Transcript
Kirsten Mitchell: Good morning and welcome to the July 16th 2026 federal Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee meeting, the final meeting of the 2024 to 2026 term. I'm Kirsten Mitchell, this Committee's Designated Federal Officer (DFO). Please note that this meeting is being recorded and live streamed on the National Archives YouTube Channel and is a public meeting in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).
I confirm that we have a quorum with 16 members present in accordance with the Committee's bylaws. Liz Hempowicz of American Oversight is unable to join us today. I also want to note that Sean Glendening departed the Office of Information Policy (OIP) earlier this month to pursue a mid-career master in public administration at Harvard's Kennedy School. We wish him the best. Since the Committee's charter calls for the OIP Director or their designee to be on the Committee, we are joined today by Christina Troiani. Christina is chief of OIP’s administrative appeals staff and her participation in today's meeting has been cleared by NARA's Office of General Counsel. Welcome Christina.
Because this is a public meeting we ask members to have their cameras on. However Nieva Brock is unable to have her camera on today. Meeting materials including the agenda, slides, draft final report and recommendations are all available on the FOIA Advisory Committee page website archives.gov/ogis. Thank you to the audiovisual team at the National Archives for their behind the scenes support. And now please welcome Jay Trainer, Chief Operating Officer at the National Archives and Records Administration for some welcoming remarks.
Jay Trainer: Thank you Kirsten. Good morning, I am Jay Trainer, Chief Operating Officer of the National Archives and Records Administration, NARA. Welcome to the final meeting of the 2024 to 2026 term of the Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee.
Earlier this month the grand nationwide celebration of our country's 250th birthday eclipsed another July 4th birthday, FOIA's 60th. While the FOIA statute is just six decades old, it continues to play a major role in our democracy. Historians, researchers, journalists, issue advocates and everyday Americans submitted more than 1.7 million FOIA requests in fiscal year 2025 in an effort to gain access to government records. Those records collectively illustrate what President Lyndon B. Johnson noted in his statement upon signing FOIA into law “that a democracy works best when the people have all the information that the security of a nation permits.” He went on to note that the United States is an open society in which the people's right to know is cherished and guarded.
When I spoke at a FOIA Advisory meeting last September, recommendations for ways to improve FOIA administration were just taking shape. Today I understand that the Committee is poised to vote on its final report containing 11 previously approved recommendations, 7 to Congress and 4 to federal entities including NARA’s own Office of Government Information Services or OGIS.
To the Committee members, thank you for your devoted service to the FOIA Advisory Committee and your commitment to improving the FOIA. Whether you work for an Executive Branch agency, or are outside of government, you rolled up your sleeves beginning in September 2024 to ask questions, gather information, and deliberate on FOIA's biggest challenges. Thank you for your time and your insights as you volunteered countless hours for a more perfect FOIA. Your service is greatly appreciated and your work will be put in a final report and subsequent reports that will live on the NARA OGIS website for anyone to read. I'll now turn the meeting over to Alina Semo, OGIS Director and this Committee’s Chairperson. Alina.
Alina M. Semo: Thank you, Jay, really appreciate you joining us today. Good morning everyone and welcome. Jay, you're welcome to stay with us for a while, if you have to go we understand. I am Alina Semo, Director of the Office of Government Information Services and Chairperson of the FOIA Advisory Committee. And it is also my pleasure to welcome you to the 11th and final meeting of the Committee's sixth term.
Since our last meeting on June 11, Committee members have been very hard at work on a final report and recommendations. I particularly want to recognize Shelley Kimball, Frank LoMonte, and Sarah Weicksel, the small but mighty working group that wrote the final report. They deserve a huge round of applause. I also want to thank all Committee members who contributed to the report whether through the incredibly thorough subcommittee reports or through suggested edits in the last few days. The report reflected a real team effort.
Reports from the Volume and Frequency Subcommittee and Implementation Subcommittee are available on the OGIS website under the June 11th, FOIA Advisory Committee meeting materials. The Statutory Reform Subcommittee Report is posted under the July 16th meeting materials, so today's…next slide please.
So housekeeping, you guys are used to this slide but I want to go over it one more time before we launch into our meeting agenda today. We have not yet posted minutes and transcripts, transcript rather, from the June 11th meeting, but we will do so within the 90 days required by the Federal Advisory Committee Act. On our website you will find Committee members biographies and please also visit and follow our blog, The FOIA Ombuds.
