STATUS REPORT
IX. BUILDING ON PROGRESS: OPEN GOVERNMENT GOING FORWARD
While the Administration has made great progress towards creating expanding openness in government, there is also much yet to be done. Promoting greater transparency, participation, and collaboration across the government requires sustained effort. None of the initiatives described above can be completed in mere weeks or months. Accordingly, the remainder of 2011 and 2012 will see continued progress on the Administration's long-term commitment to create a more open government. Agencies will continue to implement major reforms initiated in 2009 and 2010, and will extend their efforts to promote transparency, participation, and collaboration in new ways as well.
FOIA
For example, to promote greater participation with the FOIA requester community the Justice Department's Office of Information Policy (OIP), in cooperation with the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) at the National Archives and Records Administration, has just begun hosting a series of "Requester Roundtables" for frequent and potential FOIA requesters. These Roundtables—organized around themes defining general areas in which FOIA requesters have special interests (law enforcement records, third-party records, referrals and consultation procedures, and so on)—will bring requesters together for face-to-face discussion about how they can make the most effective requests, what they should expect from agencies, and how agencies can be most responsive. OIP and OGIS are also teaming to offer dispute resolution training to FOIA professionals to provide enhanced communication skills and training on the importance of customer service in the administration of the FOIA.
OIP will also continue to work directly with agencies, including continued meetings and outreach with Chief FOIA Officers, and will continue to issue guidance on the full range of issues related to proper FOIA administration. OIP will host various training sessions for agencies designed to enhance their knowledge of the FOIA, like the "Fee Summit" it held in May 2011 to discuss FOIA fee practices and how FOIA fee waivers are determined, and the session on Exemption 2 which addressed OIP's guidance to agencies on the scope of that exemption in light of a recent Supreme Court decision. OIP will also continue to issue guidance and provide training to agencies specifically focused on implementation of the President's FOIA Memorandum and the Attorney General's FOIA Guidelines, including sessions on making discretionary releases under the Guidelines and increasing proactive disclosures.
Other agencies will help to strengthen FOIA's infrastructure as well. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will complete a process designed to enhance the professionalism of individuals who work in the FOIA field In March 2011, OPM created a new job title allowing agencies to designate FOIA-specific personnel, and over the course of the next year OPM will undertake a process to create a new job series of FOIA and/or information specialists, answering calls to create a FOIA-specific career track within agencies, who otherwise often depend on personnel with multiple job responsibilities to process FOIA requests.
For another example, the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of Justice will examine changes to GSA's "Schedule 36" contract that would allow agencies to
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