Brian Klippenstein's external emails
It is a clone of this request.
| Tracking # |
2020-OSEC-06529-F |
| Submitted | Sept. 24, 2020 |
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Communications
From: Alexander Rony
To Whom It May Concern:
I. Description of Records Sought
This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act for Brian Klippenstein's emails that were sent to or from email addresses with the domains .com or .org. Please include any attachments. Please search from July 2, 2017 to December 8, 2018. Mr. Klippenstein used to work as Senior Advisor to the Secretary.
II. Request for a Fee Waiver
I respectfully request that you waive all fees in connection with this request as provided by 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(A)(iii). The Sierra Club is a national environmental nonprofit with no commercial interest in obtaining the requested information. Instead, our organization intends to analyze and disseminate the requested information free of charge so that the public can be better informed and meaningfully participate in protecting the nation's natural resources and public health.
The subject matter of the requested records is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations and activities of the government by disclosing with whom a high-level USDA adviser was communicating, and about which government regulations. Mr. Klippenstein's role had a broad scope, including hot-button issues for the public like climate change and animal welfare. Mr. Klippenstein had previously worked for the Protect the Harvest Action Fund, which sought to influence animal welfare policy through public education, and the Department of Agriculture made several changes to animal welfare and climate-related regulations and operations during Mr. Klippenstein's time at the agency.
The Sierra Club and its supporters have demonstrated interest and expertise in climate and animal regulations, including the development of standards designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to climate change, protect wild animals, and reduce the negative impacts of industrial animal agriculture. In addition to our staff's formal recommendations, our supporters have filed hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of public comments to the Department of Agriculture related to these topics.
III. Media Requester Status
In addition to the public interest fee waiver, I ask to be properly categorized as a representative of the news media. The bulk of my professional duties at the Sierra Club entails planning and writing content about public policy, including composing mass communications to our followers, analyzing FOIA responses, and coordinating press outreach. Here are some examples that resulted from my work:
https://sierraclub.org/planet/2017/04/hiring-freeze-prevented-epa-filling-hundreds-jobs
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/05/19/nearly-700-vacancies-at-cdc-because-of-trump-administration-hiring-freeze/
https://www.propublica.org/article/these-emails-show-a-trump-official-helping-her-former-chemical-industry-colleagues
The Sierra Club has the ability and intention to disseminate the information it receives through this request. The information may be shared through emails to an audience reaching into the millions, Facebook and Twitter posts reaching tens of thousands of followers, articles on our often-visited website, and analysis provided to the media.
IV. Exempt Records
Should you decide to invoke a FOIA exemption with regard to any of the requested records, please include in your response letter sufficient information for an appeal, including:
1. Basic factual material about each withheld item, including the originator, date, length, general subject matter, and location of each item.
2. Explanations and justifications for denial, including the identification of the category within the governing statutory provision under which the document (or portion thereof) was withheld and a full explanation of how each exemption fits the withheld material.
If you determine that portions of a requested record are exempt from disclosure, please redact the exempt portions and provide the remainder of the record.
V. Record Delivery
I would prefer the request be filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not. In the event that there are fees, please inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request.
Please produce the records on a rolling basis; at no point should the search for – or deliberation concerning – certain records delay the production of others that the agency has already retrieved and elected to produce.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your timely response.
Sincerely,
Alexander Rony
Sierra Club
From: U.S. Department Of Agriculture, Office of the Secretary
Dear Mr. Rony:
This email acknowledges receipt of your attached Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Departmental FOIA Office (DFO). Your request was received by this office on September 24, 2020.
The DFO is under the purview of the Office of the General Counsel (OGC) and serves as the focal point for USDA’s FOIA program. It provides coordination and ensures agency-wide compliance with the FOIA. Additionally, the DFO processes requests and appeals on behalf of the Office of the Secretary (OSEC), the Under Secretaries, USDA’s staff offices, and the Research, Education and Economics and Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs mission areas.
The FOIA, 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(A)(i), requires USDA to make a determination in response to a FOIA request within 20 business days from its date of receipt. In unusual circumstances, the Federal agency time limit may be extended by 10 business days as stated in 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(B). If your request seeks numerous records that will necessitate a wide-ranging search, including searches with components and possible consultations with components that have a substantial interest in the determination of this request, USDA will invoke a 10 business day extension for determination of your request. You have the option to narrow the scope of your request to limit the number of potentially responsive records.
