Docs Regarding Federal Ban on Chinese Telecom Equipment Purchases

Aaron Sankin filed this request with the U.S. Office of Management and Budget of the United States of America.
Tracking #

2019-424
Submitted Aug. 8, 2019
Status
Rejected

Communications

From: Aaron Sankin

Subject: Freedom of Information Act Request: Docs Regarding Federal Ban on Chinese Telecom Equipment Purchases

Email


To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

I am seeking all documents and records relating to OMB's recent announcement that it was banning all federal purchases of telecommunications equipment, video surveillance gear, and other products from the following Chinese telecommunications companies: Huawai, ZTE, Hytera, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, and Dahua Technology.

This set of requested records includes internal OMB emails about the decision, communications with other federal agencies (and the White House) about the decision, communications with parties outside the government (including the affected companies, as well as other telecom firms and advocacy groups), and any reports or memos that passed through OMB affecting the decision.

I seek all responsive records regardless of format, medium, or physical characteristics. In conducting your search, please understand the term “communications” in its broadest sense, to include any written, typed, recorded, graphic, printed, or audio material. I seek records of any kind, including electronic records, audiotapes, videotapes, and photographs, as well as letters, emails, facsimiles, telephone messages, voice mail messages and transcripts, notes, or minutes of any meetings, telephone conversations or discussions. Our request includes any attachments to these records. No category of material should be omitted from search, collection, and production.

You may not exclude searches of files or emails in the personal custody of your officials, such as personal email accounts. Records of official business conducted using unofficial systems or stored outside of official files is subject to the Federal Records Act and FOIA. It is not adequate to rely on policies and procedures that require officials to move such information to official systems within a certain period of time; I have a right to records contained in those files even if material has not yet been moved to official systems or if officials have, through negligence or willfulness, failed to meet their obligations. If any potentially responsive records have been destroyed and/or transferred to other agencies or offices, such as the National Archives and Records Agency (NARA), then I request copies of the destruction or transfer slips as well as any other documentation relating to, mentioning or describing said transfer or destruction, to include but not be limited to confirmation that OMB has no other copies of said records.



In addition, please note that in conducting a “reasonable search” as required by law, you must employ the most up-to-date technologies and tools available, in addition to searches by individual custodians likely to have responsive information. Recent technology may have rendered OBM's prior FOIA practices unreasonable. In light of the government-wide requirements to manage information electronically by the end of 2016, it is no longer reasonable to rely exclusively on custodian-driven searches.

In the event some portions of the requested records are properly exempt from disclosure, please disclose any reasonably segregable nonexempt portions of the requested records. If it is your position that a document contains non-exempt segments, but that those non-exempt segments are so dispersed throughout the document as to make segregation impossible, please state what portion of the document is non-exempt, and how the material is dispersed throughout the document. Claims of non-segregability must be made with the same degree of detail as required for claims of exemptions in a Vaughn index. If a request is denied in whole, please state specifically that it is not reasonable to segregate portions of the record for release.

Please institute a preservation hold on information responsive to this request.


I am a journalist with The Markup, a non-profit investigative news outlet. As a member of the news media, I am seeking this information for dissemination to the general public and am requesting a waiver of all fees.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, 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 Sankin

From: U.S. Office of Management and Budget

Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] Freedom of Information Act Request: Docs Regarding Federal Ban on Chinese Telecom Equipment Purchases

Email

Greetings: This email acknowledges receipt of your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) dated and received in this office on August 8, 2019. Your request has been logged in and is being processed. For your reference, the OMB FOIA number is 19-424.

Thank you,
Dionne Hardy

From: U.S. Office of Management and Budget

Subject: OMB FOIA 2019-424

Email

Dear Aaron Sankin,

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regrets the delay in responding to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Unfortunately, OMB is experiencing a significant backlog of FOIA requests. Please know that OMB is very committed to providing responses to FOIA requests and remedying the FOIA backlog.
Given the passage of time, this communication is to confirm whether you are still interested in having the attached FOIA request processed. Please confirm your continued interest by replying to this email within 14 calendar days from the date of this communication, and reference the FOIA number cited above.

If we do not receive a response from you within the specified time frame, we will consider the non-response as an indication that you are no longer interested, and will close your FOIA request.
If you are no longer interested, this will allow us to more quickly process the FOIA requests behind yours in our backlog queue.
Best regards,
OMB's FOIA Office

From: U.S. Office of Management and Budget

Subject: FW: OMB FOIA 2019-424

Email

Hello,

We are writing in response to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) dated August 8, 2019, and assigned tracking number 2019-424. We reached out to you via email on April 10, 2023, to inquire if you remain interested in having your FOIA request processed. In the communication, we noted that a non-response will be treated as an indication that you are no longer interested and that we will close your FOIA request. Because the specified time has passed without a response, we are administratively closing this FOIA request.

If you are not satisfied with the response to this request, you may contact the FOIA Requester Service Center at 202-395-FOIA or OMB's FOIA Public Liaison at 202-395-7545 for any further assistance or to discuss any aspect of your request. Additionally, you may contact the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) at the National Archives and Records Administration to inquire about the FOIA mediation services they offer. The contact information for OGIS is: Office of Government Information Services, National Archives and Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road-OGIS, College Park, Maryland 20740-6001, e-mail at ogis@nara.gov; telephone at 202-741-5770; toll free at 1-877-684-6448; or facsimile at 202-741-5769. You may also administratively appeal by writing to OMB. Your appeal must be postmarked or electronically transmitted within 90 days of the date of this response.

Thank you,
OMB's FOIA Office

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