Category: US Department of Justice

Source: United States Department of Justice

As Fiscal Year 2015 is quickly drawing to an end, agencies are hard at work processing more and more requests to close out the year strongly.  OIP encourages agencies to focus these last weeks of the fiscal year on their FOIA administration to help reduce any backlogs.  One of the main tools agencies use for tracking the efficiency of their FOIA workflows and ensuring the accuracy of their Annual FOIA Report is their case management system.       

A key component of President Obama’s FOIA Memorandum is the direction to “use modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and done by their Government.”  Over the past several years agencies have reported in their Chief FOIA Officer Reports widespread use of technology in receiving and tracking FOIA requests and preparing agency Annual FOIA Reports. 

Agencies currently use various case management systems for tracking and processing their FOIA requests, and each agency should ensure that they are using the system that best serves their particular FOIA needs.  As outlined in DOJ’s Annual FOIA Report Handbook, agencies are ultimately responsible for the quality of their Annual FOIA Report data.  They should exercise due diligence in testing their systems to ensure accuracy for the benefit of both their year-end reports as well as workflow reports that they rely on during the year to manage their FOIA administration. 

At the Department of Justice, our components use a number of different methods and tools to track their FOIA requests tailored to their unique needs.  OIP has been working with EPA to develop enhancements to FOIAonline, the EPA’s multi-agency FOIA tracking system, that meet our specific needs, and we are pleased to announce that beginning in early 2016, OIP will be using FOIAonline as our case management system.  In addition to tracking the requests it processes and the Department’s administrative FOIA appeals, OIP will be using FOIAonline to prepare and validate the Department’s Annual FOIA Report. 

OIP’s use of FOIAonline builds on the great work between OIP, EPA, and the partner agencies that has existed from the very beginning of FOIAonline.  OIP has worked closely with EPA and the FOIAonline partners from the start to ensure the system produces an accurate Annual FOIA Report, as well as to make sure that any enhancements function appropriately in compliance with the FOIA statute and DOJ guidance. 

OIP is excited to be working with EPA on the development of additional enhancements to FOIAonline and the future possibilities for how FOIAonline can assist agencies with their FOIA case management needs. 

Source: United States Department of Justice

OIP offers a number of FOIA training opportunities throughout the year as a part of our responsibility to encourage agency compliance with the FOIA. For Fiscal Year 2016, the dates and topics for our regularly scheduled training sessions are:

This year, OIP is offering two new courses – a FOIA Processing Workshop and a program entitled Continuing FOIA Education. The FOIA Processing Workshop is a half-day program designed to take attendees through the steps of processing a FOIA request one-on-one in a small class setting. The Continuing FOIA Education course is designed as a program for experienced FOIA professionals with lectures on new or recent developments in FOIA administration as well as an update on recent FOIA court decisions. The dates for these new course offerings are:

All of these seminars will be held in Washington DC, and are open to all federal government employees. Information about registration, general topics covered, and class sizes for each course are available on the Training page of our site. The Training page also includes descriptions of each course, general topics covered, and the intended audience.

In addition to these scheduled training programs, OIP also offers various other training programs and workshops throughout the year such as our Best Practices Workshop series and our refresher training on the preparation of Agency Annual FOIA and Chief FOIA Officer Reports. Details on all of our training opportunities will always be announced here on FOIA Post and through OIP’s Twitter account, @FOIAPost.

To register for any of the training seminars listed above, please email your name to OIP’s Training Staff at DOJ.OIP.FOIA@usdoj.gov. In the subject line of your email, please specify the name of the course and the date you wish to attend the training. If registering multiple individuals, please include email addresses for each individual in the registration message. Once you are registered, you will be sent a confirmation email with the location of the training. Any questions regarding these training opportunities may also be directed to OIP’s Training Staff at (202) 514-FOIA (3642).

Source: United States Department of Justice

Since 2010, agency Chief FOIA Officers have submitted to the Department of Justice an annual report detailing all of their agency’s efforts in implementing President Obama’s and Attorney General Holder’s FOIA Memoranda. These Chief FOIA Officer Reports have served as a valuable resource for agencies to describe the various initiatives undertaken to improve their administration of the FOIA.  With the completion of agencies’ 2015 Chief FOIA Officer Reports this past Sunshine Week, today OIP releases its summary and assessment of these reports and the progress made in implementing Attorney General Holder’s 2009 FOIA Guidelines.

Similar to last year, this year’s summary is broken down into five parts detailing the efforts of agencies in each of the five key areas from Attorney General Holder’s 2009 FOIA Guidelines:

• Applying the Presumption of Openness,
• Having Effective Systems for Responding to Requests,
• Making Information Available Proactively,
• Utilizing Technology, and
• Reducing Backlogs and Improving Timeliness.

Agencies and the public are encouraged to read both OIP’s summary and each agency’s individual report to learn more about the various efforts and steps taken over the last reporting year to improve the administration of the FOIA across the government.

In addition to the summary, OIP’s 2015 assessment once again provides a visual snapshot of agency efforts in several key areas of FOIA administration. The assessment includes all of the enhanced features introduced last year, including an expanded five-step scoring system, overall scores for each assessed section, and the inclusion of a detailed methodology. The full assessment is provided in both an open format and in PDF.

As announced in September 2014, a significant change for agency 2015 Chief FOIA Officer Reports is the separate reporting requirements for large and small volume FOIA agencies. This difference is incorporated into the 2015 assessment so that the milestones are tailored to the distinctive FOIA processes at different size agencies.

