Office of Information and Privacy
U.S. Department of Justice
10th Street & Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530-0001
Dear Sir or Madam:
In compliance with 5 U.S.C. Section 552(e), please find enclosed the Annual Report of the United States International Trade Commission on its activities under the Freedom of Information Act.
Sincerely, Donna R. Koehnke
Secretary
Enclosure
Annual FOIA Report for 1998
of the
United States International Trade Commission
I. Basic Information Regarding Report:
A. Name of Freedom of Information Act Officer:
Donna R. Koehnke
Secretary
U.S. International Trade Commission
500 E Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20436
Telephone: (202) 205-2000
B. Electronic Address:
www.usitc.gov/foiarpts.htm
C. How to obtain a copy of the report in paper form:
Copies of the annual report can be obtained by writing to:
Secretary
U.S. International Trade Commission
500 E Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20436
II. How to Make a FOIA Request:
A. All FOIA requests are to be addressed to:
Secretary
U.S. International Trade Commission
500 E Street, S.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20436
B. The USITC's processing response times normally range from same day of receipt to twenty (20) days.
C. Some requests were not granted based on exemptions 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.
Annual FOIA Report for 1998
Page Two
III. Exemption 3 Statutes
1. The USITC relied on Exemption 3 in withholding confidential business information submitted to the agency in accordance with 19 USC §1337. In the past we have also relied on 19 USC §§1677f, 2252, and 1332.
2. There were no court decisions regarding the use of the statute this year.
IV. Initial FOIA/PA Access Requests
A. Number of initial requests
1. Number of request pending as of end of preceding fiscal year: 5
2. Number of requests received during current fiscal year: 71
3. Number of requests processed during current fiscal year: 72
4. Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year: 4
B. Disposition of initial requests.
1. Number of total grants: 45
2. Number of partial grants: 2
3. Number of denials: 2
Number of times each FOIA exemption used
(1) Exemption 1 0
(2) Exemption 2 0
(3) Exemption 3 1
(4) Exemption 4 1
(5) Exemption 5 2
(6) Exemption 6 3
(7) Exemption 7(A) 2
(8) Exemption 7(B) 2
(9) Exemption 7(C) 0
(10) Exemption 7(D) 2
(11) Exemption 7(E) 2
(12) Exemption 7(F) 0
Annual FOIA Report for 1998
Page Three
(13) Exemption 8 0
(14) Exemption 9 0
4. Other reasons for nondisclosure:
a. No records 16
b. Referrals 1
c. Request withdrawn 3
d. Fee-related reason 2
e. Records not reasonably described 1
f. Not a proper FOIA request for some reason 0
g. Not an agency record 0
h. Duplicate request 0
i. Other 0
V. Appeals of Initial Denials of FOIA/PA Requests
There were no appeals.
VI. Compliance with Time Limits/Status of Pending Requests
A. Median processing time for all requests processed during the year.
1. Number of requests processed 72
2. Median number of days to process 11
B. Requests accorded expedited processing.
No requests sought or were accorded expedited processing.
C. Status of pending requests.
1. Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year 4
2. Median number of days that such requests were pending as of that date 13
Annual FOIA Report for 1998
Page Four
VII. Cost/FOIA Staffing
A. Staffing levels.
1. Number of full-time FOIA personnel .07
2. Number of personnel with part-time or occasional FOIA
duties (in total work-years) .04
3. Total number of personnel (in work-years) .11
B. Total costs (including staff and all resources).
1. FOIA processing (including appeals) $4,743
2. Litigation-related activities (estimated) 0
3. Total costs $4,743
VIII. Fees
A. Total amount of fees collected by agency for processing requests $817
B. Percentage of total costs 17%
IX. FOIA Regulations (Including Fee Schedule)
USITC agency guide is at www.usitc.gov./foiaguide.htm