PSC.gov

Freedom of Information Annual Report -- FY 2006

I. AGENCY: Program Support Center (PSC) & Office of Public Health and Science (OPHS)

REPORT PREPARED BY: Melinda Hill

TITLE: FOIA Technician, PHS and PSC

ADDRESS: 5600 Fishers Lane, Room 17A-46, Rockville, Maryland 20857

PHONE NUMBER: 301-443-5252

ELECTRONIC ADDRESS FOR THIS REPORT ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB: www.psc.gov/foia/report06.html

ADDRESS FOR PAPER COPIES OF THIS REPORT: Same as above

II. HOW TO MAKE A FOIA REQUEST: Please see HHS Guide to Information Resources at: www.hhs.gov/about/infoguid.html#foia

1. 1. Names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all individual agency components and offices that process FOIA requests:

      Division of FOIA Services
      Parklawn Building, Room 17A-46
      5600 Fishers Lane
      Rockville, Maryland 20857

   2. Brief description of agency's response time range(s):

      Simple request, 10 working days from the date of receipt: complex requests, 60 days; and expedited processing requests, 10 days

   3. Brief description of why some requests are not granted:

      Documents requested were protected by an exemption and release would have caused harm to the interest protected by the exemption.

III. DEFINITIONS OF TERMS AND ACRONYMS USED IN REPORT:

1. 1. Agency-specific acronyms or other terms:

      HHS - U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
      OPDIVs - Operating Divisions of HHS
      OS - Office of the Secretary, HHS
      PSC - Program Support Center
      OPHS - Office of Public Health and Science

   2. Basic terms (from FOIA UPDATE, Summer 1997):

      FOIA/PA request - Freedom of Information/Privacy Act request. A FOIA request is generally a request for access to records concerning a third party, an organization, or a particular topic of interest. A Privacy Act request is a request for records concerning oneself. Such requests are also treated as FOIA requests. (All requests for access to records, regardless of which law is cited by the requester, are included in this report).

      Initial Request - A request to a federal agency for access to records under the Freedom of Information Act.

      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.

      Processed Request or Appeal - A request or appeal for which an agency has taken final action on the request or appeal in all respects.

      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 (see below).

      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.

      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 the records requested.

      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.

      Grant - An agency decision to disclose all records in full response to a FOIA request.

      Partial grant - An 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 exemptions; or a decision to disclose some records in their entireties, but to withhold others in whole or in part.

      Denial - An 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 FOIA exemptions or for some procedural reason (such as because no record is located in response to a FOIA request).

      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 a perfected FOIA request).

      Perfected request - A FOIA request for records which adequately describes the records sought, which has been received by the FOIA office of the agency component in possession of the records, and for which there is no remaining question about the payment of applicable fees.

      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).

      Median number - The middle number, not the average. For example, of 3, 7, and 14, the median number is 7.

      Average number - The number obtained by dividing the sum of a group of numbers by the quantity of numbers in the group. For example, of 3, 7, and 14, the average number is eight.

IV. EXEMPTION 3 STATUTES:

1. 1. List of Exemption 3 statutes relied on by the agency during report year: Public Law 104-201, Section 821(b)(m); 42 U.S.C. 253b(m)

      1. Brief description of type(s) of information withheld under each statute: Unsuccessful contract technical proposal

      2. Has a court upheld the use of each statute? If so, cite example:

V. INITIAL FOIA/PA ACCESS REQUESTS (Include all requests, 3 ^rd or 1 ^st party):

1. 1. Numbers of initial requests (line 1 + line 2 - line 3 = line 4):
      1. Number of requests pending at close of preceding fiscal year: 113
      2. Number of requests received during reporting fiscal year: 525
      3. Number of requests processed during reporting fiscal year: 503
      4. Number of requests pending at close of reporting fiscal year: 135
         (This number should match Line VII.B.1.)
      
      

   2. Disposition of Initial Requests:

      1. Number granted in full: 294
      2. Number granted in part: 47
      3. Number of full denials: 21

         1. Number of times each FOIA exemption was used:

            Exemption 1: 0
            Exemption 2: 20
            Exemption 3: 9
            Exemption 4: 20
            Exemption 5: 28
            Exemption 6: 32
            Exemption 7
            

            Exemption 7(A): 7
            Exemption 7(B): 0
            Exemption 7 (C): 9
            Exemption 7 (D): 4
            Exemption 7 (E): 0
            Exemption 7 (F): 0
            
            Exemption 8: 0000 0
            Exemption 9: 0000 0
            
            

      4. Other reasons for non-disclosure (total): 178

         1. No records: 63
         2. Referrals: 39
         3. Request withdrawn: 67

            * of the 39 referrals,37 are not controlled. Referrals are not entered into the tracking system and are not included in the total number of requests processed during reporting fiscal year. Referrals are tracked in a separate database.

