A FOIA reform bill passed unanimously by Senate Judiciary Committee in November may pass the full Senate as early as Friday. The Freedom of Information Act bill has been championed by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) but was today met with a hold placed by Sen. Tom Coburn
Happy Halloween! Tackling a FOIA request may seem daunting, but don’t let that haunt your thoughts. When you break down the FOIA process, it’s not quite as spooky as it might seem at first. Just look to Halloween traditions to help you handle your Freedom of Information requests: Go
This morning for my #Monday #FOIA #Advice tweet, I tweeted about FOIA communications and it started a little buzz and demonstrated it was a well worthy topic for a blog. FOIA communication is not only an essential action for better FOIA processing for requesters and FOIA offices, but also
October 1st marks the beginning of the fiscal year. This week, many government agencies hustled to finalize the requests, budgets, and tasks of FY 2014. As we close out one year and begin fresh, it is an excellent opportunity to take a closer look at the data we have
Aaron Graves with Moe Goswami (CEO) and Quyen LeThis year marked the ninth annual FOIAXpress Users Group Conference, held Thursday, August 21, 2014 at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington D.C. The event brought together more than 200 FOIA workers and their managers from across 50 federal government departments and agencies
Like most businesses, many government agencies and organizations do a lot of their communication through email correspondence. As agencies are steering away from stacks of paper and toward digital file systems there is still some work to be done on the policies that affect these documents. That brings
This year AINS had the honor of hosting Ms. Traci Hughes as keynote speaker for the FOIAXpress Users Group Conference. Ms. Hughes is the inaugural director of D.C’s Office of Open Government. In her role as the Director of the OOG, Hughes acts as FOIA compliance office for the District’s
The world is becoming ever more tech-savvy, and FOIA requestors have come to expect more from their government. We rely on computers for everything from checking job postings to ordering take out. The public has come to expect data at their fingertips thanks to services like Netflix, online
Government agencies deal with tons of FOIA requests every day. There are a lot of steps to processing these requests from receipt to delivery. On top of that, FOIA amendments from 2007 require that agencies release information electronically upon request. Are more requirements on the horizon? Recently, one UK judge took
Government transparency is an important part of running a successful and ethical city. Citizens are more tech-savvy than ever and they are eager to know all they can about their local government. That means they are submitting more Freedom of Information/Privacy Act and other Information Requests than ever. Keeping up with these
