Email metadata

This message is to confirm your request submission to the FOIAonline application: View Request. Request information is as follows: (https://www.foiaonline.gov/foiaonline/action/public/submissionDetails?trackingNumber=NARA-NGC-2019-000611&type=request)
* Tracking Number: NARA-NGC-2019-000611
* Requester Name: Matt Chapman
* Date Submitted: 07/08/2019
* Request Status: Submitted
* Description: To Whom It May Concern:

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

Metadata for emails sent to or from any federal agency during January 2017. For the purpose of this request, please limit the scope of metadata to the following records: to address, from address, cc address, bcc address, time sent.

It is my understanding that all metadata is stored in CSV, as described in the following bulletin: https://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/bulletins/2015/2015-04.html -- "This guidance specifies that agencies provide the identified core elements as an index in a pipe-delimited, machine-readable CSV file and notify NARA of the presence of any additional metadata."

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,

Matt Chapman

Upload documents directly: https://https://www.muckrock.comhttps://accounts.muckrock.com/accounts/login/?url_auth_token=AAAj2s1ucuu_oVmnt8n3JKMuPaY%3A1hkKn5%3ADq5jl4E2VzpQTBcKRQ-WcYNkStE&next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.muckrock.com%2Faccounts%2Flogin%2F%3Fnext%3D%252Faccounts%252Fagency_login%252Fnational-archives-and-records-administration-129%252Femail-metadata-76655%252F%253Femail%253Dadmin%252540foiaonline.gov%252B%252528error%252529

Dear Mr. Chapman:

Thank you for submitting your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to
the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), via the
*FOIAOnline* website. We received your request on July 8, 2019.

This office handles FOIA and Privacy Act requests for the National Archives
and Records Administration's *operational *records (records created by this
agency). Because your *FOIAOnline *request is for records that may
be *archival
*records (records that were created by or originated in a different agency
but that may have been transferred to the legal custody of NARA), we have
forwarded it to our *Office of Research Services, Special Access and
FOIA* staff
who handle FOIA requests for archival records. You appear to be looking
for records of metadata for any federal agency emails accessioned to NARA
in January 2017, and you are particularly interested in any index of core
elements submitted by agencies as a machine-readable CSV file (as described
in NARA Bulletin 2015-04).

Since the *Office of Research Services, Special Access and FOIA* does not
process FOIA requests through *FOIAOnline*, your request has been removed
from the *FOIAOnline* website and you will be assigned a new tracking
number by that office within the next 20 business days. In the future, if
you need to follow up with that office directly, please contact them at the
address below, or electronically via email.

Special Access and FOIA Staff (RD-F)

8601 Adelphi Road, Room 5500

College Park, MD 20740

By phone: 301-837-3190

By fax: 301-837-1864

By email: specialaccess_foia@nara.gov

For your reference, a copy of your request is below.

Please visit our website at www.archives.gov/foia for further information
about FOIA. On our main website, www.archives.gov, you can learn more
about the resources we offer to the public, and you can access our online
catalog.

Thank you for contacting the National Archives.

Sincerely,

Susan Gillett
Government Information Specialist
Office of General Counsel
National Archives and Records Administration
College Park, MD 20740-6001
301-837-3409
susan.gillett@nara.gov

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: <admin@foiaonline.gov>
Date: Mon, Jul 8, 2019 at 1:45 PM
Subject: FOIA Request Deletion: NARA-NGC-2019-000611
To: <susan.gillett@nara.gov>

Below is an export of the submitted request information for the FOIA
request NARA-NGC-2019-000611.

