On September 6, 2007, the Department of Justice provided guidance to agencies on the establishment of backlog reduction goals for the next three fiscal years. See FOIA Post, "Guidance on Submitting Backlog Reduction Goals for Fiscal Years 2008, 2009, and 2010." Set out below is the text of the memorandum distributed by the Office of Information and Privacy to all Chief FOIA Officers which provides modified templates to be used by agencies in reporting and posting those goals. As mentioned in the September guidance, the backlog reduction goals are required to be submitted first in draft form to the Office of Information and Privacy by October 19, 2007. Agencies should insert the estimates and goals they have established pursuant to the September 6, 2007 guidance into the new templates provided here. As previously mentioned, each agency must then post the final goals on its agency's FOIA web site by November 1, 2007.

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To:            Agency Chief FOIA Officers

From:       Melanie Ann Pustay
                 Director, Policy and Litigation
                 Office of Information and Privacy
                 Department of Justice

Date:        October 16, 2007

Subject:   Modified Templates to be Used When Submitting Backlog Reduction Goals for Fiscal Years 2008, 2009, and 2010, in furtherance of Executive Order 13,392, "Improving Agency Disclosure of Information"

This memorandum provides modified templates to be used by agencies for reporting their backlog reduction goals for Fiscal Years 2008, 2009, and 2010. The requirements for establishing and posting these goals is contained in the guidance issued by the Office of Information and Privacy on September 6, 2007. See FOIA Post, "Guidance on Submitting Backlog Reduction Goals for Fiscal Years 2008, 2009, and 2010" (posted 9/7/07). In order to convey the backlog data more precisely, we have modified the templates to be used so that the line for Fiscal Year 2008 – which begins with the number of requests or appeals pending at the beginning of the fiscal year – is physically separate from the lines for Fiscal Years 2009 and 2010 – which each begin with the projected number of requests or appeals pending beyond the statutory time period (i.e., backlogged requests or appeals). Those agencies required to establish these goals should use the templates provided below in place of the templates provided earlier. The guidance for establishing these goals and estimates remains the same.

TEMPLATES

Requests

Fiscal Year	Number of Pending Requests at Beginning of FY	Estimated Number of Requests Incoming During FY	Agency's Goal for Number of Requests to be Processed During FY	Agency's Goal for Number of Requests Pending Beyond Statutory Time Period (i.e., Backlog) at End of FY
2008

Fiscal Year	Projected Number of Requests Pending Beyond Statutory Time Period (Backlog) at Beginning of FY	Estimated Number of Requests Incoming During FY	Agency's Goal for Number of Requests to be Processed During FY	Agency's Goal for Number of Requests Pending Beyond Statutory Time Period (Backlog) at End of FY
2009	Use # from last column above
2010	Use # from last column above

Appeals

Fiscal Year	Number of Pending Appeals at Beginning of FY	Estimated Number of Appeals Incoming During FY	Agency's Goal for Number of Appeals to be Processed During FY	Agency's Goal for Number of Appeals Pending Beyond Statutory Time Period (i.e., Backlog) at End of FY
2008

Fiscal Year	Projected Number of Appeals Pending Beyond Statutory Time Period (Backlog) at Beginning of FY	Estimated Number of Appeals Incoming During FY	Agency's Goal for Number of Appeals to be Processed During FY	Agency's Goal for Number of Appeals Pending Beyond Statutory Time Period (Backlog) at End of FY
2009	Use # from last column above
2010	Use # from last column above

[posted 10/17/2007]

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