On January 19, 2016, the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Advisory Committee held its seventh quarterly meeting at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. We heard from the three subcommittees: Oversight and Accountability, FOIA Fees, and Proactive Disclosure. If you were not able to join us in person, you can still get in on … Continue reading An Update – and Request for Input – from the FOIA Advisory Committee
Is your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) program in need of a check-up? Starting January 27, Federal agencies can participate in OGIS’s new FOIA self-assessment program. OGIS is required to review agency compliance with FOIA under the statute. To help meet that mandate, we developed a robust agency assessment program in which our Compliance Team … Continue reading OGIS Releases FOIA Compliance Self-Assessment Program
We play a valuable role in facilitating communications between a requester and an agency. A recent request made by National Public Radio (NPR) to the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) provides an example of this function. NPR reporter Caitlin Dickerson made a request to the NRL for records about a World War II-era medical experiment that … Continue reading Case Study in Clarity
We are pleased to announce the release of our compliance assessment of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) program. TSA is one of the six components of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that OGIS is reviewing. Similar to our assessments of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the United States Coast … Continue reading OGIS Releases Compliance Review of TSA FOIA Program
“Change” was 2015’s word of the year for the FOIA Ombudsman. In a year of great change for OGIS, I may have been the most obvious one: I took over as the office’s second Director in August 2015. When I accepted the job, I knew that as the FOIA Ombudsman I could have a much … Continue reading New Year’s Message from the FOIA Ombudsman
Here at OGIS, we celebrate the importance of access to information every day. Which is why Sunshine Week, an initiative launched by the American Society of News Editors to focus on open government, is one of our favorite observances. In this spirit, we will be celebrating Sunshine Week 2016 with a special event hosted by … Continue reading Save the Date: National Archives Sunshine Week Event on March 14
While the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requires agencies to notify requesters of the legal reasoning for upholding either all or part of an initial denial, the statute gives agencies very little—well, actually, no—additional guidance about what should be in an appeal response. As you might know, we at OGIS are big fans of the … Continue reading The Appeal of the Appeal Letter
A few months ago, we announced that the OGIS Compliance Team is reviewing agencies’ use of “still interested” letters to manage—and sometimes administratively close—backlogged Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. While our work on this topic is not yet complete, we remain very “interested” in this topic. A coalition of open government groups first raised the … Continue reading An Update: Our Work on the Use of “Still Interested” Letters
We have learned through both our mediation services and agency assessment programs that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to administering a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) program. Agencies process different kinds of requests for vastly different records, and each agency faces its own challenges. For this reason, a practice that works for a small independent … Continue reading Smart Solutions to FOIA Problems
Along with everyone in your Facebook feed, we at OGIS want to let you know about some of the things we are thankful for this year. Thank you all for your support of OGIS, and we hope you had a great holiday! "I am thankful for the OGIS staff. Every day, I see dedicated and … Continue reading OGIS Gives Thanks
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