- *Name and Address*
- First Name: Matt
- Middle Initial:
- Last Name: Chapman
- Organization:
- Mailing Address Location: United States/U.S. Territories
- Address Line 1: MuckRock News, DEPT MR 76655
- Address Line 2: 411A Highland Ave
- City: Somerville
- State/Province: MA
- Zip/Postal Code: 02144
- *Contact Information*
- E-mail Address: requests@muckrock.com
- Phone Number:
- Fax Number:
- *Agency and Fee Information*
- Assigned Agency: NGC - Office of General Counsel
- Will Pay Up To: $0.00
- *Description*
- To Whom It May Concern: Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act,
I hereby request the following records:
Metadata for emails sent to or from any federal agency during January
2017. For the purpose of this request, please limit the scope of metadata
to the following records: to address, from address, cc address, bcc
address, time sent. It is my understanding that all metadata is stored in
CSV, as described in the following bulletin:
https://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/bulletins/2015/2015-04.html --
"This guidance specifies that agencies provide the identified
core elements
as an index in a pipe-delimited, machine-readable CSV file and
notify NARA
of the presence of any additional metadata." 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, Matt Chapman

Upload documents directly: https://https://www.muckrock.comhttps://
accounts.muckrock.com/accounts/login/?url_auth_token=AAAj2s1ucuu_oVmnt8n3JKMuPaY%3A1hkKn5%3ADq5jl4E2VzpQTBcKRQ-WcYNkStE&next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.muckrock.com%2Faccounts%2Flogin%2F%3Fnext%3D%252Faccounts%252Fagency_login%252Fnational-archives-and-records-administration-129%252Femail-metadata-76655%252F%253Femail%253Dadmin%252540foiaonline.gov%252B%252528error%252529
- *Fee Waiver*
- Fee Waiver Requested: No
- Fee Waiver Reason:
- *Expedited Processing*
- Expedited Processing Requested: No
- Expedited Processing Reason:

Dear Mr. Chapman,
This is in reply to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request of July
8, 2019. Your request was forwarded to the Electronic Records Division of
the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for response. For
your reference, your FOIA request has been assigned reference number *RD
61924*.

You are requesting “metadata for emails sent to or from any federal agency
during January 2017.” You specified the metadata be limited to “to
address, from address, cc address, bcc address, time sent.”

The Electronic Records Division has custody of permanently valuable
electronic records created by Federal agencies. We searched our holdings
for accessions of email records in our legal custody that included the time
period of January 2017. We determined the only emails we have for this
time period are those from the Federal components of the Executive Office
of the President under the Obama administration. These Federal agencies
include:

Office of Management and Budget (https://catalog.archives.gov/id/74627139)
Office of Science and Technology Policy
(https://catalog.archives.gov/id/74627177)
Office of the United States Trade Representative
(https://catalog.archives.gov/id/74627230)
Council on Environmental Quality (https://catalog.archives.gov/id/74627261)
Office of National Drug Control Policy
(https://catalog.archives.gov/id/74627274)

Descriptions of these email records are available through the National
Archives Catalog at the links above.

From these five agencies, there are 1,036,706 unclassified emails dating
from January 1, 2017 to January 20, 2017. There are no emails dating after
January 20, 2017 because that was the end of the Obama administration.
Emails dating after January 20, 2017 are under the Trump administration and
will be transferred to the National Archives after the end of the Trump
administration.

The unclassified emails contain information that is exempt from disclosure
under FOIA (b)(2) Internal Personnel Rules and Practices; FOIA (b)(3)
Statue; FOIA (b)(4) Trade Secrets and Commercial or Financial Information;
FOIA (b)(5) Inter-agency or Intro agency Memorandums or Letters Not
Available by Law; FOIA (b)(6) Personal Information; FOIA (b)(7) Law
Enforcement; FOIA (b)(8) Regulation or Supervision of Financial
Institutions; and FOIA (b)(9) Geological or Geophysical Information and
Data.

However, the metadata you seek (email addresses and time sent) likely only
contain some information that is exempt from disclosure under FOIA (b)(6)
Personal Information, such as email addresses of private citizens.

The agencies did not provide separate documents or spreadsheets with
metadata for each email. We will have to determine a method to extract the
requested metadata from each email. We guesstimate that for the 1+ million
unclassified emails there will easily be over 10,000 pages with the
requested metadata.

For your reference, FOIA requests for records that exceed 3,000 pages are
assigned to the third-tier processing queue. You will receive a response in
partial fulfillment of your request after we have completed the first
installment. We will provide you with an update on the status of your
request and an estimated completion date at that time. To give you an
indication of our existing backlog, we are currently processing requests
received in December of 2010.

