FOIA Ombudsman Releases First Part of "Still Interested" Report
In response to a letter from EPIC and open government advocates, the FOIA ombudsman has issued the first part of a report on the use of "still interested" letters by federal agencies. The DHS and other agencies have sent these letters to prematurely terminate FOIA requests. In 2014, an EPIC-led coalition urged the Office of Government Information Services to investigate the pervasive use of such letters. In today's report, OGIS found that there is no "guidance or standard for reporting requests that agencies close" through "still interested" letters, and that it does not yet understand the impact such letters have on FOIA requesters.