During today's meeting I want to encourage Committee members to use the raised hand option icon at the bottom of your screen when you wish to speak or ask a question. I will do my best to continue looking around on all the screens to ensure I don't miss anyone. The raise hand option is even better than using the host and panelist option from the drop down menu in the chat when you want to speak or ask a question, but you can also certainly use that as well and chat me or Kirsten directly.
An important note to both Committee members and all Zoom participants, in order to comply with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, please use the Zoom chat function for housekeeping and procedural matters only. Please do not enter any substantive chats in the chat function as they will not be recorded in the transcript of the meeting. If any Committee member needs to take a break during the course of the meeting please do not disconnect from the web event. Instead mute your microphone by using the microphone icon, turn off your camera by using the camera icon and please send a quick chat to me and Kirsten to let us know if you'll be gone for more than a few minutes and join us again as soon as you are able. An important reminder to all Committee members, please identify yourself by name and affiliation each time you speak, it helps us with the transcript and it helps us make the transcript more clear as well as our minutes.
Members of the public who wish to submit written public comments to the Committee may do so using our public comments form which is available at archives dot gov forward slash ogis forward slash public dash comments. We review all public comments and if they comply with our public comments posting policy, we post them as soon as we are able. As we do at every Committee meeting we will have a public comment period. But rather than at the end of our meeting we will have public comments after the Committee discusses the final report and recommendations but before the Committee's final vote. And as we noted, in our Federal Register notice announcing this meeting, public comments will be limited to three minutes per individual. Okay. Next slide please.
So we have arrived at the main course of this meeting to discuss, deliberate and eventually vote on the final draft report and recommendations. I've mentioned earlier the excellent subcommittee reports and I want to recognize the six co-chairs of the three subcommittees, Jason Baron and Marianne Manheim, who co-chaired the Implementation Subcommittee; Ryan Mulvey and Whitney Frazier-Jenkins, who co-chaired the Statutory Reform Subcommittee; and last but certainly not least Nick Wittenberg and Nieva Brock, who co-chaired the Volume and Frequency Subcommittee. They all deserve a round of applause and we are all very thankful for your great work and your great leadership.
We are going to spend a few minutes from our working group talking about how we pulled this final report together. I am going to turn the meeting over to our working group, Frank, Sarah and Shelley and I believe Frank is going to start us off with some comments. Frank over to you.
Frank LoMonte: I'm happy to, thank you. Good morning everyone, Frank Lomonte with CNN, representing news media requesters. Just to echo what Alina said at the start, this truly has been not just the preparation of this report but the entire two preceding years leading up to it has been a collaborative team effort in every way a really truly collegial process. I think one of the insights and takeaways that I will have from this term and one that I hope informs and comes through in the report is that FOIA is not a combat sport. What is good for requesters is good for the government, is good for the taxpayers, is good for the public and it is not a zero sum game.
One of the things we’ve tried to focus on through this process is how do we make it work better for everyone, for all stakeholders so that it is both easier to use from the requester side but also easier to facilitate from the FOIA professional side. In a moment Shelley Kimball whose work along with the indefatigable Deborah Moore, who’s really the MVP of this term, their work as researchers really is the animating force behind the document that you have in front of you.
We set out with a couple of objectives in preparing this report. One was that we recognize straight away that the subcommittee reports are unusually thorough, detailed and excellent in quality to the point that we felt that it would actually be self defeating to cut and paste huge chunks of those reports into the final report in a way that might discourage people from actually seeking out and reading and relying upon those subcommittee reports. So instead of the exhaustive recitation of the content of those reports, what we hope that you find is a pointer to the subcommittee reports, the appetizer portion, if you will, and not the entree portion. The idea is not to satisfy your appetite but to pique your curiosity, to direct people to seek out and to read and rely on those excellent subcommittee reports. So this is really just a high-level summary of what you'll find in those reports which we regard the three subcommittee reports and this final report collectively as the work product of the preceding two years.
The other thing that we were informed by going in was that particular high quality work of last term's Committee, which pointed out that there was a real risk of recommendation fatigue by people in the agency side. If FOIA Advisory Committees kept layering on dozens and dozens more recommendations to the point that a person in a FOIA office, a person who is already over worked, a person who is already over burdened encountered those recommendations for the first time and saw a list of 100 things, it could be overwhelming to the point of turn off.