We also have some classified emails from the above Federal agencies.
Requests for access to classified records is a different process. If you
are interested in the metadata from the classified emails, please let us
know.

Before we proceed with your request, please:
- Confirm if you wish to obtain the metadata for the 1+ million
unclassified emails as described above.

- Inform us if instead you wish to narrow your request to a specific
agency, email address, or shorter time frame, which could possibly reduce
the processing time for your request.

- Inform us if you wish to include metadata from classified emails in your
request. Please note that NARA does not have declassification authority, so
any classified records you request will need to be sent to the originating
agencies for declassification review.

If we do not back from you by *October 10, 2019*, we will assume that you
no longer wish to pursue this request and we will close your case
administratively.

If you are not satisfied with our action on this request, you have the
right to file an administrative appeal within ninety (90) calendar days
from the date of this letter via regular U.S. mail or email. By filing an
appeal, you preserve your rights under FOIA and give the agency a chance to
review and reconsider your request and the agency’s decision. If you submit
your appeal in writing, please address it to the Deputy Archivist of the
United States (ND), National Archives and Records Administration, 8601
Adelphi Road, College Park, Maryland 20740. Both the letter and the
envelope should be clearly marked “Freedom of Information Act Appeal.” If
you submit your appeal by email, please send it to FOIA@nara.gov, also
addressed to the Deputy Archivist of the United States. Please be sure to
explain why you believe this response does not meet the requirements of the
FOIA. All correspondence should reference your internal case tracking
number *RD 61924*.

If you would like to discuss our response before filing an appeal to
attempt to resolve your dispute without going through the appeals process,
you may contact our Acting FOIA Public Liaison, Britney Crawford, for
assistance at:

Acting FOIA Public Liaison: Britney Crawford
8601 Adelphi Road, Room 5500
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Email: DC.foia.liaison@nara.gov
Telephone: 301-837-3190

If you are unable to resolve your FOIA dispute through our FOIA Public
Liaison, the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), the Federal
FOIA Ombudsman’s office, offers mediation services to help resolve disputes
between FOIA requesters and Federal agencies. The contact information for
OGIS is:

Office of Government Information Services
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road – OGIS
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Email: ogis@nara.gov
Telephone: 202-741-5770
Toll Free: 1-877-684-6448

We hope this information is helpful to you. If you have any further
questions concerning the electronic records holdings of the National
Archives, please do not hesitate to contact us again. Our phone number is
(301) 837-0470 and our e-mail address is cer@nara.gov.

Sincerely,
Lynn Goodsell
Reference Branch Chief, Electronic Records Division
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

Dear Mr. Chapman,
This is in reply to your follow-up emails of August 14, 2019, regarding
your Freedom of Information Act request *RD 61924*. You specified that you
are only interested in metadata for emails sent to or from the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) during January 2017. You also inquired about
the format of the data OMB sends to the National Archives.

We preserve the Federal unclassified email records we receive from the
Executive Office of the President as individual emails with a .eml
extension. The emails are preserved in the National Archives’ Electronic
Records Archives. For requests for individual emails, they may be
downloaded from the system and converted to image files for the purpose of
review/redaction.

The Executive Office of the President did not transfer the Federal email
records by agency. Instead, they transferred them by email system.
Therefore, the only way to identify the emails of a particular agency is to
run a search based on the email address.

To identify the unclassified emails sent to and from OMB, I ran three sets
of searches, all limited to the time period of January 1-20, 2017:

1. Keyword search for the exact phrase “omb.eop.gov” returned 584,395 emails

2a. Contains any search for “OMB” in the from line returns 257,675 emails
2b. Contains any search for “OMB” in the to line returns 494,849 emails
2c. Contains any search for “OMB” in the cc line returns 63,996 emails
2d. Contains any search for “OMB” in the bcc line returns 3,051 emails

3a. Search for the exact phrase “omb.eop.gov” in the from line returns
255,756 emails
3b. Search for the exact phrase “omb.eop.gov” in the to line returns
492,488 emails
3c. Search for the exact phrase “omb.eop.gov” in the cc line returns 63,813
emails
3d. Search for the exact phrase “omb.eop.gov” in the bcc line returns 2,936
emails

The results in search sets 2 and 3 will include duplicate emails. For
example, an email sent from an OMB address to an OMB address will show up
in both the from line and to line search results.