Due to the increasing number of FOIA requests received by this office, we may encounter some delay in processing your request. Pursuant to USDA FOIA Regulations, Title 7 CFR §1.6(a), the USDA processes FOIA requests according to their order of receipt.
Provisions of the FOIA allow USDA to recover part of the cost of complying with your request. For purposes of fee assessment, you were categorized as a “all other” requester, pursuant to 7 CFR Appendix A to Subpart A of Part 1, Section (2)(b)(5)(i). For your review and information, a copy of the USDA FOIA Fee Schedule is attached. In accordance with 7 CFR Appendix A to Subpart A of Part 1, Section 3(b), your fees shall be waived where the amount of the fee is $25.00 or less. We have received your fee waiver request and a determination will be sent to you in a separate email.
A search will be conducted for records responsive to your request. If any responsive records are located, they will be reviewed for determination of releasability. Please be assured that a FOIA analyst will respond to your request as expeditiously as possible. We appreciate your patience as we proceed with your request.
Your request has been assigned FOIA Case No. 2020-OSEC-06529-F. Please refer to this case number in any future correspondence. If you have any questions regarding the processing of this request, please contact Bianca Kegler electronically at bianca.kegler@usda.gov<mailto:bianca.kegler@usda.gov> or USDAFOIA@usda.gov<mailto:USDAFOIA@usda.gov>. For additional information regarding USDA FOIA regulations and process, please refer to the information available on-line at www.dm.usda.gov/foia<http://www.dm.usda.gov/foia>. We appreciate the opportunity to assist you.
Sincerely,
USDA Departmental FOIA Office
Bianca Kegler, Esq.
FOIA Analyst
Departmental FOIA Office
Office of the General Counsel
US Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., SW, Room 4105
Washington, DC 20250
✉ Bianca.Kegler@usda.gov<mailto:Bianca.Kegler@usda.gov>
This electronic message contains information generated by the USDA solely for the intended recipients. Any unauthorized interception of this message or the use or disclosure of the information it contains may violate the law and subject the violator to civil or criminal penalties. If you believe you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.
From: U.S. Department Of Agriculture, Office of the Secretary
Mr. Rony:
Request Not Reasonably Described
Your request did not specifically identify the records which you are seeking. Records must be described in reasonably sufficient detail to enable government employees who are familiar with the
subject area to locate records without placing an unreasonable burden upon the agency. See 7 C.F.R.§ 1.5(b). Where possible, a requester should supply specific information regarding dates, titles,
names of individuals, names of offices, and name of agencies or organizations that may help identify the records. The FOIA does not require an agency to create new records, answer questions posed by requesters, or attempt to interpret a request that does not identify specific records.
Here, the request fails to reasonably describe the records sought, in the following manner:
* You request seeks Brian Klippenstein's emails that were sent to or from email addresses with the domains .com or .org. The two domains referenced are very common and do not specify a subject matter. Please provide a subject matter or the names of an individual or organization as opposed to .com and .org.
If you have any questions or concerns I am happy to schedule a call to discuss. Please provide your contact number and the best time to reach you. Thank you.
Bianca Kegler, Esq.
FOIA Analyst
Departmental FOIA Office
Office of the General Counsel
US Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., SW, Room 4105
Washington, DC 20250
✉ Bianca.Kegler@usda.gov<mailto:Bianca.Kegler@usda.gov>
From: Alexander Rony
Dear Ms. Kegler,
I am willing to reduce the scope of this request (FOIA Case No. 2020-OSEC-06529-F) by limiting the records to emails that were sent by Mr. Klippenstein to email addresses ending in .com or .org, including the rest of the email chain contained therein. This change will exclude emails sent to Mr. Klippenstein, unless those were part of an email chain to which he responded.
In the records I have received for similar (and even broader) FOIA requests, policy advisors did not send so many emails to individuals outside of government and education as to make the request overly burdensome to the agency. The vast majority of emails tend to be with members of their own agency, as well as a handful of other government employees with whom they closely work. If the initial search, after my adjustment above to the scope of this request, yields far too many potential records, I am happy to discuss further ways in which this request can be limited in order to still get the information I am seeking.
I also wish to be properly categorized as a media requester. I have published free and public analyses of Department of Agriculture staff emails and worked with reporters to further share relevant insights (see https://www.sierraclub.org/articles/2020/08/heres-what-our-supporters-found-former-lobbyists-emails-usda and https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/14/trump-agriculture-department-rebekah-adcock-dow). Please let me know if this determination is final on your side, and I will consider appealing if appropriate.
