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
Earlier this week the Senate Judiciary Committee proposed it’s amended “FOIA Improvement Act of 2014 and it is set for passage through the lame-duck session of Congress. Upon its release, open government advocates and FOIA followers jumped to voice their opinion of the new proposed bill, and this FOIA
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
A White House press release posted last month celebrated the third anniversary of the day President Obama joined the leaders of seven other nations to launch the Open Government Partnership (OGP) with four new open government initiatives. The OGP is an international coalition dedicated to promoting transparency and civic engagement.
With the start of the new fiscal year still in our shadow, it is a great time for all FOIA compliant agencies and offices to implement initiatives to increase transparency and open government. It is important to remember that the purpose of the FOIA is to provide the
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
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
