Thirty-three information commissioners—a.k.a freedom of information ombudsmen—from 25 countries gathered April 21-23 for the 9th International Conference of Information Commissioners to discuss transparency issues and share successes and challenges. It was a great honor to represent OGIS at the conference, hosted by the Chilean Transparency Council, in Santiago, Chile. Among the themes of the conference, … Continue reading Thinking globally
Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 is shaping up to be a busy one for OGIS, just as FY 2014 was. Want to learn more about OGIS’s FY 2014? Check out our annual report: Building a Bridge Between FOIA Requesters & Federal Agencies 2015 Report for FY 2014. We’ve got a nifty page-turn version on our website, … Continue reading Announcing OGIS’s FY 2014 Report!
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently made our work a little bit easier in one small way. We no longer have to ask CFPB’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requesters who come to OGIS for assistance to provide consent so the agency can discuss their requests with us. That’s because CFBP alerted the world … Continue reading Matters of Consent
We’re pleased to announce completion of our first assessment of an agency FOIA program, officially launching the expansion of our review program and helping us better fulfill our statutory mandate to review agency FOIA policies, procedures and compliance. 5 U.S.C. §§ 552 (h)(2)(A) and (B). The National Archives and Records Administration’s own Office of General … Continue reading OGIS Launches First Agency Assessment
The same week we at OGIS celebrated our 5th birthday, we celebrated another important birthday—that of FOIAonline. An online portal aimed at expanding public access to information requested under FOIA, FOIAonline went live two years ago when five Federal agencies, including the Office of General Counsel at our parent agency, the National Archives and Records … Continue reading FOIAonline Celebrates its Second Birthday
As in past years, we at the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) were too busy to celebrate our birthday on September 9. Instead, we marked our 5th year on October 31 with representatives from the requester and agency communities as well as House and Senate staff of the committees that helped create and now … Continue reading Celebrating OGIS’s First Five Years
Interested in immigration records? You’re not alone. U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services (USCIS) is on track to receive about 140,000 FOIA requests in the year ending September 20, 2014. Top USCIS FOIA officials recently took time from overseeing records request processing to meet with requesters and FOIA professionals from other agencies, offering tips to requesters … Continue reading Dancing Your Way Through Immigration Records
U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services (USCIS) processed a mind-numbing 138,523 FOIA requests in the year ending September 30, 2013. (That’s more than 11,000 requests a month and nearly 600 a day!) Wonder how the agency does it? Searching for best practices on submitting FOIA requests to USCIS for immigration records? Have feedback on how the … Continue reading USCIS Invites Requesters to Stakeholder Meeting
We welcome guest bloggers! The following post is from Government Information Specialist Mark H. Graff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission: At the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s FOIA, Privacy, and Information Collections branch, we’ve been looking for ways to streamline our internal processes and increase the use of technology to better respond to FOIA requests. … Continue reading Guest Post: Catching Up with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
OGIS recently set up a pop-up shop, of sorts, on the West Coast offering one-on-one mini ombuds sessions with journalists and gathering ideas for improving the FOIA process. I’m pleased to have represented OGIS at the annual conference of the Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), a non-profit organization dedicated to improving investigative reporting. The conference, … Continue reading OGIS Sets Up Shop at IRE
