Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Issues New FOIA Guidelines to Favor Disclosure and Transparency

The Attorney General’s guidelines direct the heads of all executive branch departments and agencies to apply a presumption of openness in administering the Freedom of Information Act and states that the Justice Department will not defend nondisclosure decisions that fail to do so. In addition, the FOIA guidelines direct federal departments and agencies to continue efforts to remove barriers to requesting and accessing government records and to reduce FOIA processing backlogs.