CREW Files Appeal of SEC’s Withholding Information on Improving FOIA Responses
Today CREW filed an administrative appeal of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s withholding of information related to steps the SEC has taken to improve its response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. In September 2009, the SEC’s Office of Inspector General issued a report critical of the agency’s compliance with the FOIA and made ten recommendations. SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said a year later in testimony before Congress that nine of the recommendations had been completed by the SEC. CREW requested records related to several of those steps.
The SEC provided 20 pages of documents in response to the request. One of those documents provides guidance to SEC employees designated as FOIA liaisons for conducting records searches and otherwise responding to FOIA requests. The SEC, however, redacted several pages of what appear to be instructions to the liaisons about how and when to search for records under a FOIA exemption for records that, if disclosed, would risk circumvention of a statute or regulation. This exemption normally is used for records like internal law enforcement manuals that criminals would use to evade the law. By contrast, the FOIA’s provisions related to agency searches for records do not regulate the behavior of requesters or others outside the government, so there is nothing to circumvent.
CREW’s appeal also challenged the SEC’s withholding in their entirety of a stack of records it claimed are exempt as part of the agency’s internal deliberative process, and the SEC’s failure to produce any records in response to one part of the request.
Click here to read CREW's administrative appeal to the SEC.
Click here to read Exhibits in CREW's administrative appeal to the SEC.
Click here to read the response letter and disbursement from the SEC (3/30/2011)
Click here to read the documents CREW received in response to this request.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a non-profit legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions. For more information, please visit www.citizensforethics.org or contact David Merchant at 202.408.5565 or dmerchant@citizensforethics.org
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