I am pleased to announce the members I have selected for the 2018-2020 term of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Advisory Committee. I was happy to renew the Committee’s charter for an additional two-year term (2018-2020) so that members may continue to address FOIA’s greatest challenges. In response to our call for nominations in April 2018, I was pleased to see such a high level of interest in the Committee. We received nominations for a number of highly-qualified individuals, making it that much more difficult to select Committee members for this term.
The National Archives launched the FOIA Advisory Committee to allow agency FOIA professionals and requesters to collaboratively develop recommendations to improve the administration of FOIA and chart a path for how FOIA should operate in the future. In April 2018, the 2016-2018 term of the FOIA Advisory Committee presented me with a 31-page Final Report and Recommendations, and I have directed my staff to begin to implement these recommendations.
On September 6, 2018 the FOIA Advisory Committee, chaired by the Director of the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) and supported administratively by OGIS staff, will kick off its third term with a meeting in the William G. McGowan Theater that will be open to the public. At this meeting, I anticipate that Committee members will start their work by brainstorming issues they would like to address during this term and form subcommittees. Subcommittees will be co-chaired by a government and a non-government representative, and the co-chairs will provide updates on the subcommittees’ work to fellow Committee members (and the public) during the Committee’s regular quarterly meetings. You can keep up with the Committee’s work by visiting the Committee’s webpage, or reading OGIS’s blog, FOIA Ombudsman.