U.S. Department
of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice Sunshine Week Celebration
Guests stand for the National Anthem at the opening ceremony for the U.S. Department of Justice's Sunshine Week Celebration. The fourth anniversary celebration of Sunshine week showcased speakers from different agencies who spoke about the increased efficiency and improvements of FOIA guidelines.
Photo Credit: Lonnie Tague for the Department of Justice
Carmen Mallon delivers opening remarks as she welcomes Office of Information Policy Director Melanie Ann Pustay.
Photo Credit: Lonnie Tague for the Department of Justice
OIP Director Melanie Ann Pustay welcomes everyone to the Department of Justice's fourth anniversary celebration of Sunshine Week. "This past year agencies have once again received more requests than in previous years, yet they rose to the challenge and also processed more requests than ever before."
Photo Credit: Lonnie Tague for the Department of Justice
Bianca Ogden delivers remarks about GSA's efforts to improve FOIA operations. The General Services Administration has used technology to increase efficiency in their office's FOIA operations.
Photo Credit: Lonnie Tague for the Department of Justice
Kathleen Styles, the Chief Privacy Officer for the Department of Education, speaks about the innovations the Department of Education has made with FOIA. The Department of Education has made vital improvements with staffing and creating effective systems for streamlining FOIA processes.
Photo Credit: Lonnie Tague for the Department of Justice
Lisa Babcock from the Small Business Administration delivers remarks about the improvements SBA has made to its FOIA process. Her remarks emphasized the importance of training in applying FOIA guidelines and meeting the goals for transparency.
Photo Credit: Lonnie Tague for the Department of Justice
Denise A. Walker, Attorney Advisor in the General Counsel for Natural Resources at the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration addresses how NOAA has created a process for making proactive disclosures of records. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has successfully created and implemented an efficient process for making proactive disclosures of records pertaining to the BP oil spill.
Photo Credit: Lonnie Tague for the Department of Justice
Trina M. Porter, the FOIA and Privacy Act Officer in the Office of the Chief Information Officers at the Office of Personnel Management discusses improvements to OPM's FOIA process. OPM has worked vigorously to increase timeliness in processing FOIA requests and to reduce backlogged requests.
Photo Credit: Lonnie Tague for the Department of Justice
The U.S. Department of Justice held its annual Sunshine Week Celebration, which honored the fourth anniversary of Attorney General Eric Holder's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The Attorney General's FOIA Guidelines require agencies to administer the Freedom of Information Act with a presumption of openness, to increase efficiency in responding to requests, and to make information more readily available to the public.