FOIA March Madness 2018 - Agency Talking Points (November 8, 2016 - March 13, 2018) (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation)

March 13, 2018
Dear Ms.  Lipton:
Your Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act request a ny and all talkingpoints and similar memorandums, emails, and transcripts providing advice ordirection on how to handle the media, media interviews, and statements relating to the office of Public Affairs and all employees of FDIC using TALKING POINTS,STMT,STATEMENT &PRESS STRATEGY has been received by the FDIC’s FOIA/Privacy Act Group and assigned Log Number 18-0217.
Please be advised that the FOIA allows 20
business days from date of receipt to process your request, and additional processing time is allowed under certain circumstances.   The FOIA Specialist assigned to your request will contact you as necessary.  Complete information about the FOIA process at the FDIC is available at http://www.fdic.gov/about/freedom/guide.html.
You may call the FDIC’s FOIA Service Center at 202-898-7021 to obtain information about the FOIA process and the status of your request.  If you submitted your request using the FDIC’s Electronic FOIA Request form, you may also track the status of your request by utilizing the FOIA Request Status function at
https://efoiarequest.fdic.gov/palMain.aspx. (https://efoiarequest.fdic.gov/palMain.aspx)
Please cite your FOIA Log Number in any future inquiries regarding your request.
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Sincerely,
FOIA/Privacy Act Group, Legal Division Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation 550 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20429-9990

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March 14, 2018

FDIC FOIA Log #18-0217

Your FOIA/Privacy Act request has been assigned to me for processing.

We are currently reviewing your request to see if it reasonably describes FDIC agency records and complies with our published FOIA regulations. We will notify you of our final determination or, if we are not able to make a final determination, we may ask that you clarify your request, provide some additional information, or take certain actions necessary to comply with the FOIA or our FOIA regulations.

Pending the completion of our review, nothing further is necessary on your part.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions concerning your request.

Jerry Sussman

Sr. FOIA Specialist

FOIA/Privacy Act Group, Legal Division

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

550 17th Street, NW

Washington, DC 20429-9990

Tel: 703-562-2039

Fax: 703-562-2797

Email: jsussman@fdic.gov

Good morning, Beryl, and thank you for your email.

Your email presents an opportunity for me to provide you with a brief status update and to share some insights so that you will understand why we may need to exercise some judgment and discretion so that we may reasonably interpret this request to bring same to a timely and satisfactory completion.

The FOIA requires that each request reasonably describe the records requested. This is necessary so that agency employees reasonably familiar with the subject matter and records holdings may undertake a records search reasonably calculated to lead to the retrieval of all responsive information.

As written, this request may not reasonably describe all of the information that you would like to obtain. The records descriptions may be overbroad and, in some respects, ambiguous, redundant and/or inconsistent. You may narrow the scope of this request to reasonably describe all FDIC agency records that you would like to obtain (i.e., describe each record with sufficient particularity so that we know precisely what FDIC agency records to search for). In the absence of same, we may need to reasonably interpret the scope of this request so that it may be processed.

I assigned this request, as written, to our Office of Communications, and have asked that they search for all responsive information. To the extent that your request may not reasonably describe FDIC agency records, I have asked that they reasonably interpret this request. I have not yet received the results of that records search.

For reference, I have parsed the initial request, with each discrete description identified by: my [boldface]. Immaterial notations (dashes, lines, etc.) have been omitted.

[Preamble:]

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:
For the 16-month, 5-day period from Tuesday, November 8, 2016 through Tuesday, March 13, 2018:

[General Description]:

[SUMMARY)

Any and all talking points and similar memorandums, emails, and transcripts providing advice or direction on how to handle the media, media interviews, and statements.

[Specific Description:]

(SPECIFICALLY)

Please include in your responsive materials any documents, emails, or communications with the following phrases in the title or subject line:

TALKING POINTS
STMT
STATEMENT
PRESS STRATEGY

[Rolling Basis:]

[Item 1:]

1. In the Office of Public Affairs or equivalent division

Please provide first all such materials produced in this agency’s Office of Public Affairs or equivalent division, and any representative thereof.

Please also provide all such materials received by this agency’s Office of Public Affairs or equivalent division, and any representative thereof. [Sic]

[Item 2:]

2. Related to all agency employees
Please also include all employee email communications containing the following phrases:
TALKING POINTS
STMT
STATEMENT
PRESS STRATEGY

[Alternative Response:]

Alternative Response to 2:
If processing of this portion of this request would require its distribution to another or multiple other offices, it would be greatly appreciated if a response to this request would contain a description of the necessary offices to be tasked, the process by which the search will be conducted, and an estimate of the time and fees to be incurred. Such a description will allow us to better understand the parameters of this FOIA office’s ability to respond to this request as worded and will better enable us to reorganize and limit it as appropriate.

[Clarification:]

Additional clarification:
This request is not intended for materials regarding one particular subject or event during this period.

[Different Search and Explanation:]

If a different search procedure will be required dependent on segment of time covered, it would be greatly appreciated if a response could contain a description of the necessary difference in approach by time period (for example, if file keeping procedures have changed at some point in the last year and a half or if particular materials have been moved to another location).

If you would like to clarify your request, please feel free to do so as soon as practicable. Otherwise, we will continue to process this request, as reasonably interpreted, to the extent that we may be able to do so. Additional information will be provided to you as soon as it becomes available.

