5 oldest FOIA requests (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin)

To Whom It May Concern:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:

All records referencing the five oldest FOIA and Privacy Act requests which are still being processed that contain remarks, comments, notes, explanations, etc. made by your personnel or contractors about the processing of these requests (and appeals, if appropriate), the invocation of exemptions, or related matters. This is to include any analysts' notes made during the processing of the requests, any standard worksheets completed by the analysts, any justifications for exemption invocations or other supporting documentation provided to the Appeals Authority, and any correspondence referencing the requests, including tasking orders, emails, and coordination documentation. However, any records previously released to the original requesters in unredacted form may be excluded from this request. Additionally, please provide the initial request letters for the 5 oldest open FOIA/PA requests.

When processing this request, please note that the D.C. Circuit has previously held that agencies have a duty to construe the subject material of FOIA requests liberally to ensure responsive records are not overlooked. See Nation Magazine, Washington Bureau v. U.S. Customs Service, 71 F.3d 885, 890 (D.C. Cir. 1995). Accordingly, you are hereby instructed that the term “record” includes, but is not limited to: 1) all email communications to or from any individual within your agency; 2) memoranda; 3) inter-agency communications; 4) sound recordings; 5) tape recordings; 6) video or film recordings; 7) photographs; 8) notes; 9) notebooks; 10) indices; 11) jottings; 12) message slips; 13) letters or correspondence; 14) telexes; 15) telegrams; 16) facsimile transmissions; 17) statements; 18) policies; 19) manuals or binders; 20) books; 21) handbooks; 22) business records; 23) personnel records; 24) ledgers; 25) notices; 26) warnings; 27) affidavits; 28) declarations under penalty of perjury; 29) unsworn statements; 30) reports; 31) diaries; or 32) calendars, regardless of whether they are handwritten, printed, typed, mechanically or electronically recorded or reproduced on any medium capable of conveying an image, such as paper, CDs, DVDs, or diskettes.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Jason Smathers
Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com
Daytime: (617) 299-1832
For mailed responses, please address:
MuckRock
185 Beacon St. #3
Somerville, MA 02143

Hello,

The FOIA request below was submitted in December 2010, but according to our records never completed. Please advise?

Please note the change in MuckRock's address:

MuckRock News
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819

Thank you.

Hello,

I hereby resubmit the FOIA request below, which was originally submitted in 2010 but was never acknowledged.

Thank you.

============

From Jason Smathers on Dec. 13, 2010:
To Whom It May Concern:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:

All records referencing the five oldest FOIA and Privacy Act requests which are still being processed that contain remarks, comments, notes, explanations, etc. made by your personnel or contractors about the processing of these requests (and appeals, if appropriate), the invocation of exemptions, or related matters. This is to include any analysts' notes made during the processing of the requests, any standard worksheets completed by the analysts, any justifications for exemption invocations or other supporting documentation provided to the Appeals Authority, and any correspondence referencing the requests, including tasking orders, emails, and coordination documentation. However, any records previously released to the original requesters in unredacted form may be excluded from this request. Additionally, please provide the initial request letters for the 5 oldest open FOIA/PA requests.

When processing this request, please note that the D.C. Circuit has previously held that agencies have a duty to construe the subject material of FOIA requests liberally to ensure responsive records are not overlooked. See Nation Magazine, Washington Bureau v. U.S. Customs Service, 71 F.3d 885, 890 (D.C. Cir. 1995). Accordingly, you are hereby instructed that the term “record” includes, but is not limited to: 1) all email communications to or from any individual within your agency; 2) memoranda; 3) inter-agency communications; 4) sound recordings; 5) tape recordings; 6) video or film recordings; 7) photographs; 8) notes; 9) notebooks; 10) indices; 11) jottings; 12) message slips; 13) letters or correspondence; 14) telexes; 15) telegrams; 16) facsimile transmissions; 17) statements; 18) policies; 19) manuals or binders; 20) books; 21) handbooks; 22) business records; 23) personnel records; 24) ledgers; 25) notices; 26) warnings; 27) affidavits; 28) declarations under penalty of perjury; 29) unsworn statements; 30) reports; 31) diaries; or 32) calendars, regardless of whether they are handwritten, printed, typed, mechanically or electronically recorded or reproduced on any medium capable of conveying an image, such as paper, CDs, DVDs, or diskettes.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Jason Smathers

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com

For mailed responses, please address:
MuckRock News
Dept MR350
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819

Hello,

Please copy and past this request into FOIAonline.

Thank you.

Hello,

Yes, the request is signed by Jason Smathers.

This is a request for the 5 oldest FOIA requests still open in the NOAA FOIA office, including both the request letters and any processing notes associated with the request.

Thank you.

This is not a commercial request. I have absolutely no commercial interests in making this request. Please provide a corrected fee estimate keeping this in mind.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 20, 2010. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #DOC-NOAA-2013-001503.

Thank you for your help.

I am a user of MuckRock and not the owner or otherwise affiliated. MuckRock provides a platform to keep track of FOIA requests and automate certain aspects of communication and tracking of pending requests. Whether or not I pay for such a service should not be considered in the determining of a fee category. You are dealing with me, an individual who is a customer of MuckRock, not MuckRock itself. Considering a MuckRock user a commercial requester make no more sense than charging all Microsoft Office users because they use Microsoft Excel to keep track of pending FOIA requests.

I suggest the fee category of news media as I will be writing a story on old FOIA requests and FOIA processing time and publishing it to the general public. I have made this same request to dozens of agencies and am going to be comparing the agencies and their customer service with FOIA sequesters in this article.

Further, rather than making paper copies, I prefer that you email documents to avoid wasted paper, ink, and postage. If the file is too large for that, there are many file transfer options available such as DropBox. If electronic transmission of the records is not possible, the next best option is to mail a CD, which is still far better than paper in regard to economic and ecological impacts.

Regards,
Jason Smathers

I am happy to provide more information if needed. However, to save time, it seems that "other" may be sufficient. "Other" users get two hours of search time for free and 100 pages of duplication for free. I'd rather you email records, but it seems that if paper copies are mailed, that the only billable fees would be for 40 pages.

FYI~ for the sake of simplicity, I consented to the "other" fee category on dozens of exactly worded requests to various agencies and in all cases the search time and pages were under the billable limits, thus no agency has charged for this identical request.

Please conduct your search beginning with the oldest request and proceeding based on age of request. Please limit the search to the records found within the first two hours of search time. I agree to pay for duplication expenses up to $13 for any pages located over the first 100. If the fee is anticipated to exceed $13, please contact me before proceeding.

Thank you!

Regards,
Jason Smathers

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 20, 2010. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #DOC-NOAA-2013-001503.

Thank you for your help.

Because this request is three years old, I believe you should process the third hour at no charge. I believe you will find that the most recent amendment to the FOIA prohibits search fees to "other" requesters if the statutory time limits are not met.

Please let me know if you are agreeable to this.

Thank you.

Regards,
Jason Smathers

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 20, 2010. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #DOC-NOAA-2013-001503.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 20, 2010. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #DOC-NOAA-2013-001503.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 20, 2010. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #DOC-NOAA-2013-001503.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 20, 2010. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #DOC-NOAA-2013-001503.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 20, 2010. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #DOC-NOAA-2013-001503.

Thank you for your help.