So both in terms of volume of recommendations, you'll see there are only 11 in the report, and also to whom they are directed, we tried very, very hard to not create more work for people who are already quite over worked but to the contrary, the recommendations are really directed in a lot of ways toward easing the burden and easing the workload on these invaluable FOIA professionals without whom the system could not work successfully. I'm going to pass to Shelley Kimball but before I do, I have to give personal thanks to Alina and Kirsten for holding this Committee together at a particularly difficult and challenging time.
As the report recites we went through a government shut down. We've lost several really valuable government members. We were without an OIP participant for some amount of time. So the degree of difficulty score if this were Olympic gymnastics, Alina and Kirsten, your degree of difficulty score would be extraordinarily high and yet you have managed to make this through your diligent work and good cheer and good humor throughout, to make this a really productive and enjoyable term for all of us that worked on it. With that, I'd like to let Shelley Kimball take over to talk about the research that she and Deborah headed up for us.
Shelley Kimball: Sure, thank you Frank. Shelley Kimball, Johns Hopkins University. First I wanted to echo Frank's gratitude to all of our colleagues here on this Committee. It's been an absolute pleasure to work with people who care so deeply about the FOIA process and those who engage with it. We also wanted to reflect that in our report all of the work that all of us put into really understanding the current landscape of FOIA.
And so, when we were thinking about how to develop the report, some of the things we knew we wanted to bring forward to set the stage so that later readers would understand sort of this landscape and what we were looking at as Frank said, kind of the uncertainty that everyone was dealing with during these two years. So kind of making sure that people understand this really unique situation all of us have been in during these two years as we're studying FOIA and trying to find ways to make it better. And then we all kind of moved into our own modes of information gathering and we wanted to highlight that but then again make sure that those subcommittee reports stand on their own. All [sub]committees had spoken to officials, spoken to people who work in this area just to kind of make sure that we're understanding what's happening and then in two other [sub]committees we embarked on research work. In [the] Implementation Subcommittee we did a focus group, a series of focus groups to really understand FOIA professionals and how change happens within agencies and then within Volume and Frequency, we fielded a study. A survey on vexatious requests and AI-generated requests.
All of us are truly grateful for everyone who kind of poured in information to answer the call from all of us in trying to learn about the field. So for us in developing the report, we wanted to set that early so that we could provide that holistic foundation of all of our recommendations and those justifications. I'll pass back to Frank and I think he'll work through the rest of the work that we've done.
Frank LoMonte: Shelley, thank you. And my objective is not to talk through each of the 11 recommendations although I think any of us would be happy and I would probably pass the mic immediately to the subcommittee chairs to talk about the rationales for any of those if there are questions about any of them. Just at a high level by way of summary and wrap up before I pass it back to Alina, I think there probably going to be a temptation given that an outsider will see 11 recommendations and see some of the adversity that we have to sale our ship through during these past two years and think well, this is a frustration term, this is an unproductive term and I'm here to say although the recommendations are small in number, they are enormous in ambition. And indeed there are several where I would submit that producing just one of these, if we the Committee could become a catalyst for even one change, that change would represent a very good two years work indeed. You can point to a recommendation like the creation of a new specialized FOIA court to resolve disputes, a new funding formula recommended to ensure that FOIA functions at the agency level are always adequately staffed and supported by Congress.
If you could pull off just one of those things that would represent a very good two years work indeed. Do not confuse the small number with small ambition or small impact. I think this is quite an impactful report and importantly we view it as a continuing lap in the relay race of this Advisory Committee. We were very careful to try to continue and build upon the work of previous Committees and not to start from scratch, not to start from a blank page, not to start from zero, rather to move the ball forward.
We encourage future iterations of this Committee to take that baton pass. And that’s the way we styled the report really as, it is now up to you to finish some of the unfinished work that we've made substantial progress on. I think the report really points to and you see on your screen, that the majority of the recommendations are directed to Congress rather than to the agencies. One of the insights and realizations throughout this process is that agencies can only do so much. The statute has not been comprehensively revisited in a decade. Look at all the change that's taken place both internally and externally to the government in that decade. It is time for Congress to comprehensively revisit it with new and fresh eyes. We’ve given some directional pointers for what that revisit might look like. And importantly, we've identified some areas for a future Committee to drill down on so they can look at things like comprehensive exemption reform, something that we made a good start on flagging some areas of concern. We're not able in the limited amount of time to arrive at a comprehensive series of recommendations but we certainly pointed the way for future iterations of this Committee to build upon.
