Federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) websites are more likely than not to be silent on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting agency FOIA processing. A majority of federal FOIA websites – 62.6 percent – reviewed by the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) in May and early June do not alert requesters to changes … Continue reading OGIS Publishes Results of COVID-19 FOIA Website Review
The following post is written by Meredith Doviak, our National Archives colleague who is helping us assess methods agencies use to prepare documents for posting on agency FOIA reading rooms. In the decades since Congress amended FOIA in 1996 to expand the role of the agency FOIA reading room, the expectations and use of Federal … Continue reading Assessing FOIA Reading Rooms
Public spaces at the National Archives are closed, but OGIS is pleased to continue operations online — including publication of our 2020 Annual Report for Fiscal Year (FY) 2019. As OGIS Director Alina Semo notes in her message to readers, despite challenges faced in FY 2019, OGIS managed to reduce our backlog by 50 percent … Continue reading OGIS Report on Fiscal Year 2019 Now Available
McLain, Miss., Feb. 22, 2013 - FEMA assesses damages from flash floods in Greene County. (National Archives ID: 24475833) Federal agencies are generally complying with FOIA’s mandate to create procedures for preparing documents to post on FOIA reading rooms, and more often than not, the responsibility for prepping the documents rests with the FOIA staff. That … Continue reading OGIS Publishes Report Based on Agency Self-Assessments
Are you an agency FOIA professional interested in developing an automated processing system? U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) invites you to a two-hour demonstration of its FOIA processing system at 1:30 p.m. EST Wednesday February 12th. The demonstration will take place at the USCIS Washington, DC office at 111 Massachusetts Avenue, NW as well … Continue reading USCIS demos open-source code system
Got a question for the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS)? Or do you want to hear more about our work as the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Ombudsman over the past year? If so, please join us for the OGIS annual open meeting on Friday, June 14, 2019, in the William G. McGowan Theater … Continue reading Join Us for Our Annual Open Meeting!
This year—2019—we celebrate 10 years as the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Ombudsman. Anniversaries have a way of sparking reflection on the past, present and future—the theme of our 2019 Report for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018. FY 2018 was our busiest yet. Among our activities, we Handled 4,681 requests for assistance—from FOIA requesters and agencies … Continue reading OGIS Fiscal Year 2018 Report Now Available
We realize that it was a very busy Sunshine Week, so we understand if you missed the fact that in addition to testifying on the Hill and hosting and participating in great events, we also released our Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 Annual Report. This year’s report chronicles our first full year since the passage of … Continue reading OGIS Fiscal Year 2017 Report Now Available
In his welcoming remarks at Monday’s Sunshine Week celebration at the National Archives (video), the Archivist of the United States noted the substantial effort our agency has put towards improving open government over the last few years, and noted that there is – of course – a lot of work left to do. Our newly-released … Continue reading OGIS Releases its Fiscal Year 2016 Report
Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 was very busy for the FOIA Ombudsman’s office. You can get a more complete picture of our work during FY 2015 by checking out the latest version of our Annual Report. One major change to OGIS in FY 2015 was the appointment of a new Director, Dr. James Holzer. During the … Continue reading Fiscal Year 2015 at the FOIA Ombudsman
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