Again, the agencies did not provide separate documents or spreadsheets with
metadata for each email. We will have to determine a method to extract the
requested metadata from each email. At this point, while we do not know
for certain what format the metadata will be in for review/redaction, it
may be in a spreadsheet format. However, as part of the review/redaction
processed, the released records will be in a PDF format.

We guestimate that for the 584,395 unclassified emails (search set 1) there
will around 13,000 pages with the requested metadata. This estimate is
based on having the metadata for 45 emails per page in a spreadsheet
format. Depending on how we may be able to extract the metadata, the
number of pages may be more or less.

Once you have confirmed the set of emails for which you request metadata,
we will look into extracting the metadata. NARA’s Special Access and FOIA
unit will then add your case to the processing queue. When it comes time
to processing your case, they will contact you. At that point, you can
discuss with them your offer of the list of email addresses you have
compiled.

In order for us to proceed with your request, please specify the set of OMB
emails for which you wish to obtain the metadata.

If we do not back from you by *November 18, 2019*, we will assume that you
no longer wish to pursue this request and we will close your case
administratively.

If you are not satisfied with our action on this request, you have the
right to file an administrative appeal within ninety (90) calendar days
from the date of this letter via regular U.S. mail or email. By filing an
appeal, you preserve your rights under FOIA and give the agency a chance to
review and reconsider your request and the agency’s decision. If you submit
your appeal in writing, please address it to the Deputy Archivist of the
United States (ND), National Archives and Records Administration, 8601
Adelphi Road, College Park, Maryland 20740. Both the letter and the
envelope should be clearly marked “Freedom of Information Act Appeal.” If
you submit your appeal by email, please send it to FOIA@nara.gov, also
addressed to the Deputy Archivist of the United States. Please be sure to
explain why you believe this response does not meet the requirements of the
FOIA. All correspondence should reference your internal case tracking number*
RD 61924*.

If you would like to discuss our response before filing an appeal to
attempt to resolve your dispute without going through the appeals process,
you may contact our Acting FOIA Public Liaison, Britney Crawford, for
assistance at:

Acting FOIA Public Liaison: Britney Crawford
8601 Adelphi Road, Room 5500
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Email: DC.foia.liaison@nara.gov
Telephone: 301-837-3190

If you are unable to resolve your FOIA dispute through our FOIA Public
Liaison, the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), the Federal
FOIA Ombudsman’s office, offers mediation services to help resolve disputes
between FOIA requesters and Federal agencies. The contact information for
OGIS is:

Office of Government Information Services
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road – OGIS
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Email: ogis@nara.gov
Telephone: 202-741-5770
Toll Free: 1-877-684-6448

We hope this information is helpful to you. If you have any further
questions concerning the electronic records holdings of the National
Archives, please do not hesitate to contact us again. Our phone number is
(301) 837-0470 and our e-mail address is cer@nara.gov.

Sincerely,
Lynn Goodsell
Reference Branch Chief, Electronic Records Division
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

Dear Mr. Chapman,
This is in response to your email of August 28, 2019, regarding your
Freedom of Information Act request RD 61924. You identified you are
interested the metadata from OMB emails in search sets 2 and 3.

Please let me point out that it is not necessary to obtain both the search
results from set 2 (“OMB” in the address lines) and from set 3 (exact
phrase “omb.eop.gov” in the address lines). The keyword search for “OMB”
in the address lines will return all records that have the exact phrase
“omb.eop.gov” because it picks up on the “omb” in “omb.eop.gov.” Therefore
all the records in set 3 are also in set 2.

I suggest you limit your request to just search set 2. The larger the
volume that needs to be reviewed, the longer it will take.

