In the upcoming weeks, the Office of Information Policy will be sending detailed guidance to agencies directing them to report on four key FOIA statistics that will be posted to FOIA.gov on a quarterly basis. 

Each year agencies are required to submit to the Department of Justice an Annual FOIA Report which contains detailed statistics on the agency’s FOIA activities over the past fiscal year.  Among other things, the Annual FOIA Report shows how many requests the agency received during the past fiscal year, how many it processed, the disposition of those requests, and the number of requests that remain in the agency’s backlog (requests that are pending beyond the statutory deadlines). 

Since 2011, the Department has presented this data on FOIA.gov in a way so that both the public and agency FOIA professionals can compare trends between agencies and over time.   As more and more people have come to rely on FOIA.gov to track agencies’ FOIA progress, the benefits of providing certain FOIA data more frequently have become clear.

As a result, and as part of the Department of Justice’s Open Government Plan, OIP will be issuing guidance later this month directing all agencies to begin quarterly reporting of four key FOIA statistics.   Beginning with January 2013, agencies will report, for each quarter:

• the number of requests received,
• the number of requests processed,
• the number of requests in their backlog, and
• the status of the agency’s ten overall oldest pending FOIA requests from the previous fiscal year.

Agencies that are decentralized in their FOIA processing will need to provide the data for the first three statistics for each of their individual components as well as for their agency overall.  In keeping with the Department’s longstanding focus on reducing the age of the oldest pending requests, for the fourth statistic agencies will be required to report on how many of their agency’s ten overall oldest pending FOIA requests from the previous fiscal year were closed during each quarter. 

To assist agencies in submitting the data OIP will be providing a uniform template for all agencies to use and, for the first time, collecting this data through the use of an Applied Programming Interface (or API).

With the quarterly reporting of these key FOIA statistics, the public will be able to more regularly track government FOIA administration throughout the year.  Emerging trends and patterns for the entire government, both in terms of the numbers of incoming requests received and the numbers of requests agencies processed and closed, will be available systematically during the course of the year, thereby shining further light on FOIA across the government.

The Office of Information Policy (OIP) engages in a wide range of activities and events throughout the year to meet the Justice Department’s responsibility to encourage FOIA compliance throughout the Executive Branch.  As one of the core parts of that mission, OIP works to ensure that agencies receive the best and most up to date training on all aspects of the FOIA. 

In conjunction with the Office of Legal Education, OIP provides regular training courses throughout the year, ranging from introductory sessions for non-FOIA personnel to advanced programs for highly experienced FOIA personnel. Additionally, our office also continually offers specialized training on particular topics, such as our training on Exemption 2 in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Milner v. Department of the Navy, or our FOIA Fee Summit which addressed a particularly technical aspect of the FOIA.  This summer we also launched the Director’s Lecture Series which provided an opportunity for FOIA professionals to interact directly with the Director of OIP on a range of FOIA topics. 

In addition to all of the training opportunities offered by OIP, our staff is also available to participate in FOIA training offered by individual agencies.  OIP subject matter experts, including the Director and Chief of Staff, are frequent speakers at FOIA training events and conferences held by numerous agencies across the federal government, speaking on such topics as:

• Procedural and Legal Requirements of the FOIA
• FOIA Exemptions
• Litigation Considerations
• President Obama’s FOIA Memorandum and Attorney General Holder’s FOIA Guidelines
• Milestones for Improving FOIA Administration

OIP can provide speakers on specific topics for a full range of events, from an informal session, such as an agency FOIA brown-bag meeting to discuss FOIA fees, to a formal two-day training conference that addresses all aspects of the FOIA.  We can also provide an executive briefing to senior officials who would like a general overview of the FOIA as well as hands-on working sessions for FOIA professionals who work directly with the FOIA every day.  OIP can design a customized training session, focusing on those areas that are of greatest importance to any particular agency.  Whatever the training needs are, OIP can tailor a training session to meet those needs and goals, to help ensure that all agency personnel have access to the best FOIA training possible.    

If you have a question on or would like to register for any upcoming training offered by OIP, or would like to get information on having our staff conduct a training or participate in a scheduled training for your agency,  please contact OIP’s training officer, Bertina Adams Cleveland, at Bertina.Adams@usdoj.gov, or call (202) 514-1010.

