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
At its October 25, 2016 meeting, the FOIA Advisory Committee made some important decisions—identifying the issues its members will address during its two-year term. By the end of the meeting, the Committee formed three subcommittees: Search; Efficiencies and Resources; and Proactive Disclosure and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. OGIS Acting Director Nikki Gramian kicked … Continue reading FOIA Advisory Committee Sets 2016-2018 Agenda
Today we are publishing our FOIA compliance assessment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The report shows how ICE’s investments in its FOIA program enabled the agency to virtually eliminate its FOIA backlog in Fiscal Year (FY) 2015. In FY 2012, ICE’s backlog spiked to 2,443 … Continue reading OGIS Releases Immigration and Customs Enforcement FOIA Compliance Assessment
In March, we released our assessment of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) program at Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Our report explained how support from CBP’s leadership and the effort of the FOIA staff improved the agency’s FOIA performance. As our report documents, CBP’s decisions to put in place management controls, to invest in … Continue reading CBP Takes Additional Steps to Improve its FOIA Program
Registration is now open for the October 25, 2016, meeting of the FOIA Advisory Committee! The meeting will be from 10 am to 1 pm at the National Archives in Washington, DC. During this meeting, the Committee members will form subcommittees and determine the FOIA issues they want to tackle over the next two years. … Continue reading Reserve Your Seat for the October 25 FOIA Advisory Committee Meeting
As we have discussed, the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 requires that agencies inform FOIA requesters that they can ask for assistance from OGIS and an agency’s FOIA Public Liaison (FPL) throughout the request process. But what kind of help can requesters expect to receive from FPLs and OGIS? While FOIA gives both OGIS and … Continue reading Help Me FOIA. Help, Help Me FOIA.
We are happy to announce that registration is now open for the October 18 session of our popular Dispute Resolution Skills for FOIA Professionals training. The free day-long session will be at the National Archives in downtown Washington, DC, location. During our training sessions, we help FOIA professionals develop a working knowledge of Alternative Dispute … Continue reading Reserve a Seat for Dispute Resolutions Skills Training Session
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. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQid2EtDDsA The FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 requires that agencies review and update their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) … Continue reading FOIA Improvement: Updating FOIA Regulations
As the Archivist of the United States announced earlier this week, you can now review and comment on the National Archives and Records Administration’s Open Government Plan 4.0 on Github. The plan covers steps the National Archives intends to take over the next two years to strengthen open government within our agency and across the … Continue reading National Archives’ Open Government Plan 4.0 Open for Comment
At its September 15, 2016, meeting, the Chief FOIA Officers Council will continue discussing the implementation of a “release to one, release to all” Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) policy, which calls for agencies to post copies of all records released under FOIA on their websites. The Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy (OIP) … Continue reading Chief FOIA Officers Council Meeting Scheduled for September 15
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