The issue of fees can trip up even the most experienced requester and FOIA professional. We all know that it is a tricky issue, but might there be a better way? In our 2013 recommendations, we laid out our plan to discuss the issue of fees and fee waivers with the requester and agency communities; … Continue reading Upcoming Requester Roundtable: Fees and Fee Waivers
Whew! We at OGIS have caught our breath after a hectic Sunshine Week during which we joined folks from both the agency and requester communities in promoting the importance of open government and freedom of information. (Of course, these values are just as important during the other 51 weeks of the year.) If you weren’t … Continue reading OGIS’s Sunshine Week Wrap-Up
OGIS will celebrate Sunshine Week along with the National Archives, our parent agency, with two back-to-back events at the National Archives on Monday, March 11, 2013: A display of the original FOIA with remarks by Archivist of the United States David Ferriero and OGIS Director Miriam Nisbet A demonstration of FOIAonline, the multi-agency FOIA portal … Continue reading Mark Your Calendar for Sunshine Week!
On January 21, 2013, representatives of 12 agencies and several requester groups gathered to discuss online FOIA “libraries.” The Attorney General’s 2009 FOIA Memorandum encouraged agencies to post information online in advance of a formal request. Many agencies’ FOIA regulations also require them to post records for which they receive multiple requests, and other agencies … Continue reading Thinking about FOIA Libraries
Did you know that agencies are required under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 USC § 552(a)(2), to make available to the public five categories of records: final opinions, including concurring and dissenting opinions and orders, made in adjudicated cases; policy statements not published in the Federal Register; administrative staff manuals and instructions that … Continue reading Check out the next FOIA Requester Roundtable on FOIA Libraries
OGIS will offer an all-day Dispute Resolution Skills for FOIA Professionals training program on Monday December 3, 2012, at the National Archives building in Washington, D.C. While we’ve offered this training program -- which equips FOIA professionals with practical communications and dispute resolution skills -- for nearly three years, this session will be a little … Continue reading Small Agencies, Big Issues: Upcoming Training Opportunity for FOIA Professionals
Conflict Resolution Week is October 15-19, 2012. To help celebrate, the federal Interagency Alternative Dispute Resolution Working Group is sponsoring a number of events. OGIS is pleased to be part of that celebration by offering the upcoming brown bag meeting/teleconference, "Dispute Resolution’s Impact on the FOIA Framework." If you are interested in how OGIS is using … Continue reading Make a Lunch Date with FOIA and Alternative Dispute Resolution
Documents declassified by the government’s highest classification authority will soon be posted online in a new government declassification portal, a Federal declassification expert said at a July 25, 2012 FOIA Requester Roundtable. William C. Carpenter of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) at the National Archives provided tips on a variety of declassification issues and … Continue reading More on Declassification
FOIA and Mandatory Declassification Reviews (MDRs) have some things in common -- for instance, both provide access to information -- but in practical terms they are very different. If you would like to learn more about both, please join OGIS, the Information Security Oversight Office and the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy for the next FOIA … Continue reading Upcoming Requester Roundtable Discussion: FOIA and Mandatory Declassification Reviews (MDRs)
Note: An OGIS-sponsored forum on immigration records on May 23 brought together FOIA professionals from agencies which maintain immigration records with immigration attorneys and others interested in such records. The FOIA Ombudsman: Information & Advice is spot-lighting each agency, the types of immigration records each holds and tips for obtaining those records under FOIA. U.S. … Continue reading Ensuring Requests for A-Files are A-OK
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