With that, again, my gratitude to Kirsten, Alina and all my colleagues especially on the working group, Sarah and Shelley, thank you for your collaboration and putting this together and I'm happy to yield the floor to Alina and be able if there are any questions about the process.
Alina M. Semo: Frank, thank you so much. Shelley, thank you as well. Sarah, anything you want to add, no. Okay. I know we've given everyone an opportunity to review the report and we have been incorporating any grammatical errors. We had a very lively dialogue about Oxford commas the other day. So we’re doing our best to make sure we capture all of that. We want it to be as clean and final, a good-looking product as possible. But I do want to invite anyone from the Committee who would like to ask any questions or make any comments, this is your opportunity. I'm opening up the floor.
Okay, has everyone had their coffee yet? That's what I need to know. Okay. I don't see any hands. I think everyone is very happy with the report. This is going to be probably be the shortest meeting that we're ever going to have. So with that we should, oh Jason has his hand up. I was counting on Jason to say something. Go ahead please.
Jason R. Baron: Thanks Alina. Jason Baron, University of Maryland. I do not have substantive comments on the report but I would like to comment on what happens after we approve the report. And so I hold the comments until the vote and then come back to me to have a conversation about what happens next.
Alina M. Semo: Okay. So you don't want to talk about that right now, you want to talk about it after we vote on the report and we hear public comments.
Jason R. Baron: Logically that makes sense to me.
Alina M. Semo: Sure. We'll park that for a minute and we will come back to you. Anyone else? Okay, Kirsten, I don't see you on but I just wanted to make sure you're there.
Kirsten Mitchell: I am here. Can you hear me?
Alina M. Semo: We can hear you but we cannot see you. But that's okay, we know where you are.
Kirsten Mitchell: Can you see me now?
Alina M. Semo: Yes, now we can see you.
Kirsten Mitchell: Okay, I am here.
Alina M. Semo: Great, I just wanted to make sure you are there. And since we're doing this in an unusual order, unusual from our other meetings meaning that we're doing public comments now, I'm just going to go through the instructions again. We have now reached the public comments part of our Committee meeting. And we do look forward to hearing from any non-Committee participants who have ideas or comments to share, particularly about the final report.
All oral comments are captured in the transcript of the meeting which we will post as soon as it is available. Oral comments are also captured in the NARA YouTube recording and are available on the NARA YouTube channel. As a reminder, public comments are limited to three minutes per person. Kirsten, I'm going to turn things over to you now.
Kirsten Mitchell: Great, thank you, Alina. As we mentioned before, written public comments are welcome at any time, if you wish to submit public comments you may do so at www dot archives dot gov forward slash ogis forward slash public dash comments. If you wish to make an oral public comment please raise your hand so we can unmute you. If you are dialed through telephone audio only you can press star 9 on your telephone to raise your hand and join the comment queue. Once you are unmuted please state your name and affiliation and you will be given three minutes to speak.
So I am looking at the attendees. I'll give a few seconds to see if anyone raises their hand and has anything to say. It does not look like we have anyone in the queue for public comments. So I’m going to turn it back over you Alina.
Alina M. Semo: And Kirsten, I just want to confirm that we don't have anything in chat as we sometimes do.
Kirsten Mitchell: No we do not. It's all administrative stuff.
Alina M. Semo: Right, I just wanted to confirm that. Okay. Well, let's keep moving. Should we go ahead and vote on our final report, we're going to vote on it not in subparts, it's going to be a whole. Once we finish the voting, we can then un-park Jason's question and we can visit that in a minute. So with
that I would like to have a motion to vote on the final report and recommendations. May I have a motion please.
Frank LoMonte: It's Frank LoMonte with CNN, I will move approval of the report as submitted with the understanding that some typographical and scribner corrections will still be in play before the final report is posted to the website.
Alina M. Semo: Thank you, Frank. And do I have a second?
Marianne Manheim: I second.
Alina M. Semo: Thank you, Marianne. I appreciate the second. Let's go ahead and vote. All those in favor please say, aye.
Group: aye
Alina M. Semo: Anyone opposed please say, nay. Any abstentions?
Christina Troiani: Abstention.
Alina M. Semo: Thanks, Christina. Kirsten, did you get all of that?
