A 1967 arrangement of gold bearings used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. National Archives Identifier 354900450 Requesters, the next time you work to "reasonably describe” records in a FOIA request or visit FOIA.gov for agency FOIA data, you can thank the 1974 FOIA amendments. And agency FOIA professionals, you can thank the 1974 … Continue reading 1974 FOIA Amendments Mark Golden Anniversary
Photograph of Howard Hughes, who played a pivotal role in the very first Neither Confirm Nor Deny (NCND) response. National Archives Identifier 219777077. OGIS has recently published a new resource for Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requesters whose records requests are met with ‘neither confirm nor deny’ (NCND) responses, historically known in the U.S. as … Continue reading OGIS Publishes Ombuds Observer on NCND/Glomar
A US Air Force (USAF) female F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft pilot, assigned to the 157th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron (EFS), South Carolina Air National Guard (ANG), with the call sign of "Vixen," gives the thumbs up signal from the cockpit of her aircraft, as she prepares for a mission in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. National … Continue reading FOIA Advisory Committee Recommends Exemption 5 Transparency
When agencies respond to a FOIA request with released records, they retain a copy of those records along with the response letter in a file documenting the request. This is important for a couple of reasons—so that the agency can respond to any questions from the requester, or that the information can be passed along … Continue reading Do You Copy?
We get many requests for assistance related to FOIA Exemption 4, which protects from disclosure commercial and financial information provided to the government. For example, over the last few months we have heard from requesters frustrated about delays related to submitter notice and an agency interested in brainstorming how best to communicate with the entities … Continue reading Throwback Thursday: Thinking about Exemption 4
We’ve written before about the careful balancing act that Federal agencies must perform when they consider requests for records that contain information about an individual other than the requester—those who work for the government and those who don’t. In most cases, such third-party information will be withheld under Exemption 6 (and possibly Exemption 7(C) if … Continue reading Death breathes new life into some records
FOIA requests for third-party information present a difficult balancing act for Federal agencies. On Tuesday January 24, OGIS and the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy (OIP) hosted a Requester Roundtable to discuss issues that arise from third-party requests. If you couldn't make it, we're here to share some tips. When a requester asks … Continue reading Striking the Balance with Third-party Requests
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