Thank you for your care for this FOIA request.
Sincerely,
Alexander Rony
Sierra Club
From: U.S. Department Of Agriculture, Office of the Secretary
Good Afternoon:
Please provide a number and the best time to reach you to schedule a call. Me and a colleague of mine with similar requests would like to discuss. Please note you can send correspondence regarding the above referenced request directly to me at this email address (bianca.kegler@usda.gov). Thank you.
Bianca Kegler, Esq.
FOIA Analyst
Departmental FOIA Office
Office of the General Counsel
US Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., SW, Room 4105
Washington, DC 20250
✉ Bianca.Kegler@usda.gov<mailto:Bianca.Kegler@usda.gov>
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~WRD000
From: Alexander Rony
Ms. Kegler,
You may reach me at (415) 517-4211 on Thursday between 11:15am and 3pm ET to discuss FOIA request #2020-OSEC-06529-F.
Regards,
Alexander Rony
Sierra Club
From: U.S. Department Of Agriculture, Office of the Secretary
Mr. Rony:
Thank you for your response. I have you scheduled for a call regarding 2020-OSEC-06533-F (Melanie), 2020-OSEC-06529-F and 2020-OSEC-06553-F at 1pm on Thursday October 8, 2020. I look forward to speaking with you soon.
Bianca Kegler, Esq.
FOIA Analyst
Departmental FOIA Office
Office of the General Counsel
US Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., SW, Room 4105
Washington, DC 20250
✉ Bianca.Kegler@usda.gov<mailto:Bianca.Kegler@usda.gov>
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~WRD000
From: U.S. Department Of Agriculture, Office of the Secretary
Mr. Rony:
We have a called scheduled for today at 1pm. I tried calling with no answer. Please advise if your availability has changed. Thank you.
Bianca Kegler, Esq.
FOIA Analyst
Departmental FOIA Office
Office of the General Counsel
US Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., SW, Room 4105
Washington, DC 20250
✉ Bianca.Kegler@usda.gov<mailto:Bianca.Kegler@usda.gov>
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image001
From: U.S. Department Of Agriculture, Office of the Secretary
Mr. Rony:
We were scheduled for a call regarding 2020-OSEC-06533-F, 2020-OSEC-06529-F and 2020-OSEC-06553-F at 1pm on Thursday October 8, 2020, however, we were unable to reach you at that time. Please be advised that the above referenced files are on hold until we receive a response from you for clarification (or modification) of the request. Thank you. Have a safe and enjoyable day.
Bianca Kegler, Esq.
FOIA Analyst
Departmental FOIA Office
Office of the General Counsel
US Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., SW, Room 4105
Washington, DC 20250
✉ Bianca.Kegler@usda.gov<mailto:Bianca.Kegler@usda.gov>
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image001
From: U.S. Department Of Agriculture, Office of the Secretary
Good afternoon Mr. Rony,
I want to confirm that you received the email from my colleague below.
Please let us know a time that would be acceptable to reschedule the telephone call or alternatively, please reply to the emails that we have separately sent you asking for clarification to our respective requests.
Thank you. We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Best regards,
[cid:image001.png@01D585BE.4A6C9C50]
Melanie Enciso
FOIA Analyst - Contractor
Departmental FOIA Office
Office of the General Counsel
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., SW, Room 4105
Washington, DC 20250
☎ (202) 694-5982 (Telework)
✉ Melanie.Enciso@USDA.gov<mailto:Melanie.Enciso@USDA.gov>
From: Alexander Rony
Dear Ms. Enciso and Ms. Kegler, I apologize for not responding earlier. I use a third-party service to manage my FOIA requests, which typically notifies me when I have a response. Unfortunately, I did not receive a notification when you scheduled a time to talk, and only just saw that communication when I logged in today. I will email you both from my work email directly so that this situation does not happen again.
Alexander Rony
From: U.S. Department Of Agriculture, Office of the Secretary
Good afternoon Mr. Rony,
Thank you for taking the time to speak with Ms. Kegler and I in regard to the above-referenced FOIA requests. The purpose of this email is to memorialize the content of our conversation and to ensure that we accurately understood the modifications to your requests. Please see a summary of our conversation below:
On October 29, 2020, the Departmental FOIA Office (DFO) contacted you, via phone.
As a result of this conversation, you have agreed to:
* Exclude mass media/news emails;
* Provide more search terms for the electronic search;
* Narrow the timeframe of each request; and
* Waive attachments.