We are limited to the tools and processes we currently have available to us
to respond to your request. We think we may have a way to remove
duplicates and extract the metadata. We are not sure how it will work with
the large volume of records. We will notify you if we run into issues.

The tool we have to extract the metadata, PSTViewer, will extract the to,
from, CC, and date lines. However, it does not extract the BCC line. We
would still extract the metadata from the results of the search for OMB in
the BCC line, but only the to, from, CC, and date lines will be extracted.

If you agree to limit your request to just search set 2, then we will
proceed with the process to extract the metadata. Please confirm.

Once the metadata is extracted, it will go to NARA’s Special Access and
FOIA unit to be added to the queue for review. As I mentioned in my
original response, FOIA requests that exceed 3,000 pages are assigned to
the third-tier processing queue. We guestimate the extracted metadata will
easily be over 10,000 pages. The backlog in the third-tier queue is
considerable.

If you are not satisfied with our action on this request, you have the
right to file an administrative appeal within ninety (90) calendar days
from the date of this letter via regular U.S. mail or email. By filing an
appeal, you preserve your rights under FOIA and give the agency a chance to
review and reconsider your request and the agency’s decision. If you submit
your appeal in writing, please address it to the Deputy Archivist of the
United States (ND), National Archives and Records Administration, 8601
Adelphi Road, College Park, Maryland 20740. Both the letter and the
envelope should be clearly marked “Freedom of Information Act Appeal.” If
you submit your appeal by email, please send it to FOIA@nara.gov, also
addressed to the Deputy Archivist of the United States. Please be sure to
explain why you believe this response does not meet the requirements of the
FOIA. All correspondence should reference your internal case tracking
number RD 61924.

If you would like to discuss our response before filing an appeal to
attempt to resolve your dispute without going through the appeals process,
you may contact our Acting FOIA Public Liaison, Britney Crawford, for
assistance at:

Acting FOIA Public Liaison: Britney Crawford
8601 Adelphi Road, Room 5500
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Email: DC.foia.liaison@nara.gov
Telephone: 301-837-3190

If you are unable to resolve your FOIA dispute through our FOIA Public
Liaison, the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), the Federal
FOIA Ombudsman’s office, offers mediation services to help resolve disputes
between FOIA requesters and Federal agencies. The contact information for
OGIS is:

Office of Government Information Services
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road – OGIS
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Email: ogis@nara.gov
Telephone: 202-741-5770
Toll Free: 1-877-684-6448

We hope this information is helpful to you. If you have any further
questions concerning the electronic records holdings of the National
Archives, please do not hesitate to contact us again. Our phone number is
(301) 837-0470 and our e-mail address is cer@nara.gov.

Sincerely,
Lynn Goodsell
Reference Branch Chief, Electronic Records Division
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

Dear Mr. Chapman,
This is a follow-up to your Freedom of Information Act request RD 61924.

I wanted to provide you an update on your request. Per your last email, we
began the process to extract the metadata from search set #2 ("OMB" in the
address lines). The process is taking considerably longer than we could
have estimated. At this point, given our other workload, it may take us
three to four months to complete the extraction. We thank you for your
patience.

Once the metadata is extracted, we will provide it to NARA's Special Access
and FOIA unit to be added to their queue for review.

Also, I have been temporary assigned to another office. In my absence,
Victoria Triplett will be managing the process to extract the metadata.

If you are not satisfied with our action on this request, you have the
right to file an administrative appeal within ninety (90) calendar days
from the date of this letter via regular U.S. mail or email. By filing an
appeal, you preserve your rights under FOIA and give the agency a chance to
review and reconsider your request and the agency’s decision. If you submit
your appeal in writing, please address it to the Deputy Archivist of the
United States (ND), National Archives and Records Administration, 8601
Adelphi Road, College Park, Maryland 20740. Both the letter and the
envelope should be clearly marked “Freedom of Information Act Appeal.” If
you submit your appeal by email, please send it to FOIA@nara.gov, also
addressed to the Deputy Archivist of the United States. Please be sure to
explain why you believe this response does not meet the requirements of the
FOIA. All correspondence should reference your internal case tracking
number RD 61924.

