The Interior Department has been trying to tackle a growing backlog of public records requests under the Trump administration, and now the agency is creating a to help with the effort.
Interior says the team will help with training, coordination and employ new technology to more efficiently process requests under the Freedom of Information Act.
Daniel Jorjani, the agency鈥檚 top lawyer and chief FOIA officer, says the new team will be led by a non-partisan official, , whom Jorjani describes as 鈥渁 career lawyer with about 20 years experience in the executive branch.鈥�
The agency has faced intense over how it鈥檚 tried to address the FOIA backlog in the past. In December 2018, it proposed controversial new rules that lawmakers and media advocates said were attempts to restrict public access to government emails and documents. The agency eventually many of the most controversial changes.
鈥淲e listened to the concerns 鈥� whether that was from both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill, as well as from concerned stakeholder groups 鈥� and ended up with a rule that鈥檚 gotten strong bipartisan support,鈥� Jorjani said.
While Spector will lead the new legal team, Jorjani will remain in charge of the agency鈥檚 public records request program as a whole. That rankles critics of the Trump administration in part because Jorjani, a political appointee, is being by the Interior Department鈥檚 Office of Inspector General for his role in implementing a FOIA policy that allows agency officials to review and potentially withhold documents from the public.
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