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FY 2000 Annual Freedom of Information Report

UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
Washington, D.C. 20460

April 6, 2001

          At the direction of the Office of the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, beginning January 2001, the Agency has undertaken a full review of its administration of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552. This report represents the Agency's first step in an ongoing effort to ensure full compliance with the Electronic FOIA Amendments of 1996 and guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Information and Privacy. As a result, this report differs from those of previous years.

          While preparing its FY 2000 Annual FOIA Report to Congress, the Agency encountered several obstacles in its ability to compile some of the required data elements such as the number of all pending FOIA requests at the start of the fiscal year, regardless of the date received, the disposition of the processed requests rather than the office assignments, and the total cost to operate the program (staffing levels and fees). The Agency is working diligently to resolve these issues while searching for a long-term technological solution to accurately track its FOIA requests and generate a comprehensive accounting of this data. The Agency also has begun to take aggressive steps to reduce its backlog of pending requests, streamline its procedures for processing requests, and improve its overall response time. We are committed to providing the best possible service to the public both now and in the future.

Betty A. Lopez, Associate Director
Freedom of Information Operations
Office of the Executive Secretariat



United States Environmental Protection Agency

FY 2000 ANNUAL FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REPORT




Table of Contents

  1. Basic Information
  2. How to File A FOIA Request
  3. Definitions of Terms and Acronyms Used
  4. Exemption 3 Statutes
  5. Initial FOIA/PA Access Requests
  6. Appeals of Initial Denials of FOIA/PA Requests
  7. .Compliance with Time Limits/Status of Pending Requests
  8. Comparisons with Previous Years (optional)
  9. Costs/FOIA Staffing
  10. Fees
  11. FOIA Regulations (Including Fee Schedule)

I. Basic Information

A. Agency Contact

Betty A. Lopez, Associate Director
Freedom of Information Operations
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20460
(202) 564-7311

B. Electronic Address for Report

http://www.epa.gov/foia

C. How to obtain a paper copy of report

A paper copy can be obtained by contacting the Agency contact listed above.

II. How to File A FOIA Request

The EPA brochure “How to Make a Freedom of Information Act Request” is available on the http://www.epa.gov/foia Web site.

A. Agency components receiving FOIA requests

Individual Agency FOIA Offices can be found on the http://www.epa.gov/foia Web site.

B. Response time ranges

The Agency responded to 23% of its requests within 10 days. Nineteen percent of the requests were responded to within the 20-day time limit.

C. Description of why some requests were not granted

Exemption 4 (used 381 times), Exemption 5 (used 288 times), and Exemption 7(A) (used 180 times) were used most frequently for not granting requests. These records usually related to confidential business information, privileged inter-agency/intra-agency memoranda, or ongoing enforcement proceedings, respectively.

III. Definitions of Terms and Acronyms Used

Agency specific acronyms or other terms

None.

Basic terms, expressed in common terminology

1. FOIA Request
Freedom of Information Act request. A FOIA request is a request for access to records concerning a third party, an organization, or a particular topic of interest, which includes Privacy Act requests.
2. Initial Request
A request to a federal agency for access to records under the Freedom of Information Act.
3. Appeal
A request to a federal agency asking that it review at a higher administrative level a full denial or partial denial of access to records under the Freedom of Information Act, or any other FOIA determination such as a matter pertaining to fees.
4. Processed Request or Appeal
A request or appeal for which an agency has taken a final action on the request or the appeal in all respects.
5. Multi-track processing
A system in which simple requests requiring relatively minimal review are placed in one processing track and more voluminous and complex requests are placed in one or more other tracks. Requests in each track are processed on a first-in/first-out basis. A requester who has an urgent need for records may request expedited processing.
6. Expedited processing
An agency will process a FOIA request on an expedited basis when a requester has shown an exceptional need or urgency for the records which warrants prioritization of his or her request over other requests that were made earlier.
7.Simple Request
A FOIA request that an agency using multi-track processing places in its fastest (non-expedited) track based on the volume and/or simplicity of records requested.
8. Complex Request
A FOIA request that an agency using multi-track processing places in a slower track based on the volume and/or complexity of records requested.
9. Grant
The agency decision to disclose all records in full in response to a FOIA request.
10. Partial grant
The agency decision to disclose a record in part in response to a FOIA request, deleting information determined to be exempt under one or more of the FOIA's exemptions; or a decision to disclose some records in their entireties, but to withhold others in whole or in part.
11. Denial
The agency decision not to release any part of a record or records in response to a FOIA request because all the information in the requested records is determined by the agency to be exempt under one or more of the FOIA's exemptions, or for some procedural reason, such as when no record is located in response to a FOIA request.
12. Time limits
The time period in the Freedom of Information Act for an agency to respond to a FOIA request (ordinarily 20 working days from proper receipt of the FOIA request).
13. Exemption 3 statute
A separate federal statute prohibiting the disclosure of a certain type of information and authorizing its withholding under FOIA subsection (b) (3).
14. Median number
The middle, not average, number of working days.
15. Days
Refers to actual working days, excluding weekends and holidays.