Kirsten Mitchell: I did get all of that. The report and recommendations have been approved by a unanimous vote of 15 to 0 with Christina Troiani abstaining.
Alina M. Semo: Good job everyone. I think we should all pat ourselves on the back. Jason, let’s come back to your issue that you had raised earlier. Do you want to be more specific about what your question is?
Jason R. Baron: Thanks Alina, Jason Baron, University of Maryland. It's been a privilege to be on the Committee this term and I spent three terms on the FOIA Advisory Committee.
The first, I have two basic points. But they're both, they're related, which is how to get the word out about the good work that we have accomplished. This term has been particularly productive. I wish to applaud the efforts of subcommittee members on the Implementation Subcommittee that I co-chaired with Marianne and the other two subcommittees. I was so impressed with each of the subcommittee reports and that leads to my first comment. I wish to second what Frank said at the top here, that the final report really should be read with pointers to the subcommittee reports and so the question is, Alina, and OGIS and OIP, in particular, but all of us, is how to get the word out and how to integrate the subcommittee reports with the final report in whatever we do?
I can think of examples, Alina, for OGIS to get the word out. You have an August program. You have an annual reporting out to the community and one could highlight the work not just saying that this Committee did a final report but to specifically talk about the subcommittee reports and what value add they have.
Secondly, there is a process, Alina, where you get to testify before Congress and I would hope that in conversations with staff members of the relevant committees, that you testify to, as well as in your testimony itself, you could footnote, you could allude to not just the final report, but the work of the subcommittees. This is particularly important given what I consider the extraordinary work of the Statutory Reform committee, and its members, in doing a set of mini-law review pieces that are fully reflected in that subcommittee report and abstracted very well in the final report.
So I am pitching it out to you Alina and to OGIS to get the word out, in a blog, in any kind of presentations you give. And particularly to Congress, what is the point of having congressional recommendations, assuming they're approved by NARA and the Archivist here, as the next step. But assuming that it goes forward, how to get those recommendations before Congress. So I think OGIS plays an outsized role in that. That's my first point.
I will go onto my second point but, Alina, please don't forget about the first point because I'd like you to comment on both of what I am saying. The second point is I've had the privilege of spending time on two Implementation Subcommittees, last term lead by David Cuillier, and I think the sense of those [sub]committees and particularly what we learned this term through focus groups, run by Deborah and Shelley and Sarah, and that we participated in, is that many individuals in the FOIA community inside government are unaware of the recommendations of this Committee.
There are a lot of them and word has not gotten out in the past. What I would like to suggest as I have been a member particularly of last term and this term, there are a number of recommendations where we pitched it to OIP to get the word out, and I haven't seen specific notices sent by OIP to the government. I think my experience is that if anyone is reading anything about FOIA recommendations they pay attention to OIP issuances more than any other place.
And so it seems to me incumbent that if we have made recommendations and we can talk about concrete ones but from last term and this term, that we as a Committee expected that OIP would get the word out. We'd like to have a continuing conversation. Now, all of us are our terms expire but Alina and Kirsten and those of you in OGIS, you know, you stay on and I would urge a continuing dialogue between OGIS and OIP to see if the dashboard can be updated with OIP issuances, where appropriate, where it's been pitched on particular recommendations.
With that, I applaud the good work of this Committee this term. I applaud all of the work that I've been privileged to be with others on this Committee for three terms but we, I think need to pause and we need to have a conversation going forward as to how to increase the visibility of this Committee because it doesn't make sense to me to spend hundreds and hundreds of hours and meeting together and subcommittees and then producing excellent subcommittee reports and a final report that's excellent and people just are unaware of it. I wanted to make that emphatic point and I'll turn it back to Alina.
Alina M. Semo: Okay. Thank you. I'll respond but I see two hands up so I want to give other folks an opportunity. Kirsten, were you before Nick or after.
Kirsten Mitchell: I don't know.
Nick Wittenberg: Go ahead Kirsten, I’ll…
Kirsten Mitchell: Thank you for those remarks, Jason. I just wanted to let everyone know that Alina, Dan and I spent yesterday at the American Society of Access Professionals (ASAP) conference which was here in the D.C. area, in fact it's still going on today. And Dan and I specifically presented on the FOIA Advisory Committee recommendations. So I just wanted to put that out there. Thank you, Alina.