         4. Fee-related reason: 6
         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: 2
         9. Other (specify) 1 (sent to our office in error)

VI. APPEALS OF INITIAL DENIALS OF FOIA/PA REQUESTS (include all access requests whether first or third party):

1. 1. Numbers of Appeals:

      1. Number of appeals received during the fiscal year: 100
      2. Number of appeals processed during the fiscal year: 137
         
         

   2. Disposition of Appeals:

      1. Number completely upheld: 44
      2. Number partially reversed: 23
      3. Number completely reversed: 33
         
         
         1. Number of times each FOIA exemption used (counting each exemption used once per appeal)
            Exemption 1: 0
            Exemption 2: 2
            Exemption 3: 8
            Exemption 4: 24
            Exemption 5: 23
            Exemption 6:28
            Exemption 7

            Exemption 7(A): 2
            Exemption 7(B): 0
            Exemption 7(C): 2
            Exemption 7(D): 0
            Exemption 7(E): 0
            Exemption 7(F): 0

            Exemption 8: 0
            Exemption 9: 0
         
         

      4. Other reasons for non-disclosure (total): 37

         1. No records: 15
         2. Referrals: 0
         3. Request withdrawn: 16
         4. Fee-related reason: 4
         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): 2 ( litigation, untimely)

VII. COMPLIANCE WITH TIME LIMITS/STATUS OF PENDING REQUESTS: (See chart)

1. 1. Median Processing Time for Requests Processed During the Year: (Some OPDIVs do not use multiple tracks—see attached)

      1. Simple Requests (if multiple tracks used):

         1. Number of requests processed: 75
         2. Median number of days to process: 10
            
            

      2. Complex Requests (includes total of complex requests and single-track systems):

         1. Number of requests processed: 428
         2. Median number of days to process: 60
            
            

      3. Requests Accorded Expedited Processing:

         1. Number of requests processed: 0
         2. Median number of days to process: 0
            
            

   2. Status of Pending Requests (if multiple tracks are being used, report for each track as well as totals).

      1. Number of requests pending as of the end of the fiscal year covered in this report (from Line V.A.4): 135
      2. Median number of days that such requests were pending as of that date: Medians vary greatly from OPDIV to OPDIV. 60

          

VIII. COMPARISONS WITH PREVIOUS YEAR (S): (Optional):

1. 1. Comparison of numbers of requests received:
   2. Comparison of numbers of requests processed:
   3. Comparison of median numbers of days requests were pending as of end of fiscal year:
   4. Other statistics significant to components:
   5. Other narrative statements describing agency efforts to improve timeliness of FOIA performance and to make records available to the public (e.g., backlog-reduction activities; public availability of new categories of records): No comments.

IX. COSTS/FOIA STAFFING:

1. 1. Staffing levels:

      1. Number of full-time FOIA personnel: 4

      2. Number of personnel with part-time or occasional FOIA duties (in total work-years): 1
      3. Total number of personnel (in work years): 5
         
         

   2. Total costs (including staff and all resources):

      1. FOIA processing (including appeals): 242,563.00
      2. Litigation-related activities (estimated): 40,857.00
      3. Total costs: 283,420.00
      4. Comparison with previous year(s) (including percentage of change) (optional):

X. FEES: (See chart below)

1. 1. C Total amount of fees collected by agency for processing requests: 9,858.80
   2. CPercentage of total costs: 3.48%

XI. FOIA REGULATIONS (including fee schedule):

XII. Report on FOIA Executive Order Implementation

1. 1. Description of supplementation/modification of agency improvement plan (if applicable: Not applicable
   2. Report on agency implementation of its plan, including its performance in meeting milestones, with respect to each improvement area: The PSC/OPHS FOIA Division was able to completely eliminate its 2005 backlog of cases and administrative appeals which was the primary goal of the Division. We also increased our efforts to share data with other HHS OPDIVs such as our listing of requesters who have failed to pay previous FOIA fees and our database of standard language response letters. We are also working with our database contractor on ways to improve the efficiency of the logging and tracking processes.
   3. Identification and discussion of any deficiency in meeting plan milestones (if applicable: As with other OPDIVs, we have experienced the loss of staff and the inability to quickly re-hire competent and qualified replacements for the vacant positions. As such, this has significantly impacted our efforts to continue to reduce the backlog of pending 2006 cases and appeals. Further, we are experiencing an increase in litigation which requires immediate action in order to meet Court ordered deadlines. And, because we service many offices that produce investigatory records, these records require careful review and redaction of protected information such as the names of respondents, complainants, witnesses, and confidential sources. Also, because of the sensitivity of these records, they undergo several levels of reviews and also must be reviewed by the initial investigator prior to release. All of these factors have impacted our ability to decrease our existing backlog and stay current with the new Fiscal Year demands.
   5. Concise description of FOIA exemptions A description of the FOIA exemptions is available on the HHS website at www.hhs.gov.
   6. Additional statistics:
      1. Time range of requests pending by date of request (or, where applicable, by date of referral from another agency) Depending on complexity, simple requests remain in a pending status for approximately 20 days; complex requests depend on the need to consult with third-parties or other agencies, and the volume of record involved. Such requests may be in a pending status for 60 or more days. However, in instances such as this, the office will routinely send partial responses to the requesters.
      2. Time range of consultations pending with other agencies, by date of initial interagency communication When consultations are needed, every effort is made to immediately communication with the other agency. In most instances, consultations take place within 5 business days of receipt of the initial request.
   7. Attachment: Agency improvement plan (in current form)

      The current Plan for all HHS OPDIVs is available on the HHS website at www.hhs.gov.

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