Larry Gottesman
National FOIA Officer, Environmental Protection Agency
Larry F. Gottesman, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Freedom of Information (FOI) Officer, is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Agency's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) program. He provides national FOIA policy guidance and oversees and directs its ten Regional FOI Officers and the thirty-four Headquarters FOI Coordinators. During his tenure, the staff has reduced the Agency FOIA backlog by more then 97%. In furtherance of the President’s mandate on transparency, Mr. Gottesman launched MyPropertyInfo, the EPA tool that allows the public access to 22 EPA databases and 46 state environmental databases in an easily usable format. Mr. Gottesman recently testified before Congress on the "Administration of the Freedom of Information Act: Current Trends."
Prior to joining the EPA, Mr. Gottesman worked as an attorney at the U. S. Department of Labor. He provided legal counsel and policy advice to all Department agencies on the FOIA, Privacy Act, Federal Records Act, Federal Advisory Committee Act and Administrative Procedures Act, as well as on claims of privilege, third-party subpoenas, Government Accountability Office audits, and Congressional oversight requests. He also provided training to Department employees and contractors in these subject areas and represented the Department in litigation involving these and other matters.