Public Comments Submitted by Miranda Campbell on June 6, 2022
To appointed representatives, and whom else it may concern,
We, the people of the United States, who are in fact- of major consideration in decisions on this agenda, demand full transparency that we have not received from federal departments in the term 2020-2022, and we are providing this notice for our records as a route of plausible correction.
Recommendation No. 2022-07 has come to our attention that the National Archives and Records Administration IS and WILL continue to decline in compliance with the Freedom of Information Act by implementing certain sections regarding the DOJ and other federal agencies.
These changes prelude to the assumption that a department is incapable of making errors in classification, and a departments’ description of records should also provide where such described records may be obtained. Also, Based on the FOIA Annual Report of 2021: V.B.(3). Disposition of FOIA Requests, does not account for Presidential records requests and records that are property of the National Archives.
As stated in 44 U.S.C. § 2206. “The Archivist shall promulgate in accordance with section 553 of title 5, United States Code, regulations necessary to carry out the
provisions of this chapter. Such regulations shall include--
(1) provisions for advance public notice and description of any Presidential records scheduled for disposal pursuant to section 2203(f)(3) [sic: should reference 2203(g)(4)];
(2) provisions for providing notice to the former President when materials to which access would otherwise be restricted pursuant to section 2204(a) are to be made available in accordance with section 2205(2);
(3) provisions for notice by the Archivist to the former President when the disclosure of particular documents may adversely affect any rights and privileges which the former President may have; and
(4) provisions for establishing procedures for consultation between the Archivist and appropriate Federal agencies regarding materials which may be subject to section 552(b)(7) of title 5, United States Code .. ”
We find it negligent to withhold the glomar response, strategically backlog requests, and/or otherwise misdirect the public, when there is legislative verbiage in place to provide proper classification of documents, and make it rather easy to fulfill requests. Found in 44 USC § 2203. Management and custody of Presidential records.
An example of this misinformation includes:
“These include records subject to the Presidential Records Act (PRA) that have been transferred to NARA since the Reagan Administration. (FOIA does not apply to records of Congress and the Supreme Court, archival records created by Legislative and Judicial branches, or to records at the pre-Reagan Presidential Libraries.)” (https://www.archives.gov/foia)
We the people KNOW that throughout the 2020-2022 Term, the use of the “Average processing times for requests, including for “simple” and “complex” requests” has been and is being exploited through means of access to the public when requesting “simple” requests.
As defined in USC CODE § 552. Public information; agency rules, opinions, orders, records, and proceedings
(2) Each agency, in accordance with published rules, shall make available for public inspection in an electronic format— (A) final opinions, including concurring and dissenting opinions, as well as orders, made in the adjudication of cases; (B) those statements of policy and interpretations which have been adopted by the agency and are not published in the Federal Register; (C) administrative staff manuals and instructions to staff that affect a member of the public; (D) copies of all records, regardless of form or format— (i) that have been released to any person under paragraph (3); and (ii)(I) that because of the nature of their subject matter, the agency determines have become or are likely to become the subject of subsequent requests for substantially the same records; or (II) that have been requested 3 or more times; and (E) a general index of the records referred to under subparagraph (D);
The goal of the NARA is to “identify procedures and methods for improving compliance” with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as an accountable federal advisory committee - Our requests have been ignored, and the accountability of your agency has plummeted.
Consider this notice to make corrections to your recommendations that will adopt transparency that clearly defines under with exclusions documents are unavailable, and disposition records.
In 5 USC App 2: “...(3) advisory committees should be terminated when they are no longer carrying out the purposes for which they were established;..”
Miranda Campbell