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
On January 19, 2018 we received a formal response from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to our August 2017 CFPB FOIA Compliance Assessment. Like other agencies that have participated in our agency assessment program, CFPB volunteered to go through the process as part of their ongoing efforts to strengthen its FOIA Program. Our assessment … Continue reading Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Responds to FOIA Compliance Report
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we want to take some time to give thanks for the many individuals who have worked with us over the past year to help improve the FOIA process. In particular, we want to recognize the members of the Chief FOIA Officers Council and the FOIA Advisory Committee. Earlier this year … Continue reading OGIS Joins in Thanksgiving 2017
As you might be aware if you regularly read our blog (or if you check our mediation program quarterly performance statistics), the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 created a surge in requests for our assistance. We have also received many submissions intended for other federal agencies – including misdirected appeals, certifications of identity, and other … Continue reading Return to Sender
OGIS and the Office of Information Policy (OIP) at the Department of Justice are happy to announce that the next meeting of the Chief FOIA Officers Council will be held on Thursday, July 27th from 10 am to noon. You can register to join the audience in the William G. McGowan Theater beginning on July … Continue reading Chief FOIA Officers Council Meeting Scheduled for July 27
We’ve written before about the profound impact the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 has had on our workload, and that impact has only continued to grow. Demand for our services has roughly quadrupled since the passage of the bill, while at the same time there are two open positions on the mediation team that we … Continue reading An Update on Our Dispute Resolution Program
As you might have heard, the Federal government received a record-breaking number of FOIA requests in Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 – 788,769 requests. Did you know, though, that one of the more than 100 Federal agencies and departments that process FOIA requests accounts for almost 40 percent of that total? In FY 2016, the Department … Continue reading DHS Provides New Insight into FOIA Processing
It will come as no surprise to our regular readers when we say that the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 has resulted in substantial changes to OGIS’s operations. As we have talked about in a few blog posts, OGIS now has an expanded role in providing dispute resolution throughout the FOIA process. The amendments have … Continue reading New OGIS Handout Available
Note: This entry is another in our series of occasional blog posts updating our efforts to implement new provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) signed into law by President Obama on June 30, 2016. Regular readers of the Federal Register may have noticed a recent spike in notices related to amendments of agency … Continue reading FOIA Improvement: Improving Agency FOIA Regulations
Archivist of the United States Davis S. Ferriero has announced the appointment of Alina M. Semo as Director of the Office of Government Information Services. Ms. Semo joins OGIS from the National Archives’ Office of General Counsel, where she has served as Director of Litigation in the Office of General Counsel since March, 2014. In … Continue reading OGIS Welcomes a New Director
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