Thomas Susman, Director of the Governmental Affairs Office at the American Bar Association. August 25, 2011. Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL. Today we present an interview with Thomas M. Susman, Director of the Governmental Affairs Office of the American Bar Association (ABA) and a member of the 2020-2022 FOIA Advisory Committee. This is … Continue reading Getting to Know the FOIA Advisory Committee: Thomas Susman
The next meeting of the 2020-2022 term of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Advisory Committee is on Wednesday, March 3 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET. This virtual meeting is open to the public and registration is required. Please register here by 11:59 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 28, 2021, to receive an email with instructions … Continue reading FOIA Advisory Committee Meets on March 3
Registration is now open for OGIS’s Annual Open Meeting on Monday, July 20, 2020, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. EDT. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting will be virtual. Please register by Thursday, July 16, 2020, to virtually attend the meeting. We will send instructions by email to all registrants for accessing the … Continue reading Register now to virtually attend the July 20, 2020 OGIS Annual Open Meeting
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Advisory Committee has come full circle on several of its 2018 recommendations, including that the Chief FOIA Officers (CFO) Council study FOIA technology across agencies. The co-chairmen of the CFO Council Technology Subcommittee—Eric Stein of the State Department and Michael Sarich of the Veterans Health Administration—will report back to … Continue reading Join Us for the Next FOIA Advisory Committee Meeting!
Thinking about FOIA beyond its 53rd birthday on July 4th? Interested in how to submit and track FOIA and Privacy Act requests and receive documents digitally from U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)? The agency will demonstrate the system and answer the public’s questions during an hour-long webinar at 2 p.m. EDT Tuesday July 9th. … Continue reading Upcoming USCIS Webinar
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
The intersection of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and records management will be the focus of the next FOIA Advisory Committee meeting on November 29, 2018, in the William G. McGowan Theater at the National Archives in Washington, DC. The meeting, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., is the second of the 2018-2020 term … Continue reading Next FOIA Advisory Committee Meeting: November 29, 2018
Last week our mediation team facilitator, Christa Lemelin, gave a five minute lightning talk at the Department of Commerce Sunshine Week celebration about common mistakes agencies make that could increase the likelihood of a FOIA requester filing a lawsuit against the agency. Here is a brief summary of the three mistakes she shared with the … Continue reading Tips for Avoiding FOIA Lawsuits
Earlier this week we published our FOIA compliance assessment report of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). OGIS has now published assessments of seven (7) component agencies of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – including the three FOIA programs responsible for processing the majority of DHS’s annual share of FOIA requests – USCIS, CBP … Continue reading U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services FOIA Compliance Assessment Report Now Available
We are looking forward to announcing details about our March 12th Sunshine Week celebration soon! While we put some finishing touches on our afternoon agenda, we wanted to go ahead and let you know about a couple of other Sunshine Week events hosted by our federal colleagues. The Department of Commerce asked us to share … Continue reading Updated: Sunshine Week Celebrations across the Federal Government
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