Thomas E Hitteriwugo_op202012-04-23T18:00:00Z2012-04-24T13:24:00Z2012-04-24T13:24:00Z8330118822OMB156442207914

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

Chief Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Officer’s Report

April

Chief FOIA Officer’s Report is issued in accordance with

the

Attorney General Guidelines on FOIA issued on March 19, 2009. In compliance with th

e Guid

elines

, OMB’s Chief FOIA Officer has reviewed all aspects of OMB’s FOIA administration and issues this report on the steps OMB has taken to improve FOIA operations and facilitate information disclosure.

As discussed below, OMB continues to maintain one of the smallest backlogs of FOIA requests government-wide. At the end of Fiscal Year 2011

OMB had a backlog of one request, which was a decrease from the end of Fiscal Year 2010, when OMB had two backlogged requests. Even with these low numbers, OMB

continues to

look for ways to improve

the accessibility of information to the public

and to

establish

more efficient

FOIA

procedures.

Accordingly,

OMB has

recently enhanced the use of

technology

its FOIA proce

ssing

and is now undertaking a business process improvement initiative. This report provides greater detail on OMB’s efforts in these areas.

Copies of this report, as well as information on how to make a FOIA request to OMB, are available at the “FOIA” site on the OMB Home Page at

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/foia

Those wishing to submit FOIA requests to OMB should submit their request, in writing, to OMB either via email

OMBFOIA@omb.eop.gov

, fax (202) 395-3504, or to the following mailing address: Office of Management and Budget, New Executive Office Building, FOIA Officer, Room 9026, 725 17

Street, N.W., Washington

20503.

Steps Taken to Apply the Presumption of Openness.

OMB continues to take steps to ensure that the presumption of openness is applied when examining records that are responsive to FOIA requests the agency receives. This begins by ensuring that

the President’s FOIA Memorandum

the Attorney General’s FOIA Guidelines

and the presumption of openness

are

being applied to all decisions involving the FOIA.

For each FOIA request received,

OMB’s

FOIA Officer and OMB’s

Office of the General Counsel

work

through

each step of the FOIA process with the program offices that have the responsive material. This

effort

includes ensuring that the search for responsive material is comprehensive and

that

the presumption of openness is appl

d in the review of responsive material to determine what can be released.

Additionally, OMB

personnel continue to attend DOJ’s FOIA seminars and training

that discuss the Attorney General’s Guidelines

The document review process begins with an initial document-by-document, line-by-line review conducted by agency personnel

to identify material that

is appro

priate for release

, including whether OMB can discretionarily release material that falls within one of the FOIA’s exemptions. This careful review is followed by

review

the General Counsel’s Office,

of any redactions made during the initial review to ensure that OMB has properly implemented the

presumption of openness. Therefore, a

ll releases undergo review more than once to ensure that

the

presumption of openness is applied where appropriate.

The continued attention

applying the presumption of open

ness has resulted in an increas

e in

the discretionary release of material covered by

FOIA

Exemption 5

, which protects “inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters which would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency

”

Most notably,

in several instances

OMB has been able to identify deliberative documents that can

appropriately

be released, while only protecting the

specific aspects of the

deliberations

that would be harmful if disclosed

By applying the presumption of openness to each responsive document, OMB

has been

able to release

additional

draft

material

and

inter-agency and

intra-agency email communications.

From Fiscal Year 2010 to Fiscal Year 2011

OMB

experienced an increase

in the number of requests received and processed. Specifically, the number of requests received increased from 147 to 188

(an increase of 22%)

, and the number of requests processed rose from 141 to 173

(an increase of 19%)

. In applying the presumption of openness to this increased number of responses, OMB increased

the number of full grants from thirty-nine to fifty-seven.

At the same time

there was a decrease in the

number of

partial grants, from thirty-nine in Fiscal Year 2010 to thirty-one in Fiscal Year 2011.

Lastly, a

comparison of data concerning responses where r

ecords were produced shows that

the number of

full denials based on exemptions increased

from

six to fifteen

II.

Steps Taken to

Ensure

that Your Agency has an Effective System in Place for Responding to Requests

OMB continues to operate an effective system

for responding to FOIA requests and

further improve

that system

so that

the agency’s resources

are utilized

in the most effective and efficient manner. To identify areas of impr

ement and enhance overall FOIA program efficiencies, OMB began conducting

a comprehensive Business Process Improvement Initiative

in October 2011.