As a part of his 2009 FOIA Guidelines, Attorney General Holder directed the Chief FOIA Officers at each agency to review “all aspects of their agencies’ FOIA administration” and to report annually to the Justice Department on the steps taken “improve FOIA operations and facilitate information disclosure.”  These “Chief FOIA Officer Reports” provide descriptions of the steps agencies have taken to improve FOIA administration and serve as a complement to the agencies’ Annual FOIA Reports, which contain detailed statistics on the numbers of requests received and processed during the preceding fiscal year.

Last year, the Office of Information Policy (OIP) conducted an assessment of the progress made in FOIA administration by the fifteen executive departments.  OIP identified metrics for assessment, such as improvements to efficiency and reduction in backlogs, and then used data from both agency Annual FOIA Reports and Chief FOIA Officer Reports to score the agencies on their progress in those areas.   

For 2012, we have expanded the assessment to include all ninety-nine agencies subject to the FOIA in fiscal year 2011. We also have changed several of the metrics, taking into account the progress that has already been made in implementing the FOIA Guidelines to make the assessment progressively more challenging.   

For 2012, we have also prepared a narrative to accompany the assessment. The narrative provides a wealth of examples from large and small agencies of the improvements that have been made to help improve the FOIA process.   Lastly, OIP has included guidance to agencies to assist them in making additional improvements in the years ahead.

The 2012 assessment provides a “visual snapshot” of agency activities in five key areas, specifically:

• applying the presumption of openness,
• increasing efficiencies,
• making information available proactively,
• using technology, and
• reducing backlogs and improving timeliness. 

The assessment is meant to “readily [illustrate] the many areas where agencies have made real progress and also serves to highlight the areas where further improvement can be made.”  Notably, our review found that:

“Agencies continue to make concrete progress in implementing the President’s FOIA Memorandum and the Attorney General’s FOIA Guidelines.  The 2012 assessment shows that agencies are applying the presumption of openness, are taking steps to ensure that they have effective systems in place for responding to requests, are increasing both the content on their websites and its usability, and are offering requesters the opportunity to submit requests electronically.”

At the same time, the assessment shows that there are areas where further improvements can be made.  For example, while sixty-six agencies either had no backlog of pending requests or were able to reduce an existing backlog, there were others whose backlogs increased.  Similarly, while sixty-eight agencies closed all of their ten oldest pending requests, or had none pending to close, there were others who did not meet this milestone.

By assessing agencies on a wide variety of factors that all contribute to improving information disclosure, the public, as well as the agencies themselves, can readily see where agencies have excelled, and where further work can still be done, in improving the administration of the FOIA.

You can access the 2012 Chief FOIA Officer Report Summary and Assessment, along with summaries from previous years, success stories from the Chief FOIA Officer Reports, and the reports themselves on our reports page.

This Fourth of July marked the forty-sixth anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson’s signing of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).  Amending the disclosure section of the Administrative Procedure Act, the FOIA transformed what had widely been considered a withholding statute to a disclosure statute that would provide the greatest possible access to federal agency records. 

The significance of this new law was emphasized at the very beginning with Attorney General Clark’s June 1967 memorandum on the implementation of the FOIA.  Issued to executive departments and agencies one month before the law took effect, the Attorney General declared:

“If the government is to be truly of, by, and for the people, the people must know in detail the activities of government.  Nothing so diminishes democracy as secrecy.  Self-government, the maximum participation of the citizenry in affairs of state, is meaningful only with an informed public.”

Forty-six years later, the importance of the FOIA’s enactment could not be clearer, as the public’s use of the FOIA to access government information has grown considerably since its implementation.  Between 1967 and 1971, the first four years the FOIA was in effect, the Justice Department received only 535 FOIA requests.  This past fiscal year alone, the Department received 63,103 FOIA requests, and the federal government as a whole received nearly 645,000 requests.

With the public’s use of the FOIA increasing year after year, agencies continue to embrace President Obama’s FOIA Memorandum and Attorney General Holder’s FOIA Guidelines by making more information available to the public.  Federal agencies recently highlighted these efforts in their 2012 Chief FOIA Officer Reports, released during Sunshine Week 2012.  Many agencies have answered the President’s call to administer the FOIA with a presumption of openness and to increase the use of technology and proactive disclosures to put more information into the hands of the public without the need of a FOIA request.

