Want to help improve the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) while collaborating with other requesters and FOIA professionals? Please consider submitting a nomination for yourself or someone else for the 2026-2028 term of the federal FOIA Advisory Committee.
The Committee studies the FOIA landscape across the executive branch and advises the Archivist of the United States on potential improvements to FOIA administration. We are looking for a wide range of FOIA experts from both inside and outside of government. We seek, at a minimum:
- three FOIA professionals from Cabinet-level Departments;
- three FOIA professionals from non-Cabinet agencies;
- two individuals representing the interests of non-Governmental organizations that advocate on FOIA matters;
- three individuals representing the interests of FOIA requesters, one for each of the three FOIA requester fee categories:
- “commercial,”
- “news media,” and
- “all other;”
- one individual representing the interests of historians and history-related organizations; and
- one individual representing the interests of academia.
Committee members must have significant knowledge of and expertise with FOIA. Eight of the 10 government seats and seven of the non-government seats are designated for specific FOIA stakeholder representation, as described above. The Directors of OGIS and the Office of Information Policy (OIP) also have seats on the Committee. Selection criteria includes consideration of geography, organization size, and range of representatives across business, academia, non-profit and non-governmental sectors.
Committee members are expected to attend a minimum of 12 public meetings during the two-year Committee term beginning in September. Meetings will be held virtually to save costs with some in-person meetings possible. All Committee members are expected to volunteer for one or more working subcommittees.
We must receive nominations by 5:00 p.m. EDT on Monday, June 1, 2026. To submit a nomination, please provide your/the nominee’s name, title, phone number and email address, and the representative role for which you wish you/the nominee to be considered. For both self-nominations and nominations by other individuals, please provide a short biography about the nominee (not to exceed one page) summarizing their resumé or otherwise highlighting the contributions the nominee would bring to the Committee; and the nominee’s resumé or curriculum vitae. Nominations should be sent to foia-advisory-committee@nara.gov in accordance with this Federal Register notice.
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