Through examination of the

personnel

, technology, and communication supporting

its

FOIA

process, the agency’s goal is to properly identify ways to increase overall efficiency in responding to requests that will better achieve and further enhance open

government

This examination has included

various

steps over the past

several

month

, including (1) a

series of one-on-one interviews conducted with key

subject matter experts

;

(2) d

evelopment of business process modules to aid in further examination and analysis;

(3)

evaluation of current and new electronic and collaborative technology;

(4)

analysis of historical data to better understand resource needs and allocations; and

(5) g

ather

ing

and examin

ing

best business practices for potential adaption and agency use from various Federal departments

agencies

, and other offices.

During

the Business Process Improvement Initiative, OMB

continues to

operat

largely

under

the same

procedures

as reported in last year’s Chief FOIA Off

er Report,

including the full implementation of

initiatives

first addressed in

that

report.

The FOIA procedure begins

when the r

equest is received

and logged in

by OMB’s FOIA Office

At that time, the FOIA Officer

assigns the request to the appropriate program office(s) within OMB to conduct a search for potentially responsive records and notifies them of the statutory deadline imposed by the FOIA.

The FOIA Officer directly interacts with the appropriate OMB program offices and OMB’s General Counsel’s Office to

ensure that

questions regarding

the FOIA search can be answered timely.

In addition

the FOIA Office

and

the General Counsel’s Office

meet with the program office within days of receiving the request to discuss the scope of the request and identify any complex search issues that may cause delay. Furthermore, in order to streamline

a potentially complicated

search, the FOIA Office

provides a “FOIA Search Checklist” that itemizes the different places where responsive records may be located. This allows the program office to immediately apply the necessary resources to all areas that may house responsive material.

Furthermore, t

he FOIA Office

continues to

determine whether OMB needs to contact other agencies regarding the necessary consultations or referrals of information that originated from another agency.

Additionally, w

here appropriate, the FOIA Office

communicates with requesters to clarify requests

, as soon as practicable

As records are located

OMB’s Office of General Counsel devotes substantial resources

careful, line-by-line reviews of potentially responsive documents.

With resources available in the FOIA Office

and in

the General Counsel’s Office

, OMB is able to ensure that adequate staffing is available to handle complex FOIA requests

when received by the

agency.

level of resources available when needed

demonstrate

OMB’s commitment to following the Administration’s presumption of openness.

After this review is concluded, and all the appropriate offices have had an opportunity to review, the response is sent to the requester by OMB’s FOIA Officer.

OMB continues to receive sufficient IT support. As discussed in

years

’

report

OMB’s FOIA Office

is located within the agency’s Management and Operations Division, which houses OMB’s Information Technology Office. Working within the same Division as the IT Team provides the FOIA Office

with IT resources to meet its needs

For instance, d

uring Fiscal Year 2010, the IT Team was instrumental in OMB’s acquisition of

document

redaction software.

In Fiscal Year 2011, t

he IT Team

and FOIA

Officer continued

to work together to create a more streamlined electronic FOIA process and move the agency away from relying on paper.

OMB’s FOIA professionals directly interact with the agency’s Open Government Team. Most notably, a FOIA professional now sits on OMB’s Open Government Steering Committee that oversees the agency’s implementation of its Open Government Plan

, to ensure that

FOIA remains a priority

during

the implementation. This has also brought FOIA to the attention of personnel at every level of the agency as OMB continues to explore ways

to improve the accessibility of information to the public

These efforts are reflected in the information now proactively released as discussed in Part III below.

III.

Steps Taken to Increa

Proactive Disclosures

As explained in last year’s Chief FOIA Officer

’s

Report

, OMB relies on several websites to increase the amount of publicly available information. Prior to the postings described here, the

public’s

pred

ominant method

receiv

ing

many

OMB

datasets was through a FOIA request. OMB

now offers a number of

high-value

datasets

that for download

ing online; a catalogue of these datasets

is located

here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/open/around/eop/omb/datasets. Additionally, OMB has made more information publicly available on the following sites: (1) the Regulatory Review

and Information Collection Review

Dashboard, at http://www.reginfo.gov/public/; (2) OMB’s record management policy, at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/records_management_policy/; and (3

) the

OMBlog, which is frequently updated by OMB officials. Other websites that OMB continues to update include Data.gov, ITdashboard.gov, USAspending.gov,

Performance.gov,

and Recovery.gov.