As progress continues to be made in various aspects of FOIA administration, there is still room for improvement.  In the upcoming weeks, OIP will issue a comprehensive assessment of agencies’ progress in their administration of the FOIA this past year, with guidance for further improvement. 

With agencies continuing to receive record numbers of FOIA requests each year and taking steps to improve their administration of the FOIA, it is important to look back at the history of the law and celebrate its development over the past forty-six years in providing a foundation for a more open government and informed citizenry.  

Signed into law in 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, the FOIA provides the public a right of access to records that exist and can be located in the files of one hundred federal departments and agencies.  Contact information for each of these departments and agencies, and any of their component offices, is available on FOIA.gov.  Through FOIA.gov you can also see frequently asked questions and answers about the FOIA, search across government websites for information already available to the public, and compare data from agency Annual FOIA Reports. 

While the FOIA covers the Executive Branch of the federal government, it is important to remember that the law does not apply to the Legislative Branch (Congress) or the Judicial Branch (U.S. Courts), nor does it apply to state and local governments.  However, the entities and institutions that make up these other two branches of the federal government, and other levels of government around the country, provide a wealth of information to the public through means other than the FOIA. 

The Library of Congress maintains THOMAS, an online legislative database covering records from the 101^st Congress (1989-1991) to the present, as well as various records of the 93^rd Congress (1973-1975) to the 100^th (1987-1989).  The database provides information on current and past legislation, access to committee reports, and copies of the Congressional Record.  Additionally, members of Congress offer many services to their constituents or can be of assistance with various concerns if contacted directly.  Contact information for members of the House of Representatives and the Senate is available online as well.

Additionally, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts operates the United States Courts website, which details how the federal judiciary operates at various levels, from the U.S. District Courts to the U.S. Supreme Court.  The website provides statistics from the federal judiciary, details of fees associated with the courts, copies of various court forms, and information on how to obtain court records.

Furthermore, all state governments have enacted their own open records or public information laws.  While the scope of these laws can vary by jurisdiction, they offer similar rights of access to state and local records.  If you are interested in obtaining records from a state or local government, USA.gov provides a comprehensive list of state and local government websites to help guide your request. 

It is important to remember that in addition to the FOIA, there are multiple ways to access information from the various branches of the federal government, as well as from state and local entities.  Depending on the type of records you seek, the resources provided here will assist you in finding the right source for the information.

Since 2009, the Justice Department has maintained a very active social media presence, operating accounts through such networks as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, in addition to regular posts on The Justice Blog.  As a part of the Open Government Plan version 2.0, the department noted that this presence has and will continue to expand as various components and offices begin participating in various social media platforms.

Last week, our office and the Criminal Division joined the FBI, ATF, Civil Rights Division, Executive Office of Immigration Review, the department’s human resources office, as well as various individual U.S. Attorney offices on Twitter.  The micro-blogging platform allows for the rapid sharing of information to a wide network of interested parties.  The accounts for the various department components on Twitter are:

• The Justice Department – @TheJusticeDept
• Office of Information Policy - @FOIAPost
• Criminal Division – @CrimDivision
• FBI Press Office – @FBIPressOffice
• ATF – @ATFHQ
• Civil Rights Division – @CivilRights
• Executive Office of Immigration Review – @DOJ_EOIR
• DOJ Human Resources – @DOJHR
• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Missouri – @USAO_WDMO
• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Michigan – @USAO_MIE

Additionally for the last two years, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services has operated a Facebook page to:

“better connect and spread information to educate the public about a variety of criminal justice issues that affect the implementation of community policing and to spread the word about the many resources made available by the office to assist law enforcement practitioners in more effectively addressing crime and social disorder in their communities.”

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has also made unique use of the department’s YouTube channel, creating a specialized playlist of NIJ clips.  Later this year, NIJ will launch their own channel on the video sharing site, as well as joining Facebook and Twitter.

It is important to remember that the availability and sharing of information is not only a vital part of the department’s open government efforts, but also can be an integral part of the FOIA process itself.  As agencies and offices continue to proactively disclose information online, it is important that the public be made aware of such releases.  Social media offers government offices an efficient way to notify the public of proactive disclosures.  Additionally, by utilizing social media, agencies can rapidly convey information to a broad audience, in a timely fashion, keeping with the FOIA’s goal of letting the public know what their government is doing.

These are just a few examples of the department’s current and planned social media activities and you can read more about these efforts in the Open Government Plan version 2.0.