends up behind a paywall, because the public owns government records. We fund their creation through taxes, and we fund the agencies that produce them. We fund the FOIA office that processes the disclosure request—the entire apparatus is built on the premise that this information belongs to us. So when the journalist files a FOIA request, the story is the product of public investment. At any stage, the documents are ours. The disclosure process is ours. The reporters’ access exists only because the law recognizes our right to know. If that story then goes behind a paywall, that right becomes a privilege. 

Now, this is not an argument against paying journalists, or that the realities of the journalism business aren’t fraught. I get that part of it. Newsrooms need to survive. But the news isn’t just a business. It’s enshrined in the First Amendment.

Read more here.

FOIA Commentary: Top FOIA news of 2025

As 2026 gets underway, the FOIA Advisor staff is pleased to provide a summary of the most notable FOIA developments that occurred outside the courtroom in calendar year 2025. We will discuss our top 2025 court decisions in a forthcoming post.

Congress

• On February 6, 2025, Representative Hillary Scholten (D-MI) introduced the Consistent Legal Expectations and Access to Records Act to clarify that FOIA applies to entities established under 5 U.S.C. § 3161, a change aimed at preventing temporary federal organizations—such as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—from avoiding FOIA requests.

• The Senate Judiciary Committee held a FOIA hearing on April 8, 2025. No government witnesses appeared.

• On November 20, 2025, Representative Teresa Leger Fernández (D-NM) introduced H.R. 6206, the Protect Culturally Sensitive Information Act, which would create a new FOIA Exemption 3 for culturally sensitive information identified by Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Entities, and Native Hawaiian Organizations.

Regulatory updates

• In spring 2025, The Environmental Protection Agency notified OMB of its intent to rescind its expedited processing regulation related to environmental justice, but it did not develop a proposed rule before the end of the year. America First Legal recently petitioned EPA to move the process forward.

• On June 30, 2025, Amtrak became the first agency to propose amendments to their FOIA regulations since President Trump’s second term began.

• The Defense Nuclear Safety Board followed with proposed amendments on November 24, 2025.

• Lastly, the Department of Homeland Security amended its FOIA regulations on December 23, 2025, requiring requests to be submitted via web portals or FOIA.gov, except for requester without Internet access.

Dep’t of Justice/Office of Info. Policy

• DOJ/OIP issued its annual Litigation and Compliance Report in early March. noting that requesters filed 889 FOIA lawsuits in calendar year 2024—the highest number DOJ has ever reported. Shortly thereafter, OIP reported that nearly 1.5 million requests were submitted across the government in fiscal year 2024, up 25 percent from fiscal year 2023, with DHS alone receiving more than 900,000 requests. On April 29, 2025, DOJ/OIP released a 24-page summary of agency annual reports for FY 2024

• On March 8, 2025, OIP’s Director, Bobak Talebian, was fired along with several other heads of DOJ components. A new Director, Sean Glendening, was appointed on November 3, 2025.

• On July 9, 2025, OIP issued guidance on the disclosure-related impact of President Trump’s Executive Order No. 1303, “Restoring Gold Standard Science.”

Nat’l Archives/Office of Gov’t Info Servs.

On September 26, 2025, OGIS published a compliance report on the Department of Veteran Affairs, making its first such report since 2020. In its annual report published in May 2025, OGIS reported receiving 6057 requests for assistance and closing 6098 requests during FY 2024.

Other agency actions

• The Department of Health and Human Services initiated a department restructuring involving the closure of individual agency FOIA offices—including those at the CDC, FDA, and NIH—and creating a single, centralized FOIA office.

• On August 14, 2025, the Department of Energy issued a notice in the Federal Register requiring requesters who submitted FOIA requests before October 1, 2024 to confirm their interest—as well as the control number assigned to the request—by September 15, 2025, or face administrative closure. DOE cited a tripling of FOIA requests over four years (from 1,300 to over 4,000 annually) and blamed “vexatious requesters and automated bots” for clogging the system. The agency was promptly sued by American Oversight on September 3, 2025.

• One month later, USAID issued a global “still interested” notice on September 16, 2025, requiring requesters to confirm their interest in all FOIA requests submitted to the agency before January 20, 2025.

• In April, DHS stopped using software that automatically captured text messages and saved trails of communication between officials. Instead, the agency began to require officials to manually take screenshots of their messages to comply with federal records laws.

Other FOIA-related matters

• Bloomberg uncovered and reported a wild story in May 2025 about two OPEXUS employees who had tampered with agency FOIA databases in February 2025. Two brothers were later arrested on December 3, 2025.

• A partial government shutdown suspended many agency FOIA operations and FOIA litigation proceedings from October 1, 2025, to November 12, 2025.

• A White House-ordered hiring freeze significantly reduced the number of available FOIA jobs.

• During Sunshine Week, the FBI was named the worst FOIA respondent of the decade by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and MuckRock, which annually team up to produce a list of agencies that respond poorly to FOIA requests (the “Foilies”).

Monthly roundup: December 2025

Below is a summary of the notable FOIA court decisions and news from last month, as well as a look ahead to FOIA events in January.

Court opinions

We posted and summarized 9 opinions in December, the second fewest of the year (after May’s eight). The standout was Am. First Legal Found. v. Roberts (D.D.C. Dec. 18), which held that the Judicial Conference of the United States and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts are not “agencies” under FOIA.

Top news

• DHS amended its FOIA regulations on December 23rd, requiring requests to be submitted via web portals, unless a requester lacks Internet access

• The Chief FOIA Officers Council met on December 15th, which includes updates from OIP, OGIS, and two committees. Presentation slides here.

• On December 3rd, two brothers were arrested for conspiring to destroy government databases after being fired from OPEXUS, a government contractor that helps agencies manage investigations and FOIA requests.

January calendar

Jan. 9: Nat’l Assn. of Legal Assistants FOIA 101 Introduction to the Federal Freedom of Information Act.

Jan. 13: DOJ/OIP Virtual Exemption 4 and Exemption 5 Training.

Jan. 21: DOJ/OIP Virtual Privacy Considerations Training.

Jan. 28: DOJ/OIP Virtual Administrative Appeals, FOIA Compliance, and Customer Service Training.

Jan. 29: D.C. Circuit oral argument in Gun Owners of America v. ATF, No. 25-5309.

Jan. 30: DOJ/OIP FY26 Q1 Data Due.