On September 3, 2014, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued a notice of proposed changes to the DoD’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) program, 32 C.F.R. Part 286. The proposed rule seeks to promote uniformity in the program and streamline the process to acquire public records through a FOIA request. Among other things, the proposed rule would amend the DoD FOIA website to make it easier and more user-friendly. In addition, the Defense Freedom of Information Policy Office (DFOIPO) will provide and maintain a handbook for the public to use in obtaining information from the DoD – a handbook that is a short, simple explanation of what the FOIA is designed to do and how the public can use it to access DoD records. The handbook will be posted on the DFOIPO website. The rule is also designed to automate tracking, expedite processing and eliminate backlogs of FOIA requests.
Importantly, the proposed rule does not change what documents the public has access to, and does not alter the categories of government information protected from public disclosure by the numerous exemptions and law enforcement record exclusions. What the rule should accomplish is a faster, more efficient and streamlined procedure to ask for and obtain public information from the DoD. Public comment to these changes must be received by the DoD by November 3, 2014.
The proposed rule can be found here.
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