DOJ Announces the First Iteration of the New National FOIA Portal on FOIA.gov
Dep't of Justice Office of Info. Pol'y Blog, Mar. 8, 2018
Today the Department of Justice (DOJ) released the first iteration of the National FOIA Portal on FOIA.gov. The FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 directed the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and DOJ to build a “consolidated online request portal that allows a member of the public to submit a request for records . . . to any agency from a single website.” In April 2017, the Office of Information Policy (OIP) announced its partnership with the General Services Administration’s (GSA) 18F team to create the National FOIA Portal.
[. . .] DOJ is looking forward to receiving feedback from both requesters and agencies to inform future decisions on enhancing the portal going forward. Feedback can be sent directly to OIP at National.FOIAPortal@usdoj.gov.
Read more here.
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Justice Department sets up one-stop shop for FOIA requests
Jory Heckman, Fed. News Radio, Mar. 8, 2018
The government’s Freedom of Information Act website has taken its first step to becoming a one-stop shop for FOIA requests governmentwide.
The Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy (OIP) launched the first iteration of its National FOIA Portal on Thursday through a redesign of its existing FOIA.gov website.
With the launch of the new portal, members of the public can now submit a FOIA request to any federal agency from a single site. The site also features new tools to help users find the agency best suited to answer their requests for information.
Read more here.
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What's New in Civic Tech: U.S. Justice Department Launches News FOIA.gov Site
Zack Quaintance, Gov't Tech., Mar. 8, 2018
In news that will surely be of interest to the civic tech and open data crowds, the U.S. Justice Department has launched a new FOIA.gov site, redesigning the online portal through which citizens can request information under the Freedom of Information Act.
Transparency groups have praised the redesign, which was mandated by Congress in 2016, describing it as a significant improvement over the previous FOIA.gov. The Sunlight Foundation, an open data advocacy group, noted that while the new version of the site won’t fix all of the nation’s transparency law issues, it is a “modern, responsive website based upon open standards and open source frameworks.”
Sunlight also notes that the new site was built by 18F, a federal tech consultancy housed within the General Services Administration, with funding from the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy. Transparency groups are likely to most appreciate the developer resources available through the new FOIA.gov, including an API.
Read more here.