As OMB completes its response to a FOIA request, it determines whether it would be helpful to post any material provided to the requester on one of these, and other, websites

n addition to including more information on these websites, OMB has also continued to make several of its initiatives more transparent. For instance, all SAVE Award submission

are now posted online for public review and comment (subject to an opt-out from the submitter and a screen for inappropriate, confidential, and personally identifiable information). Federal employees around the nation can rank submissions, OMB reviews the highest ranked ideas, and public voting determine

the final SAVE Award winners.

Improvements of the public participation interface have also continued on Regulations.gov.

This includes an upgraded public commenting mechanism, search functionality, user interfaces, and other major features to help the public find, follow, and participate in Federal rulemakings.

dditionally

, starting with

the

Fiscal

Year

2012 Budget

, OMB has started to publish the President’s Budget and the Mid-Session Review

online

in machine-readable formats, in addition to hard copy and PDF format

Additionally,

as noted above,

OMB’s

officials use

a blog to provide more information to the public, which can be found here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/blog

. T

his blog is

further

supplemented with a “share/bookmark” feature, which allows readers to share a posting they find interesting or useful on Facebook or other social media sites

OMB uses this tool to explain and describe OMB activities, along with links to additional information

for

the reader

who wishes

learn

about

a particular topic or participate in a corresponding discussion. For instance, the Administrator for the Office of E-government and Information Technology, Steven VanRoekel,

recently

posted information regarding efforts by the Federal government to

improve its use of

mobile technology. In addition to detailing steps already taken,

invited the public to share its thoughts on how the Federal government can take advantage of the mobile opportunity

IV.

Steps Taken to Greater Utilize Technology

Electronic receipt of FOIA requests:

Can FOIA requests be made electronically to your agency?

If your agency processes requests on a decentralized basis, do all components of your agency receive requests electronically

Only one office within OMB receives FOIA requests and

that office

has the capability to receive those requests electronically. OMB uses the email address

OMBFOIA@omb.eop.gov

to receive requests electronically.

Online tracking of FOIA requests

Can a FOIA requester track the status of his/her request electronically?

If not, is your agency taking steps to establish this capability?

Even with a significant increase in the number of requests received in Fiscal Year 2011, OMB

still

only receives less than 200 requests a year. At the same time, only a portion of those

requests

are pending at any one time, and OMB maintains a

very

small backlog of requests from year to year. Requesters can now call or email OMB’s FOIA Officer to inquire on the status of their request. Given the relatively small number of requests pending at any one time, OMB’s FOIA Officer is familiar with each request and can provide the requester with the status of his or her request quickly. This procedure allows for the requester to effectively track the status of his or her request.

Through the Business Process Improvement Initiative, mentioned in Part II, OMB is also continuing to evaluate

whether

this procedure can be

further

improved by allowing

requesters

to track their request electronically.

Use of technology to facilitate processing of requests:

Beyond using technology to redact documents, is your agency taking steps to utilize more advanced

technology

to facilitate overall FOIA efficiency, such as improving record search capabilities,

utilizing

document sharing platforms for consultations and referrals, or employing software that can sort and de-duplicate documents?

If so, describe the technological improvements being made.

Yes, OMB has begun transitioning to the use of

advanced

software

technology to facilitate FOIA

processing

efficiency.

OMB believes this technology will improve several steps in FOIA processing

, such as

searching

for and

reviewing potential

ly responsive records

This should reduce the

average

length of time necessary

to process requests

V. Steps Taken to Reduce Backlogs and Improve Timeliness in Responding to Requests

Response Time for All Processed Requests.

Does your agency utilize a separate track for simple requests?

If so, for your agency overall, for Fiscal Year 2011, was the average number of days to process simple requests twenty working days or fewer?

If your agency does not track simple requests separately, was the average number of days to process non-expedited requests twenty working days or fewer?

OMB does not use a separate track for processing simple requests, as it has a “first-in, first-out” processing system. The average number of days for processing requests was eighty-two days.

Backlogged and Ten Oldest Requests and Appeals

If your agency had a backlog of requests at the close of Fiscal Year 2011, did that backlog decrease as compared with Fiscal Year 2010?

OMB had a backlog of one request at the end of Fiscal Year 2011, which is a decrease from the end of Fiscal Year 2010

when OMB had two backlogged requests.

If your agency had a backlog of administrative appeals in Fiscal Year 2011, did that backlog decrease as compared to Fiscal Year 2010?

OMB did not have a backlog of administrative appeals at the end of Fiscal Year 2011 or Fiscal Year 2010.

In Fiscal Year 2011, did your agency close the ten oldest requests that were pending as of the end of Fiscal Year 2010?