If you would like to discuss our response before filing an appeal to
attempt to resolve your dispute without going through the appeals process,
you may contact our Acting FOIA Public Liaison, Lynn Goodsell, for
assistance at:

Acting FOIA Public Liaison: Lynn Goodsell
8601 Adelphi Road, Room 5500
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Email: DC.foia.liaison@nara.gov
Telephone: 301-837-3190

If you are unable to resolve your FOIA dispute through our FOIA Public
Liaison, the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), the Federal
FOIA Ombudsman’s office, offers mediation services to help resolve disputes
between FOIA requesters and Federal agencies. The contact information for
OGIS is:

Office of Government Information Services
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road – OGIS
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Email: ogis@nara.gov
Telephone: 202-741-5770
Toll Free: 1-877-684-6448

We hope this information is helpful to you. If you have any further
questions concerning the electronic records holdings of the National
Archives, please do not hesitate to contact us again. Our phone number is
(301) 837-0470 and our e-mail address is cer@nara.gov.

Sincerely,
Lynn Goodsell
Acting Director
Special Access and FOIA Staff (RDF)
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

Hello Mr. Chapman,

This is in follow-up to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request RD
61924.

I am writing to inform you that our office, the Electronic Records Division
Reference Branch (RDER), has completed extracting the metadata for emails
you requested and we have turned it over to NARA's Special Access/FOIA unit
for their review.

As indicated previously, the results in search set #2 included many
duplicate emails. We only extracted the metadata for the unique emails from
the overall search set. For your reference, we identified 572,669 emails as
unique.

If you have any further questions regarding your request, you may contact
the Special Access/FOIA office directly. Their email address is
specialaccess_foia@nara.gov and their phone number is 301-837-3190.

If you are not satisfied with our action on this request, you have the
right to file an administrative appeal within ninety (90) calendar days
from the date of this letter via regular U.S. mail or email. By filing an
appeal, you preserve your rights under FOIA and give the agency a chance to
review and reconsider your request and the agency’s decision. If you submit
your appeal in writing, please address it to the Deputy Archivist of the
United States (ND), National Archives and Records Administration, 8601
Adelphi Road, College Park, Maryland 20740. Both the letter and the
envelope should be clearly marked “Freedom of Information Act Appeal.” If
you submit your appeal by email, please send it to FOIA@nara.gov, also
addressed to the Deputy Archivist of the United States. Please be sure to
explain why you believe this response does not meet the requirements of the
FOIA. All correspondence should reference your internal case tracking
number RD 61924.

If you would like to discuss our response before filing an appeal to
attempt to resolve your dispute without going through the appeals process,
you may contact our Acting FOIA Public Liaison, Lynn Goodsell, for
assistance at:

Acting FOIA Public Liaison: Lynn Goodsell
8601 Adelphi Road, Room 5500
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Email: DC.foia.liaison@nara.gov
Telephone: 301-837-3190

If you are unable to resolve your FOIA dispute through our FOIA Public
Liaison, the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), the Federal
FOIA Ombudsman’s office, offers mediation services to help resolve disputes
between FOIA requesters and Federal agencies. The contact information for
OGIS is:

Office of Government Information Services
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road – OGIS
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Email: ogis@nara.gov
Telephone: 202-741-5770
Toll Free: 1-877-684-6448

We hope this information is helpful to you. If you have any further
questions concerning the electronic records holdings of the National
Archives, please do not hesitate to contact us again. Our phone number is
(301) 837-0470 and our e-mail address is cer@nara.gov.

Sincerely,

Victoria Triplett
Archives Specialist
Electronic Records Division Reference Branch (RDER)
National Archives at College Park

This is an automated reply to inform you that the National Archives and Records Administration received your e-mail.

We have received your request and will respond within 20 working days. Please note that submitting duplicate requests will increase wait times.

If you have any questions, you can call our office at 301-837-3190. You can also visit our web page at www.archives.gov/research/foia.

Thank you.