Thank you for your continuing patience and courtesy….Jerry

Jerry Sussman, Sr. FOIA Specialist
FOIA/Privacy Act Group, Legal Division
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
550 17th Street, NW, Room VS-D-D8006
Washington, DC 20429-9990
Tel: 703-562-2039
Fax: 703-562-2797
Email: jsussman@fdic.gov

Good morning, again, Beryl,

I shared our emails with my contact within our Office of Communications. I am pleased to inform you that our records search has been completed, and potentially responsive records have been located. We shortly will commence our disclosure review; upon completion of this process, we will inform you of our final determination on your request.

Additional information will be provided to you when it becomes available.

Thank you, again, for your continuing patience and courtesy.

….Jerry

Good afternoon, Beryl, and thank you for your email. From time-to-time, I’ll fill you in on the status of our efforts. If we are unable to make our final determination by on or before around April 10, 2018, I will send an interim response to you informing you that some additional time will be necessary….Jerry

A copy of documents responsive to the request.

FDIC FOIA Log #18-0217

Attached please find the FDIC's interim and partial response to the above referenced FOIA request.

Jerry Sussman, Sr. FOIA Specialist

FOIA/Privacy Act Group, Legal Division
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
550 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20429-9990

Tel: 703-562-2039

Fax: 703-562-2047

Email: jsussman@fdic.gov

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Good morning, Beryl, and thank you for your email.

You are asking if the scope of this request would be narrowed by:

1. Limiting the request to emails rather than to “Any and all talking points and similar memorandums, emails, and transcripts providing advice or direction on how to handle the media, media interviews, and statements;” and

2. Restricting the records search to the emails of Joshua Smith and David Barr.

Ostensibly, limiting the request to emails would appear to narrow the scope of the request. For practical purposes, it would not. Email include attachments. The potential universe of responsive records that we considered was comprised substantially of emails and the attachments to those email. So we would be dealing with the same potential universe of records and the same issues. If, however, the request were narrowed to be for only emails, exclusive of attachments, we still would need to resolve the other issues noted in the interim response.

Similarly, restricting the records search to Joshua Smith and David Barr would not narrow the scope of this request. We earlier assigned this request to the Office of Communications—our records search included the emails of Assistant Director David Barr. The results of that search eventuated in our April 11, 2018 interim response. I understand that Joshua Smith is not in the Office of Communications, but that he is the Manager, Government Public Relations, within the FDIC’s Division of Resolutions and Receiverships. Consequently, an additional records search of the files of Joshua Smith would enlarge rather than the scope of the request.

Previously, we identified and provided you with one record that we believed, in good faith, to be responsive to your request. We were unable to determine what other records, if any, you would like to obtain. We found ourselves engaged in a research project and speculation as to what records might be of interest to you. Major stumbling blocks were that the request described the records in multiple ways; and, that though the prologue to the request suggested that you wished to obtain records dealing with procedures generally applicable to media inquiries, the description of the records that you provided encompassed many other records. Additional issues were noted.

Under the FOIA, an agency’s obligation is to perform a records search reasonably calculated to lead to the retrieval of all responsive records, and to disclose all reasonably segregable, non-exempt information—and to explain why any requested records were not produced. However, a prerequisite is that a request describe the records requested with sufficient particularity so that we may determine precisely what records have been requested.

If you will permit me to make a suggestion: Necessarily, official correspondence from the Office of Communications would concern media contacts; consequently, a request limited to correspondence concerning media contacts located in the Office of Communications essentially is a request for the substantial entirety of all official correspondence from that office. Such a request would be overbroad. If, however, you would like to narrow the scope of this request to be for, e.g., the latest internal manual of procedures or similar, if any, maintained by the Office of Communications, that would be a reasonable description and we likely could process an amended request for such information. Please be aware, however, that if we do locate such a record, we have not yet made any final disclosure determinations; at this time, I do not know whether or not any additional information would be released to you even if you amended your request to be for same.

If you would like to amend your request your request to narrow its scope to be for the manual, if any, or for any particularly described records, you may do so. An amendment to this request would be without prejudice to your right to make a new FOIA requests to the FDIC at any time for any additional information that you may wish to obtain.

I hope that the foregoing is helpful to you and that it satisfactorily responds to your inquiry.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about this email or would like to further discuss this request, presently abated.

Thank you, again, for your continuing courtesy….Jerry

Jerry Sussman, Sr. FOIA Specialist
FOIA/Privacy Act Group, Legal Division
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
550 17th Street, NW, Room VS-D-D8006
Washington, DC 20429-9990
Tel: 703-562-2039
Fax: 703-562-2797
Email: jsussman@fdic.gov

Good morning, Beryl, I hope that all is going well with you.

I have not heard further from you regarding this request.

More than ten calendar days have elapsed since our April 11, 2018 partial and interim response. Therefore, for the reasons stated, we now are closing this request file.

The closure of this request file does not in any way prejudice your ability to write a new FOIA request to the FDIC at any time for any additional information that you may wish to obtain.

Thank you….Jerry

Jerry Sussman, Sr. FOIA Specialist
FOIA/Privacy Act Group, Legal Division
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
550 17th Street, NW, Room VS-D-D8006
Washington, DC 20429-9990
Tel: 703-562-2039
Fax: 703-562-2797
Email: jsussman@fdic.gov