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You are here: Home / FOIA / FY 2006 Annual FOIA Report

FY 2006 Annual FOIA Report for the Foreign Agricultural Service

Sections I. Basic Information, II. How to Make a FOIA Request, and III. Definitions of Terms, will be completed by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration.

IV. Exemption 3 Statutes

A. List of exemption 3 statutes relied on by agency during current fiscal year:

1. Brief description of type(s) of information withheld under each statute.
2. Statement of whether a court has upheld the use of each statute. If so cite example.

V. Initial FOIA/PA Access Requests

A. Number of Initial Requests: (include all access requests, whether first party or third party)
(NOTE: The total of Lines 1 and 2, minus Line 3, should equal Line 4.)

1. Number of requests pending at end of FY 05	0
2. Number of requests received during FY 06	54
3. Number of requests processed during FY 06	51
4. Number of requests pending at end of FY 06	3

B. Disposition of Initial Requests:
(NOTE: The total of Lines 1, 2, 3, and 4 should equal the number of requests processed shown in Line 3 of Part A.)

1. Number of total grants	32
2. Number of partial grants	5
3. Number of denials	1
a. Number of times each FOIA exemption used: (count each exemption once per request)
(1) Exemption 1	0
(2) Exemption 2	0
(3) Exemption 3	0
(4) Exemption 4	5
(5) Exemption 5	3
(6) Exemption 6	0
(7) Exemption 7(A)	0
(8) Exemption 7(B)	0
(9) Exemption 7(C)	0
(10) Exemption 7(D)	0
(11) Exemption 7(E)	0
(12) Exemption 7(F)	0
(13) Exemption 8	0
(14) Exemption 9	0
4. Other reasons for nondisclosure: (total)	13
a. No records	7
b. Referred elsewhere	5
c. Request withdrawn	0
d. Fee-related reason	0
e. Records not reasonably described	0
f. Not a proper FOIA request for some reason	0
g. Not an agency record	1
h. Duplicate request	0
i. Other (specify)	0

(Note: Do not count requests referred within your agency in this category, it pertains only to requests that are referred outside of your agency)

VI. Appeals of Initial Denials of FOIA/PA Requests

(includes all access requests, whether first-party or third-party).

A. Number of Appeals:
1. Number of appeals received during FY 06	6
2. Number of appeals processed during FY 06	0
B. Disposition of Appeals:
1. Number completely upheld	0
2. Number partially reversed	0
3. Number completely reversed	0
a. Number of times each FOIA exemption used: (count each exemption once per appeal)
(1) Exemption 1	0
(2) Exemption 2	0
(3) Exemption 3	0
(4) Exemption 4	0
(5) Exemption 5	0
(6) Exemption 6	0
(7) Exemption 7(A)	0
(8) Exemption 7(B)	0
(9) Exemption 7(C)	0
(10) Exemption 7(D)	0
(11) Exemption 7(E)	0
(12) Exemption 7(F)	0
(13) Exemption 8	0
(14) Exemption 9	0
4. Other reasons for nondisclosure (total):	0
a. No records	0
b. Referred elsewhere	0
c. Request withdrawn	0
d. Fee-related reason	0
e. Records not reasonably described	0
f. Not a proper FOIA request for some reason	0
g. Not an agency record	0
h. Duplicate request	0
i. Other (specify)	0

VII. Compliance With Time Limits/Status of Pending Requests

A. Median Processing Time For Requests:
(Example for calculation of median: Given 7 requests completed during the fiscal year, aged 10, 25, 35, 65, 75, 80, and 400 days from date of perfection to date of completion, the total number of requests completed during the fiscal year would be 7 and the median age of the completed requests would be 65 days.)

1. Simple requests (if multiple tracks used)
a. Number of requests processed	51
b. Median number of days to process	13
2. Complex requests (specify for any and all tracks used)
a. Number of requests processed	0
b. Median number of days to process	0
3. Requests accorded expedited processing
a. Number of requests processed	0
b. Median number of days to process	0

(NOTE: The number of requests listed in the different tracks must equal the number of requests processed from section A, Line 3.)

B. Status of Pending Requests:
(Agencies using multiple tracks may provide numbers for each track as well as totals.)

1. Number of requests pending at end of FY 06	3
2. Median number of days requests were pending at end of FY 06	76

VIII. Comparisons With Previous Year(s) (Optional)

E. Describe Agency Efforts To:
1. Improve timeliness	0
2. Reduce backlog	0
3. Provide training	0
4. Add new categories of records	0

IX. Costs/FOIA Staffing

A. Staffing Levels:
1. Number of full-time FOIA personnel	0
2. Number of personnel with part-time or occasional FOIA duties (in work-years)	2
3. Total number of personnel (Work-years)	2
B. Total Costs: (include staff and all resources) (Note: Use +20% for overhead.)
1. FOIA processing (including appeals)	$160,000
2. Litigation-related activities (estimated)	0
3. Total costs	$160,000
4. Comparison with previous year(s) (optional)	0
C. Statement of additional resources needed for FOIA compliance (optional).

X. Fees:

(includes charges for search, review, document duplication, and any other direct costs permitted under agency regulations.)

A. Total amount of fees collected for processing requests	$2,212
B. Percentage of total costs	1 percent

XI. FOIA Regulations:

(including Fee Schedule)

XII. Report on FOIA Executive Order Implementation

A. Description of supplementation/modification of agency improvement plan (if applicable).

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

FAS selected three areas for improvement: proactive disclosure of information; forms of communications with requesters; and process by which necessary cooperation is obtained from agency personnel. FAS met its milestones in all three areas.

C. Identification and discussion of any deficiency in meeting plan milestones (if applicable).

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

E. Concise descriptions of FOIA exemptions.

F. Additional statistics:

1. Time range of requests pending, by date of request (or, where applicable, by date of referral from another agency). Jan. 4, 2006 to Sept. 18, 2006

2. Time range of consultations pending with other agencies, by date of initial interagency communication. N/A

G. Attachment: Agency improvement plan (in current form).