The National Aeronautics
and Space Administration
Fiscal Year 2000
Annual Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Report
I. Basic Information
Name, Title, Address and telephone number of person(s) to contact with questions about the report.
Stephen L. McConnell
Freedom of Information Act Officer
NASA
Washington, DC 20546-0001
(202) 358-068
Electronic address for report on the World Wide Web:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/FOIA
How to obtain a copy of the report in paper form.
Written request can be submitted by mail to:
National Aeronautics and space Administration
Freedom of Information Act Office
Mail Code PS
Washington, DC 20546-0001
OR
FAX: (202) 358-4338
E-mail request to: foia@hq.nasa.gov
II. How to Make a FOIA Request
Names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all individual Agency components and offices that receive FOIA requests
NASA Headquarters
Attn: FOIA Office, Code PS
Washington DC 20546-0001
(202) 358-0205
Office of Inspector General
NASA Headquarters
Attn: FOIA Office, Code W
Washington DC 20546-0001
(202) 358-2575
Ames Research Center
Attn: FOIA Office, Mail Stop 204-2
Moffett Field CA 94035
(650) 604-4190
Dryden Flight Research Center
Attn: FOIA Office
P. O. Box 273
Mail Stop 4839
Edwards CA 93523
(805) 258-2662
Goddard Space Flight Center
Attn: FOIA Office
Mail Code 213.1
Greenbelt MD 20771
(301) 358-0730
Johnson Space Center
Mail Code AP2
Houston TX 77058
(281) 483-8612
Kennedy Space Center
Mail Code AB-F1
Kennedy Space Center FL 32899
(321) 867-9280
Langley Research Center
Attn: FOIA Office
Mail Stop 154
Hampton VA 23681
(757) 864-2497
Glenn Research Center
Attn: FOIA Office
Mail Code 0610
21000 Brookpark Road
Cleveland OH 44135
(216) 433-2755
Marshall Space Flight Center
Attn: FOIA Office
Mail Code CO50
Marshall Space Flight Center AL 35812
(256) 544-1837
Stennis Space Center
Attn: FOIA Office
Mail Code CA00 Building 1100
Stennis Space Center MS 39529-6000
(228) 688-2164
Brief description of the agency’s response-time ranges.
FOIA requests are routinely rsponded to in the allotted 20 working days. Those requests requiring more time depend on the amount of information requested, legal issues involved and the availability of records requested (i.e., requests for records maintained at more than one Center and Office of Inspector General records that are maintained at various locations and requiring extensive review due to the investigative nature of the records). To accommodate the Electronic FOIA (E-FOIA) requirements, many of the documents requested by multiple requesters, OIG audit reports and other public documents are now being added to our E-FOIA Reading Rooms located on the Internet.
Some requests are not granted based upon the exemptions allowed under the FOIA; information does not exist; request is withdrawn; it is referred to another agency or it is not an agency record.
III. Definitions of Terms and Acronyms Used in the Report
Agency-specific acronyms or other terms:
Basic terms, expressed in common terminology:
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 are also treated as FOIA requests.
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 a final action on the request or the 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 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 in response to a FOIA request.
IV. Exemption 3 Statutes
Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e),
10 U.S.C. 2305(g)
5 U.S.C. 638(j)(2)
Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6 (e)
Grand Jury material
10 U.S.C. 2305(g)
Withheld unsuccessful proposals for competitive procurements and those
portions of successful proposals that were not incorporated into the
contract.
5 U.S.C. 638(j)(2)
Withheld data generated by SBIR contractors who elected to retain their
data rights in accordance with the retention period agreed to under
the contract.
V. Initial FOIA/PA Access Requests
1. Number of requests pending as of end of preceding fiscal year: 99
2. Number of requests received during current fiscal year: 1740
3. Number of requests processed during current fiscal year: 1652
4. Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year: 187
1. Number of total grants: 676
2. Number of partial grants: 457
3. Number of denials: 102
a. number of times each FOIA exemption used:
(1) Exemption 1: 1
(2) Exemption 2: 12
(3) Exemption 3: 15
(4) Exemption 4: 452
(5) Exemption 5: 22
(6) Exemption 6: 34
(7) Exemption 7(A): 5
(8) Exemption 7(B): 0
(9) Exemption 7(C): 13
(10) Exemption 7(D): 1
(11) Exemption 7(E): 1
(12) Exemption 7(F): 0
(13) Exemption 8: 0
(14) Exemption 9: 0
4. Other reasons for nondisclosure (total): 417
a. no records: 139
b. referrals: 148
c. request withdrawn: 73
d. fee-related reason: 1
e. records not reasonably described: 18
f. not a proper request for some other reason: 2
g. not an agency record: 16
h. duplicate request: 10
i. other: 10
Required the creation of records
VI. Appeals of Initial Denials of FOIA/PA Requests
A. Numbers of appeals.
1. Number of appeals received during fiscal year: 18
2. Number of appeals processed during fiscal year: 18
B. Disposition of appeals.
1. Number completely upheld: 11
2. Number partially reversed: 5
3. Number completely reversed: 2
a. Number of times each FOIA exemption used:
(1) Exemption 1: 0
(2) Exemption 2: 1
(3) Exemption 3: 0
(4) Exemption 4: 5
(5) Exemption 5: 4
(6) Exemption 6: 1
(7) Exemption 7(A): 1
(8) Exemption 7(B): 0
(9) Exemption 7(C): 1
(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): 5
VII. Compliance with Time Limits/Status of Pending Requests
A. Median processing time for requests processed during the year.
1. Simple requests.
a. number of requests processed: 1276
b. median number of days to process: 24
2. Complex requests (specify for any and all tracks used).
a. number of requests processed: 373
b. median number of days to process: 38
3. Requests accorded expedited processing.
a. number of requests processed: 3
b. median number of days to process: 3
B. Status of pending requests.
1. Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year: 187
2. Median number of days that such requests were pending as of that date: 69
VIII. Comparisons with Previous Year(s) | FY 1999 | FY 2000 |
A. Comparison of numbers of requests received | 1661 | 1740 |
B. Comparison of numbers of requests processed |
1670 |
1652 |
C. Comparison of median numbers of days requests were pending as of end of fiscal year | 31 | 69 |
D. Other statistics significant to agency none |
Initiatives have been implemented at all NASA FOIA Offices to increase public availability of new categories of records by continually updating the homepages to include frequently requested information. Our goal is to decrease the number of requests, processing time, and costs associated with processing requests. FOIA Specialists are involved in training activities sponsored by ASAP, DOJ and NASA Headquarters.
IX. Costs/FOIA Staffing
A. Staffing levels.
1. Number of full-time FOIA personnel: 9
2. Number of personnel with part-time or occasional FOIA duties (in total work-years): 9
3. Total number of personnel (in work-years): 18
B. Total costs.
1. FOIA processing: $ 671,027
2. Litigation-related activities: $ 1,210
3. Total costs: $ 672,237
4. Comparison with previous year(s). Higher than 1999 by $91,149 1999 Total Cost: $581,088
X. Fees
A. Total amount of fees collected by agency for processing requests: $34,578
B. Percentage of total costs: 5%
XI. FOIA Regulations (Including Fee Schedule)
Available electronically on our FOIA Web page at http//www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/FOIA/.