Good Afternoon,

Once your case is logged into our system and an archivist has begun triage
you will be contacted with further information regarding time frame.

Thank you,
Abiola Neptune

Dear Mr. Chapman,

I am writing in further response to your Freedom of Information Act request
for records in the custody of the National Archives and Records
Administration (NARA). Your request was initially received in this office
on July 8, 2019 and assigned FOIA tracking number *61924*.

You specified that you were interested in access to certain metadata for
emails sent to and from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), during
January 2017.

NARA’s Electronic Records Division Reference Branch (RDER) has now
completed the extraction process of the specified metadata for these emails
and there are approximately *572,669* unique files.

These files require screening for categories of information exempted from
disclosure under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act, prior to
public release. In particular, there is metadata that may be redacted to
protect the personal privacy of living individuals.

Your request has been assigned to our third-tier processing queue. You will
receive a response in partial fulfillment of your request after we have
completed the first increment. We will provide you with an update on the
status of your request and an estimated completion date at that time. To
give you an indication of our existing backlog, we are currently processing
requests received in August of 2013.

Please note that once we have notified you that we have completed the first
increment, you may either visit our College Park, MD facility to view the
file at no cost or order a reproduction. You may order a reproduction copy
at the cost of $0.80 per page by contacting our office to place an order.

*To notify this office of a change in your contact information or to track
the status of your request*, please telephone 301-837-3190 or e-mail
specialaccess_foia@nara.gov. All communications concerning this request
should reference your FOIA tracking *61924*.

If you are not satisfied with our action on this request and would like the
opportunity to discuss our response, you may contact our FOIA Public
Liaison for assistance:

Accessioned Executive Branch Records – Washington, DC Area

FOIA Requester Service Center: 301-837-3190

FOIA Public Liaison: Lynn Goodsell (Acting)

8601 Adelphi Road, Room 5500

College Park, MD 20740-6001

Telephone: 301-837-3190

E-mail: dc.foia.liaison@nara.gov

Sincerely,

*Noah D. Shankin*
Archivist
Special Access and FOIA Branch (RD-F)
301.837.0774
www.archives.gov/research/foia/

Your FOIAonline user account for requests@muckrock.com will be deactivated in 5 days due to inactivity.

Your FOIAonline user account for requests@muckrock.com will be deactivated in 5 days due to inactivity.

Dear Matt Chapman,

I am writing in response to your request for an updated status on the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request received by this office for
records in the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration.
Today NARA's Office of General Counsel (NGC) forwarded our office (RF) a
status update request you had sent them via fax.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are not able to provide status updates for
FOIA requests. Staff are primarily teleworking with very limited access to
our building & records. We have logged your request for a status update.
Once normal operating procedures resume, we will provide you with a
response to your status update request. We apologize for this inconvenience
and appreciate your understanding and patience. For further updates on our
operating status during the pandemic, please visit our website at:
https://www.archives.gov/coronavirus.

Sincerely,
Brigitte Flynn
Special Access & FOIA Staff

Your FOIAonline user account for requests@muckrock.com has been deactivated due to inactivity.

Dear Matt Chapman,

I am writing in response to your request for an updated status on the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request received by this office for
records in the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are unable to provide status updates for
FOIA requests.You previously asked for a status update just over a month
ago, so we already have you logged in our queue to receive a status update
response as soon as we are able to. When normal operations resume, we will
be responding to all status update requests in our queue in the order they
were received. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your
continued understanding and patience.

Sincerely,
Brigitte Flynn
Special Access & FOIA Staff

This is an automated reply to inform you that the National Archives and Records Administration received your email.

We have received your request and will respond within 20 working days. Please note that submitting duplicate requests will increase wait times.

If you have any questions, you can call our office at 301-837-3190. You can also visit our web page at www.archives.gov/research/foia.

Notice to NARA Researchers and FOIA Requesters

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to guidance received from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), NARA has adjusted its normal operations to balance the need of completing its mission-critical work while also adhering to the recommended social distancing for the safety of our staff. As a result of this re-prioritization of activities, you may experience a delay in receiving an initial acknowledgment as well as a substantive response to your reference or FOIA request or appeal. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your understanding and patience.

