ML20202J391

Provides Commission with Copy of Annual FOIA Rept for Us NRC FY98 & Informs Commission of Changes to Guidelines for Submitting Rept

ML20202J391
Person / Time
Issue date:	01/21/1999
From:	Galante A NRC
To:
References
SECY-99-021, SECY-99-021-01, SECY-99-021-R, SECY-99-21, SECY-99-21-1, SECY-99-21-R, NUDOCS 9902090121
Download: ML20202J391 (12)

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l POLICY ISSUE (Information)

January 21, 1999 SECY-99-021 EQB: The Commissioners FROM: A.J. Galante Chief Information Officer

SUBJECT:

CHANGES FOR SUBMISSION OF THE ANNUAL FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REPORT I

PURPOSE:

l This paper provides the Oommission a copy of the annual Freedom of information (FOIA)

Report for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for Fiscal Year 1998, and informs the Commission of changes to the guidelines for submitting the report.

BACKGROUND:

i With the enactment of the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendmenta of 1996, Public Law 104-231,101 Stat. 3048, Congress made major revisions to subsection (e) of the FOIA that pertain to the submission of annual FOIA reports by Federal agencies. Congress revised the list of basic required elements for annual FOIA reports, altered the timetable and procedure for submitting the reports, and provided that the Department of Justice (DOJ), in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), willissue guidelines for preparing and submitting the annual FOIA report.

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Contact:

l Russell A. Powell, OClO I 301-415-6527

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Under the new guidanca, Federal agencies no longer are required to submit their annual FOIA reports directly to Congress. Agencies will now send their fiscal year annual report to DOJ,

. Office of information and Privacy, by February 1 of each year, with the World Wide Web location  ;

identified in the report. The DOJ will establish a single point of access to all annual FOIA reports !

and will notify Congress when this is done.

In compliance with the statute, NRC placed its 1997 Annual FOIA Report on the Intemet at:

<http://www.nrc. gov /NRC/ RULES /foia1997.html>. The 1998 Annual FOIA Report is attached and has been submitted to the Office of Information and Privacy, DOJ, and will be placed on the NRC Website by January 29. The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for NRC's FY 98 Annual l FOlA Report will be: <http://www.nrc. gov /NRC/ RULES /foia1998.html>.

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/i A. J. ante 4 Chief Information Officer

Attachment:

' Annual FOIA Report - FY 98 DISTRIBUTION:

Commissioners OGC l

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OPA CIO CFO EDO SECY d

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Attachment i

UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION i ANNUAL FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REPORT FISCAL YEAR 1998 l

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1. Basic Information Regarding Report  !

A. Name, title, address, and telephone number of person (s) to be contacted with questions about the report. I Russell A. Powell Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act Officer

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Mail Stop T-6 D8 United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555-0001 Telephone: 301-415-7169 Fax: 301-415-5130 B. Electronic address for repost on the World Wide Web i www.nrc.aov/NRC/FOIA/fola.html C. How to obtain a copy of the report in paper form.

Contact the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Public Document Room (PDR) 2120 L Street, NW, Lower-Level, Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone 202-634-3273 or 1-800-397-4209, E-mail PDR@NRC. GOV or by fax at 202-634-3343

11. 4. Names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all individual agency components and offices that receive FOIA requests.

Freadom of Information Act and Privacy Act Officer Mail Stop T-6 D8 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555-0001 Telephone: 301-415-7169 Fax: 301-415-5130 E-mail: FOIA2NRC. GOV B. Brief description of agency's response-time ranges.

60% within 4 weeks 73% wi+hin 6 weeks .

80% within 8 weeks 1

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

To protect privacy (51%)

To prevent compromise of a pending investigation or proceeding (18%)

To protect the agency's pre-decisional deliberative process or attomey-client privilege, or attomey work products (16%)

To protect proprietary information (8%).

lit. - Defirtitions of Terms and Acronyms Used in the Report A. Agency-specific acronyms or other terms.

Not applicable.

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 accecs to records conceming a third party, an organization, or a particular topic of interest. A Privacy Act

- request is a request for records conceming oneself; such requests are also treated as FOIA requests. (All requests for access to records, regardless of which law is cited by the requester, are included in this report.)  !

2. Initial Request -- a request to a federal agency for access to records under the Freedom of Information Act. l

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 recorcis under the Freedom of Information Act, 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 simple requests requiring

relatively minimal review are placed in one processing track and more 4

!~ ' voluminous and complex requests are placed in one or more other tracks.

j. 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).

. 6. Expedited processing - an agency will process a FO!A request on an i expedited basis when a requester has shown an exceptional need or 2' .

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urgency for the records which warrants prioritization of his or her request over other requests that were made earlier.

7. Simple request - a FOIA request that an agency using multi-track processing places in its fastest (nonexpedited) track based on the volume and/or simplicity of records requested.

8. Complex request - a FOIA request that an aguncy using multi-track processing places in a slower track based on the volume and/or complexity of records requested.

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 FO!A request, deleting information determined to be exempt under one l

or more of the FO!A's exemptions; or a decision to disclose some records in their entireties, 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 e FO!A request because all the information in the requested records is determined by the agency to be exempt under one or more of ,

the FOIA's exemptions, or for some procedural reason (such as because l' no record is located in response to a FOIA request).

12. Time Limits -- the time period in the Freedom of Information Act for an  !

agency to respond to a FOIA request (ordinarily 20 working days from proper receipt of a " perfected" FOIA requost).

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13. " Perfected" request - a FOIA request for records which adequately l describes the records sought, which has been received by the FOIA office j of the agency or agency component in possession of the records, and for l

which there is no remaining question about the payment of applicable fees. j

14. Exemption 3 statute -- a separate federal statute prohibiting the disclosure of a certain type of information and authorizing its withholding under FOlA t.

subsection (b)(3).