During Fiscal Year 2011,

OMB closed all but one of the ten oldest requests

that were pending at the end of Fiscal Year 2010.

In Fiscal Year 2011, did your agency close the ten oldest administrative appeals that were pending as of the end of Fiscal Year 2010?

OMB did not have any pending administrative appeals at the end of Fiscal Year 2010.

If you answered “no” to any of the above questions, describe why that has occurred. In doing so, answer the following questions then include any additional explanation:

Request Backlog

Was the lack of a reduction in the request backlog a result of an increase in the number of incoming requests?

Was the lack of a reduction in the request backlog caused by a loss of staff?

Was the lack of a reduction in the request backlog caused by an increase in the complexity of the requests received?

What other causes, if any, contributed to the lack of a decrease in the request backlog?

As mentioned above, in Fiscal Year 2011, OMB closed all but one of the ten oldest requests that were pending at the end of Fiscal Year 2010. OMB has made several interim releases

in response to

the one backlogged

request,

some of which

were

several hundred pages, but has not yet completed processing the remaining responsive documents. The time necessary to process this request is

significantly

onger

than

OMB’s normal processing time due to the complexity of the particular request and the volume of responsive material. The majority of the responsive records co

nsist of hundreds of pages of e

mail communications among offic

als and employees in a variety of offices in the Executive Branch. Furthermore, the content

of these communications are largely deliberative. In order to properly apply the deliberative process privilege, as well as the presumption of openness, OMB

has been

conducting a line-by-line review of the material.

Administrative Appeal Backlog

This section is not applicable, as OMB did not have any pending administrative appeals at the end of the Fiscal Year.

Improvements to reduce backlog and

timeliness in responding to requests and appeals.

Does your agency routinely set goals and monitor the progress of your FOIA caseload?

Has your agency increased its FOIA staffing?

Has your agency made IT improvements to increase timeliness?

If your agency receives consultations from other agencies, has your agency taken steps to improve the efficiency of the handling of such consultations, such as utilizing IT to share the documents, or establishing guidelines or agreements with other agencies on the handling of particular information to speed up or eliminate the need for consultations?

OMB has historically had a very low number of backlogged requests and appeals

and has not needed to increase the size of the FOIA staffing

. Throughout the fiscal year, OMB monitors the status of all FOIA requests in order to address any potential

difficulties

as quickly as possible. To further improve its FOIA procedures, OMB has begun

conducting a Business Process Improvement Initiative as detailed in Section II above and

transitioning to the use of advanced technology, as explained in Section IV.3 above. OMB hopes

these initiatives

further improve its response time, by eliminating duplicative steps in its search efforts and by streamlining the internal review procedure

With regard to consultations from other agencies, OMB has a separate procedure to handle those as efficiently as possible. The majority of agency consultation requests are handled in

central location within the General Counsel’s Office.

By creating a s

ingle

point of contact, agencies and OMB can

communicate easily in order

to meet

short

deadlines,

often

imposed by the statute or litigation.

VI.

Use of FOIA’s Law Enforcement “Exclusions

”

Did your agency invoke a statutory exclusion during Fiscal Year 2011?

If so, what is the total number of times exclusions were invoked?

OMB did not invoke a statutory exclusion during Fiscal Year 2011.

Spotlight on Success

A success story that is emblematic of OMB’s efforts to increase its transparency

and improve

its

FOIA administration is the Business Process Improvement Initiative that OMB has

recently

undertaken. Recognizing that there is always room for improvement, OMB

examined

the

personnel

, technology, and communication supporting

the FOIA process within the agency. By devoting resources to this analysis, OMB hopes

to develop an even more

streamlined

and

effective

FOIA

procedure

, which

will have lasting impact within the agency. While the review is still ongoing, OMB has already begun to identify and address

agency practices

that

delay

the agency’s response to requests. There are two important benefits that the agency has recognized

so far

in this initiative. First, by having th

review conducted in one central location, OMB is able to recognize overlap

among the many offices involved in the many different aspects of FOIA, from proactive disclosures to preparing a response to a request. This has allowed the agency to begin to think of ways to increase the efficient use of its resources. Another important aspect of this initiative is the

recognition

of similarities between FOIA procedures and other agency procedures, both within OMB and government-wide. Consequently, OMB can examine the best business practices of similar models for potential adaption to OMB’s FOIA procedures. These are just two of

the benefits

OMB has recognized

so far in

this initiative.

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