In the event that you have a future interest in any of the attachments in the record sets provided, you may submit a follow-up request to either Ms. Kegler or me for that information directly.
Please let me know if you do not think this is an accurate description of what we discussed so we can follow up. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact either Ms. Kegler or myself.
Best regards,
[cid:image001.png@01D585BE.4A6C9C50]
Melanie Enciso
FOIA Analyst - Contractor
Departmental FOIA Office
Office of the General Counsel
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., SW, Room 4105
Washington, DC 20250
☎ (202) 694-5982 (Telework)
✉ Melanie.Enciso@USDA.gov<mailto:Melanie.Enciso@USDA.gov>
This electronic message contains information generated by the USDA solely for the intended recipients. Any unauthorized interception of this message or the use or disclosure of the information it contains may violate the law and subject the violator to civil or criminal penalties. If you believe you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.
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image001
From: U.S. Department Of Agriculture, Office of the Secretary
Good afternoon Mr. Rony,
Thank you for taking the time to speak with Ms. Kegler and I in regard to the above-referenced FOIA requests. The purpose of this email is to memorialize the content of our conversation and to ensure that we accurately understood the modifications to your requests. Please see a summary of our conversation below:
On October 29, 2020, the Departmental FOIA Office (DFO) contacted you, via phone.
As a result of this conversation, you have agreed to:
* Exclude mass media/news emails;
* Provide more search terms for the electronic search;
* Narrow the timeframe of each request; and
* Waive attachments.
In the event that you have a future interest in any of the attachments in the record sets provided, you may submit a follow-up request to either Ms. Kegler or me for that information directly.
Please let me know if you do not think this is an accurate description of what we discussed so we can follow up. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact either Ms. Kegler or myself.
Best regards,
[cid:image001.png@01D585BE.4A6C9C50]
Melanie Enciso
FOIA Analyst - Contractor
Departmental FOIA Office
Office of the General Counsel
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., SW, Room 4105
Washington, DC 20250
☎ (202) 694-5982 (Telework)
✉ Melanie.Enciso@USDA.gov<mailto:Melanie.Enciso@USDA.gov>
This electronic message contains information generated by the USDA solely for the intended recipients. Any unauthorized interception of this message or the use or disclosure of the information it contains may violate the law and subject the violator to civil or criminal penalties. If you believe you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.
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image001
From: Alexander Rony
Ms. Enciso and Ms. Kegler,
Yes, I am happy to exclude mass media/news emails from this request, taking this to mean items like e-newsletter subscriptions and news clips that are widely distributed. I am also fine with waiving attachments for now, with your note that I can request those later with the file names provided in your response.
In order to cut down on the amount of responsive records, I would like to amend my request to emails that were sent by Mr. Klippenstein to email addresses ending in .com or .org that include any of the following search terms: animal, CAFO, climate, confined, emission, livestock, or warming. For this request, I would like to stick with the same time period: July 2, 2017 to December 8, 2018.
Please let me know if this will still be an overburdensome search.
Regards,
Alexander
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Sept. 24, 2020. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #2020-OSEC-06529-F.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: U.S. Department Of Agriculture, Office of the Secretary
Good Morning:
An update was provided via email on 11/23/20 stating: “Please be advised that FOIA Case number 2020-OSEC-06529-F has returned results and we will provide a final response with responsive documents once the review is complete. If you have any questions or concerns please contact me via email at bianca.kegler@usda.gov. Thank you. Have a safe and enjoyable day.”
Bianca Kegler, Esq.
FOIA Analyst
Departmental FOIA Office
Office of the General Counsel
US Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., SW, Room 4105
Washington, DC 20250
✉ Bianca.Kegler@usda.gov<mailto:Bianca.Kegler@usda.gov>
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~WRD000
From: U.S. Department Of Agriculture, Office of the Secretary
Dear Mr. Rony:
Please see the attached final response and supporting documents. If you have any questions or concerns please contact me directly at bianca.kegler@usda.gov<mailto:bianca.kegler@usda.gov>. Thank you. Have a safe and enjoyable holiday season.
Bianca Kegler, Esq.
FOIA Analyst
Freedom of Information Act Division
Office of Information Affairs
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., SW, Room 4047C
Washington, DC 20250
✉ Bianca.Kegler@usda.gov<mailto:Bianca.Kegler@usda.gov>
This electronic message contains information generated by the USDA solely for the intended recipients. Any unauthorized interception of this message or the use or disclosure of the information it contains may violate the law and subject the violator to civil or criminal penalties. If you believe you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.
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