Alina M. Semo: I just want to add, we've had great attendance at the training conference. Ryan could probably speak to that and wearing his other hat as ASAP president. We had nearly 300 attendees. We definitely had a large audience, I would say mostly FOIA government professionals. So we're getting the word out. But with that, Nick, over to you.
Nick Wittenberg: I just want to echo Jason's comments because it seems like yesterday Alina testified in the Senate and it was [a] really awesome experience because she really highlighted the excellent work that FOIA professionals do. I was on my best behavior so I was not escorted out of the hearing. I know Alina was a little nervous for the paparazzi and social media influencers that wanted to get their picture with her. But I definitely think it's great that we have groups like CNN that get to cover it and the rest of I think some of the folks on here represent the larger contingent and I think it's great to kinda highlight the situations where Congress uses a lot of the same tools we do and it's just a different kind of flavor. And then we have hot shots who have been on the Supreme Court like Ryan, who is an overachiever, who’s president of ASAP, great to see him testify as well. So, I definitely echo that as how do we keep championing the amazing work that folks have done down in the trenches fighting over commas to really kind of highlight, and I know that would be hopefully, not too nerve wracking for Alina again, but something like that I totally would embrace.
Alina M. Semo: Okay, thank you. Christina, go ahead please.
Christina Troiani: Sure. Thank you, Alina. I just wanted to respond to Jason, I appreciate your comments. I’ll take that back internally. We'll continue to work with Alina and OGIS to see what we can do to raise that visibility.
Alina M. Semo: We really appreciate that, Christina. Thank you. Any other hands? Jason, your points are all very well taken. I just wanted to let you know that we are planning at our annual Open Public Meeting on August 4th starting at 10 a.m. on the NARA YouTube channel, you can join us as well. We're going to discuss the FOIA Advisory Committee report and recommendations as well as the subcommittee reports. So there will definitely be an opportunity for us to broadcast it then. We always take the opportunity to blog about it. So I know we will be issuing a blog post about it and we will also be active on X as we normally are.
But I also just want to say, it does take a village and I really look forward to all of you doing your part in trying to spread the word as well. Whether through your respective institutions or organizations, and those of you who are more connected to Capitol Hill and to staffers on committees that care about these issues, I really want to encourage you to go and bend their ears as much as possible. You have a lot more freedom in the requester community than we do in the government. So I very much want to encourage you to take any and all opportunities to be able to go and do that. I think that would be very very helpful. If anyone has any other suggestions or ideas about how we can spread the word. Other than what we've already talked about, we're very open to all ideas. I think Christina echoed that, OIP and OGIS would be happy to work together to get the word out. So please keep feeding us ideas, we're open to any other suggestions. Okay, I’m looking around for any other hands. I’m not seeing any other hands. Oh no, Dave Cuillier, go ahead please Dave.
David Cuillier: I just want to say I really appreciate the six years I have been here and I'm not going to renew for next term, no reason other than it is time for new ideas, fresh ideas. But I really do appreciate everyone here, and particularly the folks in OGIS they really do deserve special commendation. There are only like 10 of them in the office, about the same level as when it started years ago but yet handling, helping 6,000 people a year now, that is huge. There are more people who staff a McDonald's outlet than that. And what they do is much more important. And more healthy, I think, for Americans.
So I just can’t say enough for Kirsten, Alina, Dan, and everybody there. I do not think people realize what you do. And despite my efforts and others to change the system to create new models that might help it work better, that is no reflection on the folks at OGIS and I think what you do and what you have done is making the world better. And everybody on this Committee and those coming to the next Committees I think will make a difference. So feel good about it and everybody here. We have a lot of work to do but everybody is doing their best so thank you so much.
Alina M. Semo: David, thank you so much for those kind words. What I got out of that is we need to have a drivethrough. So we will be working on that, that can be our next idea. Thank you for those kind words. Anyone else? I know we are all very busy and you probably want to get back to your day jobs. I do have a few parting remarks that I would like to share with everyone and I would like to have chairperson privilege.
Before we adjourn I want to take a few minutes to reflect on what this Committee has accomplished over the past two years. We have talked about it already quite a lot but I also most importantly want to say thank you to all of you. When we began this term in September of 2024 none of us could have fully anticipated the environment in which this Committee would have ultimately carried out its work. The federal landscape, as we have all recognized, has changed significantly. Agencies and FOIA programs faced workforce reductions, leadership transitions, hiring constraints, reorganizations, and growing demands on already stretched resources. And yet through all of that the Committee kept working. You kept showing up, you kept asking very difficult questions, you kept listening to one another and you kept looking for practical, meaningful ways to improve the administration of FOIA.
