Associate Attorney General Gupta: Good morning! The American Society of Access Professionals
does such important work to ensure broader access to government information and to support
the professionals across the government. It is a privilege to be a part of this year’s
National Training Conference. I appreciate the chance to speak with all
of you about the Justice Department’s commitment to a government that is open, transparent,
and accountable to the people we serve. The timing of this Conference is especially
fitting — I am guessing some of you know this, but the upcoming Fourth of July holiday
marks not only the birth of our Nation but also the 57th anniversary of the passage of
the Freedom of Information Act. I don’t need to tell anyone at this Conference
that the Freedom of Information Act is a critical tool in ensuring the public’s access to
government records, and thereby, in preserving our democracy. In my time outside of government, I relied
on the FOIA’s disclosure mandates in a variety of roles and contexts. I have seen firsthand, from the perspective
of a FOIA requester and someone who studied and used government records released under
the FOIA, the importance of the FOIA for the American public and our understanding of what
the government is up to. As this group well knows, it is through the
FOIA that journalists, civil society, and the public remain informed in order to make
real our ideal of a democracy governed by the people and for the people. As the Associate Attorney General, I am honored
to serve as the Justice Department’s Chief FOIA Officer and to work closely with our
Office of Information Policy, or OIP, which provides training, guidance, and resources
on the FOIA to employees and agencies from all corners of the federal government. I also oversee the Civil Division, which represents
both the Justice Department and other parts of the federal government in FOIA litigation. As Chief FOIA Officer, I also see up close
the substantial agency resources that we dedicate to administering the FOIA, and through OIP,
I have an understanding of what many of you are helping to make happen in your agencies. Every year, agencies across the federal government
receive and process between 800,000 and 900,000 requests, releasing millions of pages of records
to the public. Just last year, the federal government processed
a record high of 878,420 requests. And on top of this, agencies reported making
over 32 million proactive disclosures to the public on their websites. My thanks go out to those of you in the audience
who put in the many, many hours of hard work to process this record-high number of requests
and comply with the FOIA to make records public. Recognizing the importance of the FOIA in
building our public trust and preserving our democratic institutions, last year the Attorney General
issued new FOIA guidelines for the federal government that update and strengthen our
commitment to transparency in government operations. The 2022 guidelines direct the heads of all
Executive Branch departments and agencies to apply a presumption of openness in administering
the FOIA. “In case of doubt,” the guidelines instruct,
“openness should prevail.” The guidelines make clear that the Justice
Department will not defend nondisclosure decisions that fail to apply such a presumption. And the guidelines also emphasize the importance
of proactive disclosures. The guidelines also direct federal departments
and agencies to continue efforts to remove barriers to access—through requests and
otherwise—to reduce processing backlogs. I know that work is not always easy, but it
is important. At the Justice Department last year, we made
a change to a longstanding policy in our Executive Office for Immigration Review that had required
individuals to file FOIA requests to access official copies of their own records of immigration
court proceedings. We determined that not only was this not a
good or sensible use of the FOIA, but it was also contributing to huge backlogs in the
Department’s FOIA processing. The policy change was important, and our efforts
are ongoing to make those records more easily accessible to individuals who want them and
to reduce a backlog of requests overall. And the guidelines explicitly recognize what
I touched on earlier: The federal government could not process the hundreds of thousands
of FOIA requests we receive every year without our dedicated corps of FOIA professionals. I am sure many of you know of, and I am guessing
you agree with, the Justice Department’s long-held view that the “FOIA is everyone’s
responsibility.” But the true promise of the FOIA is made real
by the FOIA professionals who day in and day out interact with FOIA requesters, who each
year conduct detailed reviews of millions of pages of government records, and who scrupulously
balance the FOIA’s presumption of disclosure while safeguarding important interests such
as personal privacy and national security. Since the issuance of the Attorney General’s
2022 guidelines, OIP has been working with agencies on implementation. And because he is one of the biggest FOIA
enthusiasts I know, I am sure Bobby Talebian, our amazing Director of the Office of Information
Policy, won’t mind my offering him up—along with his team—as a key resource to help
those of you who administer the FOIA at your agencies. Agencies’ efforts to implement the Attorney
General’s 2022 guidelines are detailed in each agency’s 2023 Chief FOIA Officer Reports,
released earlier this year. This was the first year that agency Chief
FOIA Officers reported on efforts directly tied to the 2022 guidelines. In these reports, agencies discussed their
efforts to apply a presumption of openness in administering the FOIA, ensure a fair and
effective FOIA administration, increase proactive disclosures, utilize technology, remove barriers
to access, improve timeliness, and reduce backlogs. To assist agencies in implementing the guidelines,
in March, OIP issued new guidance to agencies on applying the guidelines to administer the
FOIA with a presumption of openness, including through the application of the foreseeable
harm standard. Among other things, this OIP guidance highlights
the need for agencies to process records with an eye toward disclosure by applying the FOIA’s
foreseeable harm analysis on a case-by-case basis. This guidance also underscores the importance
of working cooperatively with FOIA requesters. OIP’s Self-Assessment Toolkit is another
new resource that allows agencies to objectively assess their FOIA programs with key guidance
for improvement. The updated Toolkit includes new modules and
milestones to address the administrative appeals process, proactive disclosures, technology,
and the 2022 guidelines. You can find the updated Toolkit, all of OIP’s
FOIA guidance—including the incredibly useful DOJ Guide to the FOIA, access to OIP’s FOIA
Counselor Service, and other resources on the Department’s website: justice.gov/oip. In addition to these resources, OIP also provides—as
it has for years—comprehensive FOIA training to agencies and their employees. Training is available through regularly scheduled
workshops, at the request of agencies, and through standard e-Learning FOIA training
modules that are also available online. I am proud, and frankly impressed, to report
that each year, we provide training to over 7,000 individuals. I urge you to utilize these resources. We at the Justice Department are here to help! And if there’s something that you're not seeing
that you think would be of assistance in your work, please don't hesitate to let OIP know. Before I close, I want to note that the FOIA
was included in the United States’ Fifth Open Government Partnership National Action
Plan, which I think recognizes and helps highlight the global importance of the FOIA. This plan includes three FOIA commitments
that the Justice Department is leading: First, there is the updated Self-Assessment
Toolkit that I mentioned. Second, the Department has committed to further
enhancing the user experience on FOIA.gov by developing a new tool to help requesters
more easily find information. And third, we are working to establish shared
FOIA business standards across the government. More on these efforts to come! I want to again thank the American Society
of Access Professionals for facilitating this important meeting and training opportunity
to celebrate the work all of you are doing to increase government openness and transparency,
to learn from one another, and above all, help advance the proper administration of the FOIA. Thank you.
