1) Please tell us a little about yourself. I am the product of parents who emigrated to the United States to avoid continued religious, artistic and professional persecution at the hands of the Communist Romanian regime. In direct and indirect ways, the influences of my father, who made his living in classical music as a … Continue reading Q&A with OGIS’s New Director, Alina M. Semo
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
We are happy to announce the release of our latest FOIA compliance assessment – the Privacy Office of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This office, which is led by the agency’s Chief Privacy & FOIA Officer, issues FOIA guidance to DHS’s components, monitors component performance, and issues required reports. Like our previously released assessments, … Continue reading OGIS Releases Compliance Assessment of DHS FOIA Policy Office
It’s wintery outside, but we at OGIS are busy planning Sunshine Week 2017 at the National Archives! Mark the afternoon of Monday, March 13, 2017 on your calendars and plan to join us in the William G. McGowan Theater for a celebration of sunshine and open government. 2016's Sunshine Week at the National Archives event … Continue reading Planning is Underway for Sunshine Week 2017 at the National Archives
It turns out that you can find something other than great cat videos on YouTube: videos of all of the past meetings of the FOIA Advisory Committee! You can find all of the videos, including footage of the latest meeting on October 25, on a playlist on the National Archives’ YouTube account. Check out Part … Continue reading Check out the FOIA Advisory Committee’s Meetings on YouTube
OGIS’s Compliance Team follows up with FOIA programs we assess 120 days after we publish our report to learn what improvements, if any, have been made to the program. Once this process is complete, we contact the agency to let them know that we have evaluated their responses and “closed” recommendations that have been addressed. … Continue reading Updates to Agency Compliance Report Pages
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
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been working to strengthen its FOIA program and improve the agency’s compliance with the law (Read the response here: fema-ogis-response-11-16-web. FEMA recently contacted OGIS in response to the recommendations in our compliance assessment of the FEMA FOIA program. According to FEMA, agency leadership is focusing on staffing, training … Continue reading FEMA Improves FOIA Compliance
The FOIA process can be confusing for requesters, especially those who are filing their first FOIA requests or who do not know much about how a particular agency functions. Unfortunately, figuring out who you should contact within an agency to clear up that confusion and assist with a request can be equally baffling. FOIA Requester … Continue reading Who Ya Gonna Call?
Earlier this year, the National Archives committed in both the Third U.S. Open Government National Action Plan and its Fourth Agency Open Government Plan to develop tools to help teach the next generation about the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The tools will draw upon real-world examples that foster democracy and explain how the public … Continue reading Teaching the Next Generation about the Power of FOIA
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