What has impressed me the most during this term is not simply the quality of our discussions during these public meetings, although they have been thoughtful, candid, and at times wonderfully spirited it has been the extraordinary amount of work that has taken place between the public meetings. There have been countless subcommittee meetings, working group discussions and meetings, drafts, and redrafts, emails, research, and conversations.
Members from inside and outside of government brought different experiences and different perspectives to the table. You did not always agree and I would have been worried if you had. But you consistently engaged with one another respectfully, thoughtfully, and in good faith. That is precisely what this Committee is supposed to be doing. Together we have produced 11 recommendations addressing some of the most significant challenges facing the FOIA process today.
Those recommendations brought an enormous amount of thought and compromise. More importantly they reflect this Committee's determination to move beyond simply identifying problems and to proposing meaningful solutions. I want to thank every member of the Committee, both of those with us today and those whose service concluded early in the term. Each of you contributed to this work. Each of you helped shape our discussions and our recommendations. And each of you has my sincere gratitude. I want to issue again a very special thank you to our six subcommittee co-chairs Ryan, Whitney, Jason, Marianne, Nick, and Nieva. And leading a subcommittee as we've talked about before is a significant commitment. All six of you kept the conversations moving, you navigated competing perspectives, shepherded recommendations through countless iterations, and somehow we got to the finish line and you got us there. Your leadership was absolutely essential to the success of this term.
I also want to recognize the people behind the scenes to make the work of this Committee possible. First our Designated Federal Officer, Kirsten Mitchell. The work required to operate a Federal Advisory Committee and to ensure that we all meet our obligations under FACA is substantial. Much of it is invisible to the public. But Kirsten's contributions went far beyond the traditional responsibilities of the DFO.
As the Statutory Reform Subcommittee worked through a particularly complex set of proposed recommendations involving FOIA laws, Kirsten created a detailed crosswalk that helped us understand how the proposed data fields aligned with existing statutory and quarterly reporting requirements and just as importantly the realities of agency FOIA tracking systems. As she has done many times in the past Kirsten took an extraordinarily complicated issue and gave the subcommittee a practical framework for working through it.
And as proposed recommendations moved forward Kirsten helped convene and shepherd our government members through a series of discussions that helped them work through their comments, identify areas of agreement and engage thoughtfully in the Committee's process. Kirsten, you have a remarkable ability to bring order to complexity, keep people moving forward, and make very difficult work very manageable. This Committee and I personally have benefited enormously from your judgment, your professionalism, and your dedication. Thank you.
I also want to thank our alternate DFO's Dan Levenson and Kimberlee Ried. From meeting logistics and Federal Register Notices to website updates, records, reports, communications and the countless details that must come together before, during, and after every public meeting Dan and Kimberlee you have done an extraordinary job and I thank you for that.
And Dan and Kimberlee, thank you also for stepping in whenever and wherever you are needed for supporting your subcommittees and our members and for helping to keep an extraordinarily active Committee moving forward.
And to the entire OGIS staff a big thank you. Supporting this Committee truly has been a team effort. I am deeply grateful for OGIS's hard work and commitment to this Committee and its mission. So thank you to everyone, huge round of applause. I've had the privilege of chairing this Committee now for several terms. I never take for granted the time, expertise, and energy that our members bring to the work. You have done all of this in addition to your day jobs and many other demands on your time and I'm very, very grateful for that.
Public service takes many forms. The work you have done over these past two years is one of them. So on behalf of OGIS and personally as Chair of this Committee, I thank you. Thank you for your expertise and candor, thank you for challenging one another and occasionally challenging me. Thank you for your patience, your persistence, and your willingness to stay at the table and do the hard work. Most of all, thank you for believing that the FOIA process can be better and for being willing to devote your time and talents to helping make it so. It has truly been an honor and a privilege to work with all of you during the 2024 to 2026 term of the FOIA Advisory Committee.
So, I’m done. Thank you for giving me that opportunity, that platform, I am truly grateful. Before we officially bring this term to a close are there any final questions or comments? I am looking for hands and I do not see any. Okay. Hearing none, the final meeting of the 2024 to 2026 term of the FOIA Advisory Committee is adjourned. Thank you, everyone.