16. Median number - the middle, not average, number. For example, of 3,7, and 14, the median number is 7.

16. Average number- the number obtained by dividing the sum of a group of l numbers by the quantity of numbers in the group. For example, of 3,7, i and 14, the average number is 8.

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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.

41 U.S.C. 253b(m)(1)

Contractor Proposals

2. Statement of whether a court has upheld the use of each statute. If so, then cite example.

No FOIA litigation involving the above statute.

V. Initial FOIA/PA Access Roquests A. Numbers of initial requests.

1. Number of requests pending as of end of preceding fiscal year 40

2. Number of requests received during current fiscal year 461

3. Number of requests processed during current  ;

fiscal year 448 J

4. Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year (09/30/98).

53 B. Disposition of initial requests. "

1. Number of total grants 232

2. Number of partial grants P3

3. Number of denials 17 p*

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a. Number of times each FOlA exemption used (counting each exemption once per request)

(1) Exemption 1 0 (2) Exemption 2 1 (3) Exemption 3 1 (4) Exemption 4 14

, (5) Exemption 5 28 (6) Exemption 6 44 I I

(7) Ev.emption 7(A) 32 1

, (8) Exemption 7(B) 0  !

(9) Exemption 7(C) '46 5'., '

i (10) Exemption 7(D) 2  ;

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(11) Exemption 7(E) 7  :

(12) Exemption 7(F) 0 (13) Exemption 8 0 )

(14) Exemption 9 0 I

4. Other reasons for nondisclosure (total) 106 l 3

a. no records 46 j

b. referrals - O

c. requests withdrawn 32

' d. fee-related reason 20

!_ e. records not reasonably described 2 l f. not a proper FOIA request for some other

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j reason- 4 l

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l- g. not an agency record 0

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h. duplicate request 1

i. other (Unable to produce in requested '

format.) 1 3 5

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. VI. Appeals of Initial Denials of FCIA/PA Requewp A. Number of apoeals.

1. Number of appeals received during fiset year 16

2. Number of appeals processed during fiswl year 17 B. Disposition of appeals.

1. Number completely upheld 6

2. Number partially reversed 3

3. Number completely reversed 3

a. number of times each FOIA exemption used (counting each exemption once per appeal)

(1) Exemption 1 0 (2) Exemption 2 0 (3) Exemption 3 0 (4) Exemption 4 1 (5) Exemption 5 3 (6) Exemption 6 1 (7) Exemption 7(A) 2 (8) Exemption 7(B) 0 (9) Exemption 7(C) 2 (10) Exemption 7(D) 0 (11) Exernption 7(E) 0 (12) Exemption 7(F) 0 (13) Exemption 8 0 (14) Exemption 9 0 6

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4. Other reasons for nondisclosure (total) 5

a. no records 2

b. referrals O

c. requests withdrawn 1

d. fee-related reason 2

o. records not reasonably 0 described

f. not a proper FOIA request 0 forsome other reason l

g. not an agency record 0

h. duplicate request 0 J. other (specify) 0 Vil. Compliance with Time Limits / Status of Pending Requests .

l A. Median processing time for requests processed during the year.

1. Simple requests (Track A).

a. number of requests processed 413

b. median number of days to process 15

2. Complex requests (Track B).

a. number of requests processed 35 1

b. median number of days to process 15 4 1

3. Requests accorded expedited processing.

a. number of requests processed 0

b. median number of days to process 0 6

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-O B. Status of pending requests.

1. Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year: 53 Track A 46 Track B 7

2. Median number of days that such requests were pending as of that date:

Track A 50 Track B 153 Vill. Comparisons with Previous Year (s)

FY 97 FY 98  % Change FY 97 to FY 98 A. Number of requests received 520 461 -11%

B. Number of requests processed 517 448 -13%

C. Median number of days requests 20 51 +155% ]

were pending as of end of fiscal 1 year 1

D. Other statistics significant to agency n/a n/a n/a E. Other agemy. efforts to improve timeliness of FOIA performance and to make 3

records available to the public i

List of FOIA requests by subject that were completed during the year placed on the FOIA Homepage of the NRC Web site.

1 instituted orientation training for staff offices' FOIA Coordinators to review entire '

FOIA process in the FOIA office. I l

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. IX. Costs /FOIA Staffing j . A. Staffing levels.

1. Number of full-time FOIA personnel 10

2. Number of personnel with part time or 6 occasional FOIA duties (in total work-years)

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3. Total number of personnel (in work- 16 ,

ysars)

B. Total costs (including staff and all resources).

1. FOIA processing (including appeals) $ 1,115,402

2. Litigation-related activities (estimated) $ 11,500 3.- Total costs $ 1,126,902

4. Comparison with previous years (1996 is last full year reported) $ 1,134,375 ( .6%)

C. Statement of additional resources needed for FOIA compliance:

None.' Current resources are adequate.

X. Fees ,

A. Total amount of fees collected by agency for processing %uests $25,170 B. Percentage of total costs 2%

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c. XI. - FOIA Regulations (including Fee Schedule) 10 CFR Part 9 (Intemet location: www,nre aov/NRC/CFR/PART009/index.html)

Fee Schedule (1998)

Search and Review SES/ Commissioners (ES-4) 67.09/hr $ 1.12/ min

- Professional (GG-13/6) $35.67/hr S .59/ min Clerical (GG-7/7) $17.39/hr $ .29/ min Duplication:- $.20 per page.-

Minimum fee: $20 (No fee will be charged unless total fee is equal to or greater than $20) 10

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