Booz Allen Hamilton Contracts (Federal Communications Commission)

Dear Mr. Morisy:

This acknowledges receipt of your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Your request has been assigned FOIA control number 2013-212. Agencies are allowed 20 working days to respond to your request, extending this period for an additional 10 working days under certain circumstances. See 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(A)(i) and 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(B)(i). We anticipate responding to your request on 04/09/2013. If additional time is needed to respond to your requests you will be notified.

If you have any questions concerning this notice, please call the FOIA Office at: (202) 418-0440.

FCC

Mr. Morisy:

We have received your recent FOIA request seeking copies of contracts between the Commission and Booz Allen Hamilton over the past five years, as well as "[a]ny final reports generated and delivered by Booz Allen Hamilton," and have begun to process it. FOIA requests seeking copies of contracts can take up to two months to complete, and so we'd like to ask if you'd consent to a one-month extention of the time for the Commission to finalize its response, until May 10, 2013. This extention would be for administrative purposes only, and wouldn't impact the speed at which we'd continue to process your request.

In addition, we are hoping that you could clarify what you mean by the phrase, "[a]ny final reports generated and delivered by Booz Allen Hamilton." Could you describe exactly what you are seeking? For example, if Booz Allen has performed work for the Commission, it may have been asked to submit periodic progress reports which may be considered to be "final" because they are not in draft form, but which may not be what you intend. Any additional description of the documents you seek would be helpful. Absent further direction, we will interpret this request as one for any completed reports that conclude an engagement performed pursuant to a contract with the Commission.

Please feel free to contact me at the e-mail address below with any questions or comments.

Dear Ms. Goode,

We have received a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on behalf of Michael Morisy. Please see the attached letter for more information regarding this request. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments. I may be reached at nereyda.dunn@fcc.gov<mailto:nereyda.dunn@fcc.gov>.

Dear Mr. Morisy:

We have begun to process your FOIA request, in which you sought copies of contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton over the past five years. However, due to the type of the materials sought, we will be unable to respond to your request by the initial deadline. Would you consent to a short extention until Friday, May 17, 2013, for the Commission to finalize its response? An extension would just be for administrative purposes, and wouldn't impact the attention we are giving your FOIA request or the time needed to respond.

Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments. I may be reached at warren.firschein@fcc.gov<mailto:warren.firschein@fcc.gov>.

Mr. Morisy and Ms. Goode:

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Ms. Goode has requested a brief extention of time in which to file a response to this FOIA request. We grant her request. Ms. Goode's response should be submitted no later than Wednesday, May 1, 2013. In accordance with the Commission's rules, her response shall be served on Mr. Morisy, with a copy to Nereyda and me. Mr. Morisy will then have ten business days to craft a reply. Once we receive all submissions, we will make a ruling on Mr. Morisy's FOIA request, and release any responsive documents with any necessary redactions.

Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions regarding this e-mail or the FOIA process in general.

Thanks--and thanks for your patience with this.

Mr. Morisy,

Thank you for your patience with regard to your FOIA request. Yesterday, citing the "high volume of similar requests for Booz Allen contracts across 70 government agencies," Ms. Goode requested additional time, until May 31, 2013, to review the sought-after contracts prior to their release. Despite the expiration of the initial time limit to respond, we believe that the most vital consideration in a FOIA such as this one is to ensure that confidential company information is not accidentally disclosed publicly. Ms. Goode has provided us with some evidence indicating that other similar requests were received by other Federal agencies. Therefore, given these unique circumstances, we will grant Ms. Goode's request for additional time to respond. Once Ms. Goode has filed her response on behalf of Booz Allen, you may have ten business days (in accordance with the Commission's rules) to file a reply challenging Booz Allen's objections, if you choose to do so. At that time, we will issue a ruling on your request.

Accordingly, in order to meet this time schedule, we ask for your consent to a further extention of time for the Commission to issue its ruling and release the sought-after documents to you, until June 28, 2013. This extention is for administrative purposes only, and won't impact the attention we will give this matter, or the speed in which we will proceed once the final pleadings are received. You have been gracious with earlier requests for extentions of time, and we appreciate your continued indulgence and understanding as we move forward.

Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments.

Thanks for your continued understanding and patience. We've been in contact with Booz Allen, and they've indicated that they plan to file a response to your FOIA request within the next week or so. To ensure that we don't accidentally release confidential compnay information , we have decided to grant them this additional time. I've sent a separate e-mail addressing their request for an extension.

I can understand your frustration with the amount of time that it has taken for the Commission to respond to your FOIA request. We take the statutory deadlines very seriously, but with contract-related FOIAs like these, it is a bit of a blalancing act between these two interests. Your FOIA request is at the top of our pile, and I can assure you that we will do our best to resolve it promptly.

Please let me me know if you'd like to discuss this orally. Again, thanks for your continued understanding.

Hi Michael,

Thanks again for your patience with this. On behalf of the entire agency, let me apologize for the amount of time it has taken to respond to your FOIA request. Please accept my assuerance that we will complete it as soon as we can. At the moment, however, I'm unable to give you an accurate estimate as to when we will complete our response. It's likely, though, that it will be finalized my mid-July. By the end of the week, however, I may be able to give a better estimate, and I'll let you know as soon as I know more.

Hello Michael,

The FCC is continuing to process your FOIA request, but, unfortunately, we will need more time to finalize our response. Would you be amenable to a short extention for the Commission to complete its response until, say, July 31? As indicated earlier, an extention would be solely for administrative purposes, and wouldn't impact the priority we have placed on your request.

Thanks so much for your patience. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns related to this request. I can be reached at (202) 418-0844.

Hi Michael,

Nereyda Dunn e-mailed the agency's response to you on August 19. We'll resend it.

I just resent the agency's response to you. Let me know if you don't receive it, and we'll try something else. The attachments are over 10 MB, so perhaps we need to split it up into several e-mails.

Resending...

Hi Michael,

I will resend it tomorrow if that's okay, I don't have access to my archives today.