U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA) REPORT
FISCAL YEAR 2006

Download entire report: (330 KB)

I. Basic Information Regarding Report
II. How to Make a FOIA Request
III. Definitions of Terms and Acronyms Used in the Report
IV. Exemption 3 Statutes
V. Initial FOIA / PA Access Requests
VI. Appeals of Initial Denials of FOIA/PA Requests
VII. Compliance with Time Limits
VIII. Comparisons with Previous Year
IX. FOIA Costs / Staffing
X. Fees Collected
XI. DOT FOIA Regulations (including fee schedule) – 49 CFR Part 7
XII. Report on Executive Order 13392 Implementation

I. Basic Information Regarding Report

A. Person to be contacted with questions about the report:

Kathy Ray, Departmental FOIA Officer
U.S. Department of Transportation
Office of General Counsel (C-12)
400 Seventh Street, SW, Room 5432
Washington, DC 20590
(202) 366-5546

B. Electronic address for report on the World Wide Web:

www.dot.gov/foia

C. Person to be contacted for a copy of the report in paper form:

Darlene Wallace, Paralegal Specialist
U.S. Department of Transportation
Office of General Counsel (C-12)
400 Seventh Street, SW, Room 5432
Washington, DC 20590
(202) 366-4245

II. How to Make a FOIA Request

A. Names, addresses, telephone numbers, fax numbers, and information to submit a request electronically (if applicable) for all individual agency components and offices that receive FOIA requests.

B. Brief description of the Agency's response times.

Some components of the Department of Transportation were able to respond to their FOIA requests within the statutory time frames. For a detailed breakdown of each component’s response times, see Section VII of this report, Compliance With Time Limits.

C. Brief description of why some requests are not granted.

Some requested records, or portions of records, were withheld pursuant to the FOIA's exemptions. The most frequently used exemption in DOT was Exemption 6, which protects against a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Other reasons for not granting requests included: (1) DOT did not have the records sought; (2) the requester did not seek records; rather, he or she was seeking answers to questions; or (3) the information from the records sought was publicly available.

III. Definitions of Terms and Acronyms Used in the Report

A. Agency-specific acronyms or other terms.

B. Basic terms expressed in common terminology.

1. FOIA / PA Request—Freedom of Information Act / 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 may also be treated as FOIA requests.

2. Initial Request—a request to a federal agency for access to records under the FOIA.

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 FOIA, 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 requests requiring relatively minimal review are classified as simple requests and are placed in one processing track and requests that are more voluminous and that require more review are classified as complex requests. Complex requests are placed in one or more other tracks. Requests within 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).

6. Expedited Processing—When a requestor can show there is an exceptional need or urgency for a record or records (see 49 CFR 7.31(c)), an agency will process a FOIA request before those FOIA requests that have been submitted at an earlier date.

7. Simple Request—An agency using multi-track processing will classify a low volume request that requires relatively minimal review as a simple request and will place it in its fastest, non-expedited track.

8. Complex Request— An agency using multi-track processing will classify a voluminous request that requires more review as a complex request and will place it in its slower track.

9. Grant—an agency decision to disclose all records in full in response to a FOIA request.

10. Partial Grant—an agency decision to disclose a record in part in response to a FOIA request, withholding information determined to be exempt under one or more of the FOIA exemptions; or a decision to disclose some records in their entirety, but to withhold others in whole or in part.

11. 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 the FOIA exemptions, or for some procedural reason, such as no record is located in response to a FOIA request.

12. Time Limits—Under FOIA, the period of time within which an agency must respond to a FOIA request. Ordinarily, this period is 20 working days from proper receipt of a “perfected” FOIA request.

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

14. Exemption 3 Statute—a separate federal statute prohibiting the disclosure of a certain type of information and authorizing its withholding under FOIA exemption (b)(3).

15. Median Number—the median number is the middle number on the list in a set of numbers listed from the least number to the greatest number. For example, of 3, 7, and 14, the median number is 7. If a set of numbers has two middle numbers, the median is the number halfway between the two numbers. For example, 3, 4, 8, 12, the median number equals 4+8 = 12/2 = 6.

16. 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 8.

IV. Exemption 3 Statutes

V. Initial FOIA / PA Access Requests

A. Numbers of Initial Requests

* This number reflects an additional 16 requests than the number reported as pending at the end of the year in the FY 2005 report; the increase represents 16 requests that were closed out in FY 2005, then re-opened in FY 2006.

B. Disposition of Initial Requests

B. Disposition of Initial Requests (cont’d)

FOIA Exemptions

B. Disposition of Initial Requests (cont’d)

* The question whether 49 U.S.C. § 30166(m)(4)(C) precludes the release of automobile early warning data, the information sought in these four FOIA cases, is pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Public Citizen, Inc. v. Peters, No. 06-5304. These requests represent instances where complete denials were issued and requesters were given appeal rights. Once the litigation is resolved, requesters may file a new FOIA request. Since the NHTSA does not have a backlog of pending FOIA requests, any new requests would be processed in a timely manner.