IV. Exemption 3 Statutes

List of Exemption 3 statutes relied on by agency during current fiscal year:

  1. A brief description of type(s) of information withheld under each statute:
    1. Federal Property and Administrative Services Act, 41 U.S.C. 253b(m)(1)(2)(3)
             Contractor proposals

    2. Procurement Integrity Act, 41 U.S.C. 423
             Source selection information

    3. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, F.R. Cr.P. 6(e)
             Records relating to grand jury investigations or proceedings

    4. Alternative Dispute Resolution Act, 5 U.S.C. 571
             Communications relating to proceedings arising under this act

    5. Chemical Safety Information, Site Security, and Fuels Regulatory Relief Act, 42 U.S.C.7412
             Offsite consequence analysis sections of risk management plans

    6. The Patent Act, 35 U.S.C. 205
             Information relating to inventions for which a patent application had not
             yet been filed

    7. Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), 7 U.S.C.136h
             Studies from registrants who engage in the distribution of pesticides in
             countries other than the United States
  2. A statement of whether a court has upheld the use of each statute. If so, then cite example:
    1. The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, F.R. Cr.P 6(e), was upheld by Senate of Puerto Rico vs. Department of Justice, 823 F.2d 574 (D.C. Cir. 1987).

V. Initial FOIA/PA Access Requests

  1. Numbers of initial requests

    1. Number of requests pending as of end of preceding fiscal year: 8,772

    2. Number of requests received during current fiscal year: 15,906

    3. Number of requests processed during current fiscal year: 14,837

    4. Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year: 9,841

  2. Disposition of initial requests

    1. Number of total grants: 10,178

    2. Number of partial grants: 628

    3. Number of denials: 77

    1. number of times each FOIA exemption used

      (1) Exemption 1: 0

      (2) Exemption 2: 6

      (3) Exemption 3: 15

      (4) Exemption 4: 381

      (5) Exemption 5: 288

      (6) Exemption 6: 93

      (7) Exemption 7(A): 180

      (8) Exemption 7(B): 1

      (9) Exemption 7(C): 57

      (10) Exemption 7(D): 26

      (11) Exemption 7(E): 14

      (12) Exemption 7(F): 2

      (13) Exemption 8: 0

      (14) Exemption 9: 1

    4. Other reasons for nondisclosure: 3,954

    1. no records: 2,160

    2. referrals: 658

    3. request withdrawn: 856

    4. fee-related reason: 3

    5. records not reasonably described: 5

    6. not a proper FOIA request for some other reason: 15

    7. not an agency record: 0

    8. duplicate request: 254

    9. other (specify): 0

VI. Appeals of Initial Denials of FOIA/PA Requests

  1. Numbers of appeals

    1. Number of appeals received during fiscal year: 109

    2. Number of appeals processed during fiscal year: 127

  2. Disposition of appeals

    1. Number completely upheld: 9

    2. Number partially reversed: 18

    3. Number completely reversed: 22

    1. Number of times each FOIA exemption used

      (1) Exemption 1: 0

      (2) Exemption 2: 0

      (3) Exemption 3: 0

      (4) Exemption 4: 2

      (5) Exemption 5: 17

      (6) Exemption 6: 7

      (7) Exemption 7(A): 14

      (8) Exemption 7(B): 0

      (9) Exemption 7(C): 4

      (10) Exemption 7(D): 1

      (11) Exemption 7(E): 1

      (12) Exemption 7(F): 0

      (13) Exemption 8: 0

      (14) Exemption 9: 0

    4. Other reasons for non-disclosure: 78

    1. no records: 5

    2. referrals: 0

    3. request withdrawn: 71

    4. fee-related reason: 2

    5. records not reasonably described: 0

    6. not a proper FOIA request for some other reason: 0

    7. not an agency record: 0

    8. duplicate request: 0

    9. other (specify): 0

VII. Compliance with Time Limits/Status of Pending Requests

  1. Median processing time for requests processed during the year
    1. Simple requests:
      1. Number of requests process: 14,553
      2. Median number of days to process: 19
    2. Complex requests:
      1. Number of requests processed: 272
      2. Median number of days to process: 31
    3. Requests accorded expedited processing:
      1. Number of requests processed: 12
      2. Median number of days to process: 44
  2. Status of pending requests:
    1. Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year: 9,841
    2. Median number of days that such requests were pending: 517

VIII. Comparisons with Previous Years (optional)

Not reported.

IX. Costs/FOIA Staffing

  1. Staffing levels.
    1. Number of full-time FOIA personnel: 83
    2. Number of personnel with part-time or occasional FOIA duties
      3.     (in full-time years): 547
    3. Total number of personnel: 630
  2. Total costs including staff and all resources.
    1. FOIA processing (including appeals): $7,582,115.50
    2. Litigation-related activities (estimated): $45,960
    3. Total costs: $7,628,075.50

X. Fees

  1. Total amount of fees collected by agency for processing requests: $394,970.41
  2. Percentage of total costs: .052%

XI. FOIA Regulations (Including Fee Schedule)

EPA's FOIA Regulations and Fee Schedule can be found on the http://www.epa.gov/foia Web site.

 

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