Thank you.

This is an automated reply to inform you that the National Archives and Records Administration received your email.

We have received your request and will respond within 20 working days. Please note that submitting duplicate requests will increase wait times.

If you have any questions, you can call our office at 301-837-3190. You can also visit our web page at www.archives.gov/research/foia.

Notice to NARA Researchers and FOIA Requesters

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to guidance received from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), NARA has adjusted its normal operations to balance the need of completing its mission-critical work while also adhering to the recommended social distancing for the safety of our staff. As a result of this re-prioritization of activities, you may experience a delay in receiving an initial acknowledgment as well as a substantive response to your reference or FOIA request or appeal. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your understanding and patience.

Thank you.

Dear Matt Chapman,

I am writing in response to your request for an updated status on the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request received by this office for
records in the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are unable to provide status updates for
FOIA requests.*Please note that because you have previously asked for a
status update we already have you logged in our queue to receive a status
update response as soon as we are able to.* When normal operations resume,
we will be responding to all status update requests in our queue in the
order they were received. We apologize for this inconvenience and
appreciate your continued understanding and patience.

Sincerely,
Brigitte Flynn
Special Access & FOIA Staff

Dear Matt Chapman:

I apologize for the delay you are experiencing in receiving access to the
records you requested and appreciate your understanding.

You requested a status update on *RD 61924*, a request our office received
on July 8, 2019 and to which we initially replied on November 4, 2019. The
request was assigned to our Tier 3 processing queue for review.

To give you an indication of our existing backlog for cases in Tier 3,
there are approximately 282 cases ahead of yours. Unfortunately, the
COVID-19 pandemic has created many unprecedented challenges in our work.
The majority of the records that our customers request require our staff to
be on-site to search for and review microfilm, microfiche, or original
textual records. Staffing levels on-site have been severely limited with
long periods where our facility was closed. Even as we expand our
reopening, operations may be temporarily curtailed due to limited staffing
and/or deteriorating local health conditions. We are currently processing
requests received in August 2013.

Our small staff has and will continue to work diligently to process each
request as quickly as possible.

*Please note, we will not respond to status update requests more than once
every six months.*

To notify this office of a change in your contact information or to track
the status of your request, please telephone 301-837-3190 or e-mail
specialaccess_foia@nara.gov. If you have specific questions regarding the
subject of your request, please contact Archivist Noah Shankin directly at
noah.shankin@nara.gov or 301-837-0774. All communications concerning this
request should reference your case tracking number *RD 61924*.

Sincerely,

Ashney Randle
Government Information Specialist
Special Access & FOIA Program (RF)
National Archives at College Park

This is an automated reply to inform you that the National Archives and Records Administration received your email.

We have received your request and will respond within 20 working days. Please note that submitting duplicate requests will increase wait times.

If you have any questions, you can call our office at 301-837-3190. You can also visit our web page at www.archives.gov/research/foia.

Notice to NARA Researchers and FOIA Requesters

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to guidance received from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), NARA has adjusted its normal operations to balance the need of completing its mission-critical work while also adhering to the recommended social distancing for the safety of our staff. As a result of this re-prioritization of activities, you may experience a delay in receiving an initial acknowledgment as well as a substantive response to your reference or FOIA request or appeal. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your understanding and patience.

Thank you.

This is an automated reply to inform you that the National Archives and Records Administration received your email.

We have received your request and will respond within 20 working days. Please note that submitting duplicate requests will increase wait times.

If you have any questions, you can call our office at 301-837-3190. You can also visit our web page at www.archives.gov/research/foia.

Notice to NARA Researchers and FOIA Requesters

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to guidance received from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), NARA has adjusted its normal operations to balance the need of completing its mission-critical work while also adhering to the recommended social distancing for the safety of our staff. As a result of this re-prioritization of activities, you may experience a delay in receiving an initial acknowledgment as well as a substantive response to your reference or FOIA request or appeal. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your understanding and patience.

Thank you.