Finally, as a part of the 2015 summary and assessment, OIP has once again included guidance based on our review of the 2015 reports to assist agencies in making further improvements in the years ahead.

Based on our review of agency 2015 Chief FOIA Officer Reports, and as stated in OIP’s summary and assessment, “agencies have persevered through a difficult year of tight resources and ever-increasing demands to continue improving their administration of the FOIA through various initiatives connected to the five key areas of Attorney General Holder’s 2009 FOIA Guidelines.” At the same time, the level of success achieved by agencies in these efforts varies and there is still work to be done. OIP’s yearly assessment is intended to serve as a vehicle to both recognize agency successes and to identify areas where further improvement can be made.

You can read OIP’s 2015 Summary and Assessment of Agency Chief FOIA Officer Reports on our Reports page alongside previous summaries and assessments. OIP’s guidance for further improvement based on our review of agency 2015 Chief FOIA Officer Reports is available as a part of this year’s summary as well as on our Guidance page.

Source: United States Department of Justice

This week, the Privacy Office at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) became the first federal agency to release a FOIA mobile application. You can read about the features of the new app in a post on DHS’ blog from their Chief Privacy Officer, Karen Neuman which is also reprinted below. OIP applauds the ingenuity of DHS as they implement innovative approaches to FOIA administration.

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Submit a FOIA request anytime, anywhere

By: Karen Neuman, Chief Privacy Officer

I am pleased to announce the release of a new mobile application to further simplify and enhance the process for submitting Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The Department of Homeland Security is committed to transparency and accountability and the eFOIA app is the latest in a series of efforts that the DHS Privacy Office has taken to help modernize FOIA processes and improve the customer experience. In fact, this is the first FOIA mobile app in the entire Federal Government.

Using their mobile devices, requesters can now submit requests and check the status of existing requests anyplace, anytime.

Key features of the new eFOIA app will allow users to:

• Submit a FOIA request to any DHS Component
• Check the status of FOIA requests
• Access all of the content on the FOIA website, including the FOIA Library
• Receive updates, changes to events–such as stakeholder meetings/conference calls held by the Department, and recently published documents

DHS receives the largest number of FOIA requests of any federal agency, and produces the largest number of responses. We are continually working to improve our FOIA program by deploying advanced technology both for submitting and processing requests. These efforts include an improved online FOIA submission form, as well as a recently launched online check status capability.

As a result of these efforts, we are starting to see a steady reduction in the FOIA backlog. Since the beginning of Fiscal Year 2015, DHS has reduced its FOIA backlog by 20 percent, from 103,480 to 82,324 as of July 1, 2015.

The DHS Privacy Office created the eFOIA app in partnership with the DHS Office of the Chief Information Officer.

The free app is currently available for all Apple and Android devices.

Source: United States Department of Justice

President Obama and Attorney General Holder emphasized in their FOIA Memoranda the importance of agencies working with FOIA requesters “in a spirit of cooperation.”  A key element of that cooperation is establishing and maintaining good communication with requesters.  In 2010, before the first anniversary of the issuance of Attorney General Holder’s FOIA Guidelines, the Office of Information Policy (OIP) issued guidance entitled The Importance of Good Communication with FOIA Requesters.  That guidance addressed several ways in which agencies could improve their communication practices. 

One of the topics addressed in OIP’s 2010 guidance was the use of  what is known as a “still-interested” inquiry, i.e., when an agency asks a requester whether he or she remains interested in the continued processing of their request.  OIP’s 2010 guidance advised agencies to be “mindful of the manner in which such inquiries are made,” and to afford requesters a reasonable amount of time to indicate their continued interest.

Today, OIP has released new guidance designed to further improve the way “still-interested” inquiries are utilized by agencies.  As noted in this new guidance:

“While use of ‘still-interested’ inquiries is an understandable way to help ensure that agency resources are appropriately spent processing requests for records where the requester remains interested in receiving the documents, it is equally important that requesters are not in any way disadvantaged by their use.”

The new guidance outlines a series of procedures that agencies should use when inquiring whether a requester remains interested in the continued processing of his or her request. 

These include:

• Reasonable Grounds to Make “Still-Interested” Inquiry in the First Instance – any “still-interested” inquiry should be limited to those situations where the agency has a reasonable basis to conclude that  the  requester’s interest in the records may have changed;
   
• Limiting the Number of Times “Still-Interested” Inquiries are Made – absent good cause, agencies should not inquire more than once whether a requester is still interested in the request;
   
• Using Requester’s Preferred Method of Communicating – email or telephone are often the most efficient ways to communicate with requesters and should be used as the default;
   
• Providing Requesters with a Reasonable Amount of Time and Method to Respond to “Still-Interested” Inquiries – the time period to allow requesters to respond to “still-interested” inquiries should be no shorter than thirty (30) working days and a simple response over the telephone, a reply to an email, or the checking of a box on a self-addressed form are all examples of easy methods that agencies can make available to requesters so that they can most readily respond to the inquiry; and
   
• Ensuring Requesters are Not Disadvantaged – in the event  a requester responds to a “still-interested” inquiry within a reasonable time after the deadline has passed, agencies should simply reopen the request and place it back into the agency’s queue in the same position it would have been had the “still-interested” inquiry not been sent.

Agencies should review their procedures on the use of “still-interested” inquiries to ensure they are in conformity with this new guidance.  OIP has prepared an implementation checklist to assist agencies in doing so. 

The full text of the guidance and its accompanying checklist, along with all other guidance issued by OIP, is available on our guidance page.