VI. Appeals of Initial Denials of FOIA/PA Requests

A. Number of Appeals
B. Disposition of Appeals

B. Disposition of Appeals (cont’d)

FOIA Exemptions

B. Disposition of Appeals (cont’d)

VII. Compliance with Time Limits

A. Median processing time for requests processed during the fiscal year
B. Status of pending requests.

VIII. Comparisons with Previous Year

A. Number of requests received in FY 2005: 9,597
Number of requests received in FY 2006: 8,867 (decrease of 9.24 percent)

B. Number of requests processed in FY 2005: 9,384
Number of requests processed in FY 2006: 8,758 (decrease of 9.33 percent)

C. Comparison of median number of days requests were pending as of the end of the fiscal year: Varies by component

D. Other narrative statements describing agency efforts to improve timeliness of FOIA performance and to make records available to the public.

• The DOT received approximately 205 requests for expedited processing. Of those requests, 81 were afforded expedited processing.

• Many DOT FOIA offices actively communicate with requesters via telephone and/or e-mail to effectively refine the scope of their request to better target more efficient searches.

• DOT components continue to increase the types and volume of non-sensitive information available to the public on the Internet.

• During the reporting period, FOIA personnel throughout the Department attended FOIA training from a wide range of sources, such as DOJ, USDA Graduate School, American Society of Access Professionals, and in-house (at DOT).

• FHWA’s FOIA database has been fully expanded and improved. The system now permits all of its field offices to use the database to record and track requests received directly by each field office. The system is now capturing additional data and has also has been provided to another DOT component (PHMSA) for its use.

• The OIG’s website is kept current and includes all publicly-issued products, such as audit and investigative reports, testimony before Congress, and significant correspondence and advisory memorandums. The OIG has regular weekly meetings with the FOIA Officer and the front office is provided with regular FOIA status report updates and timely notification of specific FOIA-related matters and/or higher profile requests. To assist with FOIA processing and legal review, the OIG is using law school student interns, especially on larger, more complex cases.

IX. FOIA Costs / Staffing

A. Staffing Levels
B. Total Costs (including staff and resources)

X. Fees Collected

XI. DOT FOIA Regulations (including fee schedule) – 49 CFR Part 7

(http://www.dot.gov/foia/regulation_foia.html)

XII. Report on Executive Order 13392 Implementation

On December 14, 2005, the President issued Executive Order 13392, “Improving Agency Disclosure of Information,” which established a “citizen-centered” and “results-oriented” approach to administration of the Freedom of Information Act. The Executive Order required each agency to: (1) conduct a review of its FOIA operations, (2) develop an agency-specific plan for improving its administration of the Act, and (3) include a description of its progress in meeting the milestones and goals established in its improvement plan in its annual report.

This section of the annual FOIA report contains the Department of Transportation’s description of its progress in implementing the milestones and goals of the Department’s FOIA Improvement Plan, including highlights of the Department’s achievements.

The reporting period for Section XII is different from that used for the rest of this report, which is based on data compiled for FY 2006. The reporting period for this section concerning Executive Order implementation activities includes progress made by Department of Transportation components through January 2007.

A. Description of supplementation/modification of agency improvement plan

Not applicable.

B. Report on agency implementation of its plan, including its performance in meeting milestones, with respect to each improvement area

The Department is proud of the work we have accomplished in implementing improvements to our FOIA programs. Among our successes are the following:

In the area of backlog reduction, tremendous progress was made throughout the Department in closing out FOIA requests from previous fiscal years. During this initial reporting period, the Department closed 254 cases from previous fiscal years, as follows: 3 cases from FY 1997 closed; 11 cases from FY 1998 closed; 46 cases from FY 1999 closed (although 33 of these cases were not scheduled to be closed out until the second reporting period, FAA was able to close them out ahead of schedule); 8 cases from FY 2000 closed; 4 cases from FY 2001 closed; 4 cases from FY 2002 closed; 8 cases from FY 2003 closed; 24 cases from FY 2004 closed; and 146 cases from FY 2005 closed.

In the areas of training and customer service, the Departmental FOIA office developed and presented a well-received “FOIA 101” training course for 60 participants throughout the Department. In addition, a session on politeness and courtesy--improving our
interactions with requesters--was held.

In the area of improving all FOIA web pages throughout the Department, each component within the Department has made customer-friendly improvements to its FOIA web page. Improvements include the prominent posting of each component’s FOIA Requester Service Center telephone number and the name and telephone number of its FOIA Public Liaison. In addition, each component has posted or updated its listing of small purchase credit card holders. Finally, the Department completely revised and updated its DOT FOIA Reference Guide, with each component linking to it from its respective FOIA web page.

