The FOIA blog

Grassley, Issa Want to Know if FOIA Requests Being Blocked

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) have asked Inspector Generals of federal agencies if steps are being taken to limit FOIA responses from certain high profile groups.  This action comes in the wake of the recent news that the Department of Homeland Security required certain FOIA requests to be given more scrutiny depending on the identity of the requester.

Grassley's press release is here.

Fed Loses On Reconsideration Of Emergency Lending Program Data

In March of 2010, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ordered the Federal Reserve ("Fed") to release to Bloomberg, plaintiff in the FOIA lawsuit, details of its emergency lending program it used in 2008.  The Fed appealed to the entire court (for non lawyers, this is called an en banc appeal).  The decision of the full court was recently made, and it affirmed the earlier decision of the three judge panel.  Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has more on the decision here.

The Fed asked for a stay from release so that it could consider whether or not to appeal the matter to the Supreme Court.  According to Bloomberg, the Fed received a 60 day stay to make its decision.  If the appeal is taken by the Supreme Court, it would be the third active FOIA matter before it.

One individual, Stephen Foley writes in from England in the Independent that he believes the decision ordering release of the information should be fought and that disclosure of this material is not warranted.

FOIA Jobs

The American Society for Access Professionals ("ASAP") has these job postings up.

District Court Rules Search Unreasonable

United States District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia has held that the U.S. Army's Medical Examiner did not conduct a reasonable search for records in response to a request for material about deaths that may be related to improper body armor.

Judge Ubina ruled that the government improperly narrowed the request by using the purpose of the request to rule out what it felt were unresponsive documents.  The case can be found here.

Courthouse News Service has more details here.

Friday SEC FOIA Roundup

Here's a link from Firedoglake that looks at the implementation of the financial reform law overall; including the problems with the FOIA exemption given to the SEC.

CIA Wins Most of Its Lawsuit on Terror Suspect Data

United States District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York Loretta A. Preska has ruled that the Central Intelligence Agency has responded adequately to FOIA requests pertaining to records it has on the detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects.  The court upheld most of the CIA's actions from four FOIA requests brought by  by Amnesty International, the Center for Constitutional Rights and Washington Square Legal Services Inc.

The only area that the judge found the CIA lacking was its search for records about the use of the "attention grasp" interrogation technique on top-level terror detainees Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

More details, including the 113 page opinion can be found here at Law.com.

Another Lawmaker On Board to Axe New SEC Powers

Reuters is now reporting that Edolphus Towns (D-NY), the Chair of the House Oversight and Governance Reform Committee has proposed a bill that would eliminate the new powers given to the SEC to withhold material pursuant to the FOIA in the financial reform bill that became law in July.

Representative Towns joins Darrell Issa in proposing legislation to quash the powers.  Rep. Barney Frank recently announced he'll hold hearings on the need for the powers.  A similar bill has also been introduced in the Senate.

DOJ Releases 2010-2011 FOIA Training Schedule

The Department of Justice has released its 2010-2011 FOIA training schedule.  It can be found here.

Most of the training is in Washington, D.C. with the exception of one in Seattle, Washington.  None of the trainings are being held at the Department of Justice's site in Columbia, South Carolina, which the government spent millions of dollars to create in the late 1990's.

One question I often get, and I don't know the answer to concerns contractors.  Are federal contractors who process FOIA requests eligible for this training?

Politico Article On New SEC FOIA Powers

Politico has this article about the SEC's new powers and actions being taken to curtail them.  I'm quoted in the article.

More on SEC

Jack Spillane of SouthCoastToday.com has this on the SEC's new FOIA powers.  His article states that Barney Frank (D-MA) points to Senators Richard Shelby (R-Al) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn)as the source of the law.  Interesting note that Shelby voted against the law he wanted.

Gary Weiss of Portfolio.com has these thoughts on the SEC and its new FOIA powers.