information security oversight process foia

Information security oversight process foia series#

Under FOIA, the USPS should not have released Spanberger’s personnel or security records because they are exempt from disclosure under Exemption (b)(6), unless there was a finding of an overriding public interest. However, release of information through the FOIA process is a recognized routine use.īoth of these statutes apply in this situation in a mostly complementary fashion. In a nutshell, it states that a government agency cannot disseminate Personally Identifiable Information (PII) about someone without that person’s consent unless an exception (called a “routine use”) applies. The Privacy Act, in contrast, is a protective statute (although it also has disclosure components), meaning that its main purpose is to protect the privacy of individuals whose information is collected and maintained by the government. As an exception to the exception, however, privacy-protected information can be released if there is an overriding public interest. Such personal information might include, for example, a social security number, a birth date, or a home address. However, FOIA also includes nine categories of information that are exempt from disclosure, one of which applies to information that is protected based on privacy considerations (called “Exemption (b)(6)”). FOIA is a disclosure statute, meaning that its main purpose is to mandate the public disclosure of government information.

These laws are often considered together since they overlap significantly, but for the purposes of this discussion it is important to note their differences. Two laws apply here: FOIA and the Privacy Act. The information ultimately landed in the hands of news media.īefore delving into how this went wrong, it’s important to understand the legal framework. The USPS corporate office then forwarded the file to the Human Resources Office, which then released the entire record to America Rising, which in turn handed the information to the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC allied with House Speaker Paul Ryan. The NPRC pulled her Official Personnel Folder, which included her SF-86, and forwarded it to the USPS corporate office. America Rising, a conservative super PAC, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) for her personnel records during her time at the Postal Inspection Service. Since each position required a security clearance, she completed an SF-86 for each position. Prior to running for Congress, Spanberger worked both at the CIA and the Postal Inspection Service, a little-known law enforcement agency housed in the U.S. Postal Service’s eventual nostra culpa for the matter) and why it was different from what one should expect, and what lessons we should draw from this case. In this piece, I will endeavor to explain exactly what appears to have happened (based largely on the correspondence that has been released, the follow-up investigation by Buzzfeed News, and the U.S.

Pon, the director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, demanding “answers” about what happened and how. national security fields that more than 200 former officials have signed a letter to Jeff T.H. The lapses have so alarmed some working in U.S. But because of the complicated fact pattern, coupled with the accusations and counter-accusations being hurled by both sides and by observers, much of the reporting on this has been incorrect in whole or in part, sometimes even on the nature of the legal requirements.

Information security oversight process foia series#

Over the next 24 hours, people in and out of the media slowly pieced together how this happened, revealing a long series of agency missteps that led inexorably toward this result.Īny one of the steps would have led to a different result had the responsible people had adequate training. The document was her SF-86, the extensive, intrusive form employees and contractors fill out as part of a security clearance background investigation. The New York Times this week broke the astounding story that a GOP super PAC had somehow obtained and circulated an unredacted copy of a security clearance application for Abigail Spanberger, the former CIA officer who is running for Congress as a Democrat in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District.