Booz Allen Hamilton contracts (Coast Guard)

Mr. Morisy,

This acknowledges receipt of your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) dated 20 October 2013, and to your request for a waiver of all assessable FOIA fees. MuckRock News requested a copy of the contract and any final reports generated and delivered by Booz Allen Hamilton for the following contracts:
1. HSCG23-13-J-ADC451
2. HSCG23-10-F-ADC302
3. HSCG23-11-F-2DA001
4. HSCG23-10-F-ADH001
5. HSCG23-09-F-ANT018
6. HSCG23-11-F-ANS056
7. HSCG23-10-F-ANS029
8. HSCG23-07-F-2DW215
9. HSCG23-13-J-MDX017
10. HSCG23-12-F-ANS037
11. HSCG23-09-F-RXN223
12. HSCG23-10-F-MPE156

Your request was received in this office on December 4, 2013.

The US Coast Guard (USCG) has assigned a tracking identifier, FOIA 2014-0518, to this request. The USCG endeavors to complete each FOIA request within a timely manner; however our office has an increasing number of FOIA requests and should anticipate some delay in receiving a final response to this request. Per Section 5.5(a) of the DHS FOIA regulations, 6 C.F.R. Part 5, the USCG processes FOIA requests according to their order of receipt. The USCG will respond to 11 of the 12 contracts requested. As pertaining to request #8 as listed above, this request was closed and sent to the Records Center managed by the National Archives. Our office is awaiting information of the date that this contract was closed and sent to the Record Center. The USCG will provide you with this information when it is received and at that time, you can submit your request for item #8 to the National Archives. I’ve included the link to the National Archives page: http://www.archives.gov/foia/.
Per MuckRock News fee waiver request, the USCG has reviewed your request thoroughly and have determined that MuckRock News have not presented a convincing argument that entitles the company to a waiver of fees, as the information requested is generally used for commercial competitive advantages.

The DHS FOIA Regulations, 6 CFR § 5.11(k)(2), set forth six factors to examine in determining whether the applicable legal standard for a fee waiver has been met. The USCG will consider these factors in the evaluation of your request for a fee waiver:

1. Whether the subject of the requested records concerns “the operations or activities of the government;”
2. Whether the disclosure is “likely to contribute” to an understanding of government operations or activities;
3. Whether disclosure of the requested information will contribute to the understanding of the public at large, as opposed to the individual understanding of the requestor or a narrow segment of interested persons;
4. Whether the contribution to public understanding of government operations or activities will be "significant;"
5. Whether the requester has a commercial interest that would be furthered by the requested disclosure; and
6. Whether the magnitude of any identified commercial interest to the requestor is sufficiently large in comparison with the public interest in disclosure, that disclosure is primarily in the commercial interest of the requestor.
As a requester, you bear the burden under the FOIA guidelines of showing that the fee waiver requirements have been met.

The US Coast Guard redacts Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Coast Guard Accounting/Appropriations Data from the actual documents provided to fulfill the FOIA request with the understanding that this information is not part of the request. If PII and Coast Guard Accounting/Appropriations Data are part of this request, please advise our office with clarification. Otherwise, any documents provided to fulfill this FOIA request will have the PII and Coast Guard Accounting/Appropriations Data redacted.

Provisions of the Act allow the USCG to recover part of the cost of complying with your request. Therefore the USCG shall charge you for records in accordance with the DHS Interim FOIA regulations as they apply to commercial requesters; i.e., you will be charged 10-cents per page for duplication and for search, review and duplication time at the per quarter-hour rate($4.00, $7.00,$10.25) of the searcher and reviewer. You will be contacted before any work is conducted that requires a fee to be paid.

Should you have any questions, please contact our office by emailing Judith.s.lewis@uscg.mil. Please refer to FOIA 2014-0518 on any communications with our office on this request.


Respectfully,



Judith Lewis | FOIA |
DHS|U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters
Strategic Planning and Communication (CG-925)
2703 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., S.E. Stop 7816
Washington, DC 20593-7816
Office: (202) 475-3053

Mr. Morisy,

This is in your response to your request for status of the referenced FOIA. As you have appealed the assignment of the fee category, this appeal must be reviewed by the US Coast Guard legal department, which lengthens the processing time.

The Coast Guard endeavors to complete each FOIA request within a timely manner. However, this office has an increasing number of FOIA requests. This request has information categorized as “business submitter information” and Executive Order 12600 (June 23, 1987) and the DHS FOIA regulations at 6 C.F.R. § 5.8(f) require that a government agency provide pre-disclosure notification to the submitter of business information whenever certain commercial information has been requested under the FOIA. The business submitter is afforded ten (10) working days within which to provide the Department of Homeland Security with a statement of objection of disclosure. If the Coast Guard decides to disclose business information over the objection of the business submitter, the Coast Guard must then notify the business submitter in writing of the specified disclosure date, which is ten (10) working days before the notice of the final decision to release the requested information. Due to these factors, Muckrock News should anticipate some delay in receiving a final response to this request. The Coast Guard expects that it could take up to 120 business days for a final response to be provided. However, this should not be construed as a denial of the request.


Respectfully,



Judith Lewis | FOIA |
DHS|U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters
Strategic Planning and Communication (CG-925)
2703 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., S.E. Stop 7816
Washington, DC 20593-7816
Office: (202) 475-3053

A letter stating that the request appeal has been rejected.