FOIA March Madness 2019 - Exhibition bracket - FOIA funding, staffing, and activities (Bureau of Indian Affairs)

Thank you for your email. Your request has been routed and assigned to the
Indian Affairs-FOIA Office for a response. For questions or status updates
regarding this request you may contact the Indian Affairs-FOIA Coordinator,
Ms. Heather Garcia. She can be contacted at:

Indian Affairs - Freedom of Information Act Office
1849 C Street NW, Mail stop 4658-MIB
Washington, DC 20240
heather.garcia@bia.gov

In addition, I have looped in Ms. Heather Garcia into this email to provide
you with a status update directly. Thank you.

IN REPLY REFER TO:
BIA-2019-00815

May 15, 2019

Beryl Lipton
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 70595
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516

Dear Mr. Lipton:

The Indian Affairs FOIA office received your Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) request, dated March 15, 2019, on May 09, 2019 and assigned it
control number BIA-2019-00815. Please cite this number in any future
communications with our office regarding your request.

In your request you stated “*I hereby request the following records: The
following materials related to the funding, staffing, and activities of
this FOIA office:***Budget materials*** - - - > > > for the years 2017,
2018, and 2019, all budget materials or plans applicable to offices
responsible for processing and response to FOIA requests and appeals
submitted to this Bureau and its offices.*
****Staffing orders/reports/contacts***- - - > > > for the years 2017 and
2018, staffing reports and plans, including the count of employee numbers
and for offices responsible for processing and responses to FOIA requests
and appeals submitted to this Bureau and its offices.*
*- If this report is available in a form that includes the total number of
hours worked for FOIA personnel, that version would be preferred.*
*- If reports are available for each month, that version is preferred.*
*- According to this agency’s “About Us” website
(https://www.doi.gov/foia/About-Us <https://www.doi.gov/foia/About-Us>):*
*“The Department has decentralized its FOIA operations among 13 bureaus and
offices, each of which has a Bureau/Office FOIA Officer leading its
separately managed and resourced FOIA Program. Secretarial Order 3244
(November 12, 2002) anchored Bureau/Office FOIA Offices within their
respective CIOs' Offices. That order was superseded by Secretarial Order
3309 (December 14, 2010), which replaced Bureau/Office CIOs with Assistant
Directors for Information Resources and initiated a series of significant
ongoing organizational changes as part of the Department's IT
Transformation.*
*Bureau/office FOIA Officers are responsible for tracking, managing and
responding to FOIA requests for records in their organization's possession
and control, and administering their organization's FOIA programs. In
addition to Bureau/Office FOIA Officers, some bureaus/offices also have
Regional FOIA Coordinators and Field Offices that process requests. Some
bureaus/offices have their program offices (i.e., the offices whose records
are the subject of the requests) prepare the responses to FOIA requests.
These responses are reviewed by the FOIA Officer or Regional FOIA
Coordinator and the appropriate FOIA attorney (when the decision is to
withhold information, make a discretionary release, or deny a fee waiver).”*
* - - - > > > all staffing reports and plans for the year 2019*
*- If reports are available for each month, such a version is preferred.*
*- - - > > > contact information, including email addresses and phone
numbers (if available), for each FOIA officer currently tasked with an open
public records request*
****FOIA requester categories*** - - - > > > for the years 2017 and 2018,
the designated category of each requester of a FOIA request to this office,
including those assigned to the following categories:*
** commercial;*
** educational and noncommercial scientific institutions;*
** representative of news media requester;*
** all other requesters*
*- If this information is kept in an aggregate form including the number of
requesters by fee category by year, a copy of this report will suffice to
fulfill this element of the request.*
****FOIA fee waivers***- - - > > > for the years 2017 and 2018, the number
of fee waivers granted by this office and, if available, the tracking
numbers for the FOIA requests to which waivers were granted*
****FOIA fee collection***- - - > > > for the years 2017 and 2018, any
report capturing the following information:*
** total estimated processing and copy fees quoted to FOIA requesters*
** total processing and copy fees collected by this Bureau from each fee
category*
*- If this information is kept in an aggregate form, such as a FOIA log,
that material would be sufficient to satisfy the bullet points “FOIA
requester categories” and “FOIA fee collection” if it captures the
following information:*
** FOIA tracking number*
** requester fee category*
** amount processing and copy fees associated with the request*
** the status of the requester’s payment for the request*
****FOIA Policy Staff audit reports or summaries*** - - - > > > for the
years 2017 and 2018, any and all reports of self-assessments conducted by
FOIA Policy Staff*
*- According to the U.S. Department of the Interior 2018 Chief FOIA Officer
Report, “Department FOIA Policy Staff regularly conduct self- assessments
of the Department’s FOIA program, by reviewing Annual Report data,
conducting audits of each bureau at least bi-annually, and reviewing and
updating processing procedures, including its FOIA regulations.”*

We have classified you as a representative of the news media. As such, we
may charge you for some of our duplication costs, but we will not charge
you for our search or review costs; you also are entitled to up to 100
pages of photocopies (or an equivalent volume) for free. See 43 C.F.R. §
2.39. If, after taking into consideration your fee category entitlements,
our processing costs are less than $50.00, we will not bill you because the
cost of collection would be greater than the fee collected. See 43 C.F.R. §
2.37(g)

We use Multitrack Processing to process FOIA requests. The Simple track is
for requests that can be processed in one to five workdays. The Normal
track is for requests that can be processed in six to twenty workdays. The
Complex track is for requests that can be processed in twenty-one to sixty
workdays. The Exceptional/Voluminous track is for requests requiring more
than sixty workdays for processing. The Expedited track is for requests
that have been granted expedited processing. Within each track, requests
are usually processed on a first-in, first-out basis.

Your request falls into the Normal processing track. We therefore expect
that we will dispatch a determination to you by *June 06, 2019*.

If you have any questions about our response to your request, you may
contact Heather Garcia, 1849 C Street N.W. MS-4658-MIB, Washington, D.C.
20240; Telephone: (202) 208-3135 and Email: foia@bia.gov.

Sincerely,

/S/Heather Garcia
Acting, Indian Affairs – FOIA officer

Hello,
I'll be out of the office.
If you need assistance with an FOIA request(s) please contact your FOIA Coordinator; email the FOIA Office at foia@bia.gov. (mailto:foia@bia.gov)
You may also call the FOIA Office at 202-208-3508 or 202-208-3135.

Thank you,
Heather Garcia

--
Heather Garcia
​​ ​​ Government Information Specialist Assistant Secretary- Indian Affairs
Acting, Indian Affairs FOIA Officer Acting, Public Liaison Indian Affairs 1849 C Street NW MS-4658-MIB
Washington, DC 20240 Phone# (202)208-3135 Work Cell# (202)672-4016 heather.garcia@bia.gov (mailto:heather.garcia@bia.gov)
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Beryl Lipton,

Please see the attached final response letter and responsive document for
your FOIA request (BIA-2019-00815).

Respectfully,

Kelly Meacham
U.S. Department of the Interior
Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs
1849 C Street, NW #4146
Washington, DC 20240
Direct: (202) 513-7707
E-mail: kelly.meacham@bia.gov