October marks the end of Fiscal Year 2020 and the beginning of the FOIA reporting season. Today, the Office for Information Policy (OIP) is announcing the deadlines for the submission of agencies' Fiscal Year 2020 Annual FOIA Reports, Fiscal Year 2021 Quarterly FOIA Reports, and 2021 Chief FOIA Officer Reports, along with updated resources.
These three reports serve a vital role in illustrating the steps taken and the progress made by agencies in administering the FOIA, and provide valuable information about how agencies promote efficiency, make more information available proactively, and use technology to improve FOIA administration.
Agencies are required to submit their Fiscal Year 2020 Annual FOIA Reports using the FOIA.gov Annual Report Tool that was released last year. OIP has continued to refine this tool in light of agency feedback. OIP has also updated the Department of Justice Annual FOIA Report Handbook, a key resource that agencies should consult when compiling their Annual FOIA Reports. OIP's Annual FOIA Report Refresher Training, to be held October 15, 2019, will provide an overview of the reporting features on FOIA.gov.
Agencies should take note of the following deadlines, which are similar to prior years, to ensure that they can satisfy all FOIA reporting obligations in the upcoming year:
FISCAL YEAR 2020 ANNUAL FOIA REPORT
November 16, 2020 – Agencies are required to submit their Fiscal Year 2020 Annual FOIA Report to OIP for review and clearance through FOIA.gov.
No later than March 1, 2021 – Agencies are required to post the final human readable and NIEM-XML versions of their Fiscal Year 2020 Annual FOIA Report on their websites.
FISCAL YEAR 2021 QUARTERLY FOIA REPORTS
January 29, 2021 – Quarter 1 data is required to be posted.
April 30, 2021 – Quarter 2 data is required to be posted.
July 30, 2021 – Quarter 3 data is required to be posted.
October 29, 2021 – Quarter 4 data is required to be posted.
For guidance on the requirements for completing the Quarterly Reports, please see OIP’s guidance on quarterly reporting.
2021 CHIEF FOIA OFFICER REPORTS
January 11, 2021 – Deadline for agencies receiving more than 50 requests in Fiscal Year 2019 to submit their 2019 Chief FOIA Officer Reports to OIP for review and clearance.
February 12, 2021 – Deadline for agencies receiving 50 requests or less that choose to report to submit their Chief FOIA Officer Report to OIP.
March 15, 2021 – Agencies are required to post their 2021 Chief FOIA Officer Reports online.
For guidance on the requirements for completing the 2021 Chief FOIA Officer Report, please see OIP's 2021 Chief FOIA Officer Report Guidelines.
If you have any questions regarding any of the deadlines noted above or the requirements for any of the reports, please contact OIP’s FOIA Compliance Team at (202) 514-3642 (FOIA). You can also find all of these reporting deadlines on the Reports page of OIP’s website.