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FOUO and FOIA: Two Letters (Should) Make All the Difference

In 2010 transparency advocates welcomed an important new Executive Order that promised to phase out the use of confusing stamps like For Official Use Only (FOUO) and make sure that such markings were not used by agencies to deny the public access to information. However, as Patrice McDermott testified before a House subcommittee this week, intransigence and resistance from some agencies has drawn out the process so that it will be 2018, 2019 and beyond before agencies stop using these stamps. And, as we learned from a story posted by Jason Leopold on the Guardian earlier this week, the public is still not seeing the benefits that should have begun almost immediately. What should the government do to make sure agencies are not using the delay in implementation to keep information from the public?

  • 06/02/2014

Partners Release Model FOIA Regulations

Last week several OTG partners released a “model FOIA regulation” in advance of the launch of an effort by the Office of Information Policy (OIP) at the Department of Justice to develop a common FOIA regulation that all agencies can adopt. As you may know, each of the 99 agencies that process FOIA requests have a FOIA regulation that explains in detail how the agency implements the law, and what requesters must do to have their request processed.

  • 05/27/2014

The Barron Nomination and the Second Circuit Drone Case

The Obama Administration has not yet announced whether it will appeal a recent Second Circuit order to disclose an Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) on the legal justification for the killing of U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki.

  • 05/20/2014

Senators and OpenTheGovernment.org Call for Greater Disclosure of OLC Drone Memos

David Barron, the author of a July 16, 2010 Office of Legal Counsel opinion on the legal basis for targeted killing of a United States citizen, has been nominated for a judgeship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

  • 05/08/2014

USA FREEDOM Needs Its Transparency Provisions Back

The House Judiciary Committee will, after months of delay, mark up an amended version of the bipartisan USA FREEDOM Act tomorrow. But many of the original bill’s most important transparency provisions have been removed or modified.

  • 05/06/2014

Court Rules for Disclosure on Targeted Killing Program

On April 21, in New York Times Co. v. United States, the Second Circuit ordered the Executive Branch to make public crucial information about the targeted killing program. OpenTheGovernment.org had signed an amicus brief spearheaded by the Electronic Information Privacy Center (EPIC) arguing for this outcome.

The court ordered:

  • 04/29/2014

Recent FOIA Response on OLC Memos Underscores Need for More Openness

Recently Ryan Reilly, a reporter at the Huffington Post, tweeted out a picture of a list of unclassified opinions by the Office of Legal Counsel in 2013 that he received in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The problem? The title of all but one of the memos listed was redacted using FOIA's Exemption 5, which (as we highlighted in recent testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee) is known among FOIA requester's as the "we don't want to give it to you exemption."

  • 04/25/2014

DOD FOIA Response Adds a New Meaning to the Term "Snail Mail"

In today's mail we received a new example that illustrates why we called the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) "anything but an efficient and effective tool that the public can use to get timely access to government records" in our recent testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee: a final response to a FOIA request we made to the Department of Defense (DOD) almost a year and a half ago, and that DOD had told use to expect within "

  • 04/15/2014

Quigley Introduces Omnibus Transparency Bill

Rep. Mike Quigley introduced the Transparency in Government Act on March 13th. The bill is wide-ranging and comprehensive, addressing transparency issues across all branches of government.

  • 03/18/2014

Clinton White House Records Released, No Assertion of Privilege

On February 28th, the former President’s Library released several thousand pages of records from the Clinton White House. Under the Presidential Records Act, records may be withheld for processing for up to 12 years after a president leaves office.

  • 03/04/2014

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Testimony to Congress

OTG recently testified on the progress of efforts to stop the use of markings like “FOUO.” Agencies inappropriately use such markings to withhold information requested under FOIA. See our testimony here.

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