Byrne Grant State Annual Reports
| Tracking # |
10-00174 |
| Submitted | April 1, 2014 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Aaron Cantú
To Whom It May Concern:
This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:
All state annual reports for the period between October 1 2012 and September 30 2013 for each state that received federal funds through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program. These are reports generated by the Bureau of Justice Assistance for the appropriate state agencies, and each is issued a number. For example, the federal award for Illinois during that time period was assigned the number 2012-DJ-BX-0203.
All state annual reports for the period between October 1 2005 and September 30 2006 for each state that received federal funds through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program.
All state annual reports for the period between October 1 2001 and September 30 2002 for each state that received federal funds through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program.
It is my understanding that the state annual reports for all states moved to a standardized system sometime between 2010 and 2013, and for that reason, documents requested prior to that time might need to be requested from state agencies rather than the Bureau of Justice Assistance. If that is the case, I request that I still be granted access to all state annual reports for the period between October 1 2012 and September 30 2013.
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,
Aaron Cantú
From: FOIAOJP
Your request has been received in the Office of Justice Programs for processing pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act.
Thank you
Dorothy Lee
Office of the General Counsel
Office of Justice Programs
810 7th St., N.W., Room 5337
Washington, D.C. 20531
Ph: (202) 616-3267
Dorothy.A.Lee@usdoj.gov
From: Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance
An acknowledgement letter, stating the request is being processed.
From: Lee, Dorothy A.
Mr. Cantu:
At your convenience, please give me a call at (202) 616-3267 regarding your request below.
Thank you
Dorothy Lee
Office of the General Counsel
Office of Justice Programs
810 7th St., N.W., Room 5337
Washington, D.C. 20531
Ph: (202) 616-3267
Dorothy.A.Lee@usdoj.gov
From: Lee, Dorothy A.
Mr. Cantu:
This is in reference to your FOIA request received in the Office of Justice Programs seeking copies of the Byrne Grant State Annual Reports. In order for us to conduct a thorough search for responsive documents, additional clarification is needed from you. There is possibility that you will need to talk to a program manager in the Bureau of Justice Assistance for further clarification.
Please give me a call at your earliest convenience at (202) 616-3267.
Thank you for your assistance.
Dorothy Lee
Office of the General Counsel
Office of Justice Programs
810 7th St., N.W., Room 5337
Washington, D.C. 20531
Ph: (202) 616-3267
Dorothy.A.Lee@usdoj.gov
From: Lee, Dorothy A.
Mr. Cantu:
This is in reference to your FOIA request and your April 10, 2014 conversation with Michael Austin, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). Mr. Austin is the appropriate person to address your questions pertaining to the JAG Program that is administered by BJA. Additionally, you asked Mr. Austin to provide you with an e-mail regarding the additional information about the JAG Program. Hopefully, the information below will assist you with your FOIA request and assist us in processing your request. Upon review of the information below, if you wish to submit a revised FOIA request, please contact me via this e-mail or by telephone at (202) 616-3267.
Discussion on April 10, 2014 is as follows:
"It was a pleasure speaking with you yesterday, April 10, 2014, regarding your recent FOIA request and the JAG Program. Per your request, here is a brief synopsis of our particulars of our discussion so that you can determine the scope of your request.
The JAG Program, which began in FY 2005, awards are four-year awards. BJA awards each state and territory (50 states and 6 territories) a JAG award each Federal Fiscal Year. (BJA also awards direct awards to local grantees aside from the 56 state awards. These are referred to as local awards.) Grantees are eligible to submit no-cost time extensions at the end of the award period in order to extend the amount of time they have to obligate and expend their grant award. Furthermore, grantees can also end their awards early if they have expended all of their grant funds. Each FY a new JAG award is awarded instead of simply supplementing the original FY 2005 award. Hence, it is possible that a grantee can have a number of open, active JAG awards reaching back a number of FYs. JAG award numbers resemble the following pattern: 2013-DJ-BX-0000. The last four digits are numbers. So, a grantee could have awards going back to FY 2005 like: 2013-DJ-BX-0001, 2012-DJ-BX-0001, 2011-DJ-BX-0001, and so on. Grantees do not always have the last four digits as this is a random assignment.
NOTE: In FY 2009, the states and territories received a second award from the Recovery Act. So, besides their 2009-DJ-BX-0001 award, they will have a second award with the following designation: 2009-SU-B9-0001.
Grantees submit annual progress reports to the Grants Management System (GMS) within 60 days of the end of the FY. When the grantee closes out their award, they also submit a Final Progress Report. Each award number's Progress Reports only deal with activities pertaining to that award number. So, if a grantee has 5 awards open, they will submit 5 Progress Reports at the end of a particular FY. When they receive the new FY's JAG award, the next time they will be reporting on 6 separate awards. Furthermore, an FY 2005 award, depending on how long it was open, could have 5, 6, 7, or more annual Progress Reports.
So, when deciding on the scope of a FOIA request dealing with states and territories under the JAG Program, depending on the FY of your request, the grantee(s) may have a lot of reports which will possibly impact the cost of the request and the amount of time it will take to deliver the results.
If you have any further questions while deciding on how to proceed, please let me know."
Thanks.
Sincerely,
Mike Austin
Michael A. Austin
Special Assistant to the Deputy Director for Programs
Bureau of Justice Assistance
202-305-7441
Michael.austin3@usdoj.gov
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