U.S. Federal Agencies Announce Limited Trial of “Release For One, Release To All” FOIA Policy

UPDATED July 21 NARA Participation in New FOIA Pilot

NARA is participating in the pilot for FOIA requests for the operational records that NARA creates as a federal agency, which are managed by NARA’s Office of General Counsel. FOIA requests for NARA’s archival records from federal agencies and at Presidential Libraries, as well as the records controlled by NARA’s National Personnel Records Center are not included in this pilot project. For privacy reasons, NARA will not post online any FOIA responses to requests in which individuals seek access to information about themselves. NARA has posted some records on FOIAonline in response to certain FOIA requests, and now plans to begin posting all FOIA releases for operational records in August 2015.

From the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press:

With little public fanfare, seven federal agencies have announced a controversial trial program of publishing documents responsive to most Freedom of Information Act requests online.
Under the program, known as a “Release-to-One is Release-to-All” policy, any member of the public will presumably have access to the result of almost any FOIA request.
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Agencies participating in the six-month pilot include the Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and certain components of the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the National Archives and Records Administration.

Additional Details in the Complete RCFP Blog Post and an Official Announcement (via DoD; Also Embedded Below)

FOIA Policy Pilots

Filed under: Academic Libraries, Archives and Special Collections, Libraries, News, Publishing