In the area of information technology-related improvements, the Department is making excellent progress in bringing more components onto “pay.gov,” a system that allows FOIA requesters to make electronic payments of FOIA fees. The components currently accepting electronic payment of FOIA fees are: FRA, OIG, MARAD, NHTSA, and PHMSA. OST and FHWA are in final testing; FAA is actively working on implementation; and FMCSA, FTA, RITA, and SLSDC will begin working with the Departmental FOIA office on implementation steps in February 2007. We hope to have all Departmental components up-and-running by our scheduled target date of June 2007.

Another information technology-related accomplishment is the full implementation of an automated FOIA database tracking system for PHMSA. Also, the Office of the Secretary (OST) is currently pilot testing a new FOIA database.

In the area of process review, two components (FHWA and PHMSA) conducted reviews of their FOIA programs. Based on the reviews, FHWA and PHMSA have identified many organizational, administrative, process, and automation-related opportunities for improvement. Many of the identified improvements have already been implemented, and others will be implemented over the next few months.

C. Identification and discussion of any deficiency in meeting plan milestones

Although the Department made strong progress in implementing its improvement plan, several milestones were not met by the specified date. The vast majority of those missed deadlines were corrected by the end of January 2007. It appears that portions of the Department’s action plan were overly ambitious for the resources we had available.

Although all listings of small purchase credit card holders are now posted on the web pages of the respective components, one component (OIG) posted after the 11/30/06 deadline. This was due to OIG’s practice of not posting such information. Subsequently, OIG’s policy was changed to meet the requirement of the Department’s improvement plan.

Although all components have made improvements to their FOIA web pages, two components (OST and NHTSA) missed the 11/30/06 deadline. The deadline slip for NHTSA was due to miscommunication and was promptly corrected. The deadline slip for OST was due to an administrative oversight--improvements were posted in January 2007.

Initially, each component was scheduled to revise its FOIA reference guide. However, during implementation, we determined that one DOT FOIA Reference Guide covering the entire Department would be more customer-friendly. Therefore, we developed a single Departmental guide and posted it the main DOT FOIA web page. Each component now provides a link to the Departmental Guide from its respective FOIA web page. The revised DOT FOIA Reference Guide was scheduled to be posted by 11/30/06; however, because of competing executive order implementation priorities for the Departmental FOIA Officer, and the change of direction described above, it was not posted on DOT’s FOIA web page until 1/18/07.

Although good progress is being made by the Department in implementing “pay.gov” electronic payments for all DOT FOIA by June 2007, several interim deadlines have been missed. The Departmental FOIA office is serving as the facilitator between U.S. Treasury and the FOIA offices throughout the Department. We underestimated the complexity of this process, especially in the midst of our other executive order implementation activities. We still hope to meet our overall goal of having all Departmental components offering electronic payment of FOIA fees by June 2007.

The Departmental FOIA Officer was scheduled to review multi-track processing practices of selected Federal agencies by 12/31/06. Competing demands in executive order implementation prevented the timely completion of this item. We now expect to complete this action by end of the March 2007.

Good progress is also being made with regard to addressing backlog reduction/elimination issues. For FMCSA, which had only one pending FOIA request from a previous fiscal year, the scheduled close-out date was 12/31/06. However, due to the complexity of the case, the coordination involved, and the large volume of duplication, this request was not closed as originally scheduled. FMCSA continues to work diligently to manage the request and progress towards closing it.

Also, during this reporting period, the OIG was scheduled to close out 32 of its FOIA requests from previous fiscal years. Two of the cases scheduled to be closed out by 12/31/06 were not closed accordingly to schedule. These cases were more complex than originally anticipated and required outside coordination. One of the cases has since been closed out. We anticipate closing out the remaining case by the end of February 2007.

Finally, during this reporting period, the FAA was scheduled to close out 37 requests from FY 1997 through FY 2001. Although all 37 requests are now closed, 10 of the requests were not closed out within the originally scheduled timeframes. The delay was due to extensive coordination that was required on these particular cases with the Departmental FOIA office and the need to duplicate audiotapes and a large volume of documents.

D. Additional narrative statements regarding other executive order-related activities (optional)

Not applicable.

E. Concise descriptions of FOIA exemptions

The exemptions authorize federal agencies to withhold information covering: (1) classified national defense and foreign relations information; (2) internal agency rules and practices; (3) information that is prohibited from disclosure by another federal law; (4) trade secrets and other confidential business information; (5) inter-agency or intra-agency communications that are protected by legal privileges; (6) information involving matters of personal privacy; (7) records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, to the extent that the production of those records (A) could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings, (B) would deprive a person of a right to a fair trial or an impartial adjudication, (C) could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, (D) could reasonably be expected to disclose the identity of a confidential source, (E) would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions, or would disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions, or (F) could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual; (8) information relating to the supervision of financial institutions; and (9) geological information on wells.

F. Additional statistics

1. Time range of requests pending, by date of request.
   
   As of 1/31/07, the time range of pending requests was August 29, 2000 – January 29, 2007.

2. Time range of consultations pending with other agencies at this time.
   
   Not applicable.

G. Attachment

DOT’s FOIA Action Improvement Plan