FOIA Advisory Committee Votes to Approve Two Recommendations

by Kimberlee N Ried, posted in FOIA Advisory Committee, Government information, OGIS events, Uncategorized
President Harry S. Truman (standing, third from left) and Margaret Truman voting in Independence, Missouri. National Archives Identifier 348100961

Members of the FOIA Advisory Committee voted to approve two recommendations at their April 2, 2026, meeting. The two recommendations came from the Statutory Reform Subcommittee and are: 

  • Recommendation No. 2026-01: Congress should amend FOIA to establish the FOIA Advisory Committee as a statutory federal advisory committee.
  • Recommendation No. 2026-02: Congress should amend FOIA to mandate regular publication of agency FOIA logs to contain, at a minimum, 13 fields generally maintained in agency FOIA tracking systems, including:
    • 1) the tracking number of the request, 
    • 2) the date of the request, 
    • 3) the name of the requester, unless the requester is a first-person requester seeking access to their own information, 
    • 4) the organizational affiliation of the requester, if identified in the request, 
    • 5) the subject matter of the request, 
    • 6) the status of the request,
    • 7) the result of the request (if closed), 
    • 8) exemptions cited, if any, 
    • 9) the date on which the request was resolved, 
    • 10) the fee category assigned to the request, 
    • 11) whether a fee waiver was requested, 
    • 12) if a fee waiver was requested, whether it was granted, and 
    • 13) fees charged to the requester, if any.
    • FOIA’s affirmative disclosure provisions should mandate the ongoing publication of agency FOIA logs on at least a quarterly basis, unless the agency receives fewer than 100 requests per year in which case it could publish them semi-annually.
    • The logs should be posted in machine-readable format and transmitted to DOJ for additional posting on foia.gov.
    • Congress should consider an appropriate effective date for this requirement that allows agencies reasonable time for implementation including interim milestones while not unduly delaying compliance.

These two recommendations will be published in the Committee’s final report and posted to the FOIA Advisory Committee dashboard. If you wish to watch the April 2, 2026, Committee meeting, you may do so on the National Archives YouTube channel.

The next meeting of the FOIA Advisory Committee will be on Thursday, May 7 at 10:00 a.m. ET. Registration is available at: www.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_q-evvGWaQZKWW8k3Y5Jclw#/registration