The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration appointed Brechner FOI Project Director David Cuillier to a third term on the Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee, which provides recommendations to the National Archivist and Congress for improving the FOIA process.

Cuillier served two previous two-year terms on the committee, from 2020 through 2024, leading efforts to provide alternatives to public records litigation and assessing progress in FOIA improvements from previous committee recommendations.

The committee comprises 10 representatives from federal agencies and 10 representatives from the public records requester community, formed in 2014 by Congress to foster dialogue between the executive branch and the requester community. The committee has passed 67 recommendations during its decade of deliberations.

“It’s an honor to work with national leaders in freedom of information to figure out better ways of fostering the public’s right to know,” Cuillier said. “So much needs to be done, given the gradual increase in secrecy across all levels of government in the United States.”

National Archivist Colleen Shogan also appointed Shelley Kimball to the committee, who graduated from the CJC with a doctorate, working within the Brechner Center. Kimball currently teaches at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. The archivist also appointed Frank LoMonte, who served as director of the Brechner FOI Project before Cuillier, and currently is legal counsel at CNN.

The non-partisan, nonprofit Brechner FOI Project, founded in 1977, works to educate journalists, policymakers and the general public about the law of access today and how it should work tomorrow. The Project, based in Weimer Hall 1204 at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, is a source of research, expertise and advocacy about the law of gathering and disseminating news across all platforms and technologies. For more information, visit the website at https://brechner.jou.ufl.edu/FOI/, or contact Cuillier at cuillierd@ufl.edu.

Posted: August 16, 2024
Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Brechner FOI Project, David Cuillier, FOIA Advisory Committee, National Archives and Records Administration