The FOIA Ombudsman

On January 21, 2013, representatives of 12 agencies and several requester groups gathered to discuss online FOIA “libraries.” The Attorney General’s 2009 FOIA Memorandum encouraged agencies to post information online in advance of a formal request. Many agencies’ FOIA regulations also require them to post records for which they receive multiple requests, and other agencies [...]

Did you know that agencies are required under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 USC § 552(a)(2), to make available to the public five categories of records: final opinions, including concurring and dissenting opinions and orders, made in adjudicated cases; policy statements not published in the Federal Register; administrative staff manuals and instructions that [...]

OGIS will offer an all-day Dispute Resolution Skills for FOIA Professionals training program on Monday December 3, 2012, at the National Archives building in Washington, D.C. While we’ve offered this training program — which equips FOIA professionals with practical communications and dispute resolution skills — for nearly three years, this session will be a little [...]

Conflict Resolution Week is October 15-19, 2012. To help celebrate, the federal Interagency Alternative Dispute Resolution Working Group is sponsoring a number of events. OGIS is pleased to be part of that celebration by offering the upcoming brown bag meeting/teleconference, “Dispute Resolution’s Impact on the FOIA Framework.” If you are interested in how OGIS is using [...]

Documents declassified by the government’s highest classification authority will soon be posted online in a new government declassification portal, a Federal declassification expert said at a July 25, 2012 FOIA Requester Roundtable. William C. Carpenter of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) at the National Archives provided tips on a variety of declassification issues and [...]

FOIA and Mandatory Declassification Reviews (MDRs) have some things in common — for instance, both provide access to information — but in practical terms they are very different. If you would like to learn more about both, please join OGIS, the Information Security Oversight Office and the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy for the next FOIA [...]

Note: An OGIS-sponsored forum on immigration records on May 23 brought together FOIA professionals from agencies which maintain immigration records with immigration attorneys and others interested in such records. The FOIA Ombudsman: Information & Advice is spot-lighting each agency, the types of immigration records each holds and tips for obtaining those records under FOIA. U.S. [...]

Immigration records offer a wealth of valuable information for immigrants, genealogists, journalists, academic researchers and others. However, several agencies maintain immigration records, so finding them can challenge even the savviest FOIA requester. Join agency representatives and requesters for an OGIS Forum on immigration records on Wednesday, May 23, from 10:00 a.m. to noon. This event, [...]

Have you ever wondered why it takes so long for an agency to find responsive records after you make a FOIA request? After all, isn’t there a “Government Google” that allows an agency to search its records with a few keystrokes? Or, have you received a FOIA fee estimate in the thousands of dollars because [...]

OGIS is pleased to announce that we’re sponsoring a unique event to mark Sunshine Week (March 9-16, 2012), a celebration of government openness. Our parent agency, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), is acknowledging Sunshine Week by showcasing the original Freedom of Information Act, Public Law 89-487. The original historic document will be available [...]