List of histories (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)
| Tracking # |
19-07730-F 18-09147-F |
| Multi Request | List of histories |
| Submitted | June 16, 2018 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Emma North-Best
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
Lists, indices or other records that describe or enumerate any historical studies produced or commissioned by the agency's historical staff or various offices/subdivisions. These documents will be used, among other things, to identify individual histories that are of interest to the public, which will then be requested in a separate FOIA request.
I am a member of the news media and request classification as such. I have previously written about the government and its activities, with some reaching over 100,000 readers. As such, as I have a reasonable expectation of publication and my editorial and writing skills are well established. In addition, I discuss and comment on the files online and make them available through non-profits such as the Internet Archive and MuckRock, disseminating them to a large audience. While my research is not limited to this, a great deal of it, including this, focuses on the activities and attitudes of the government itself. As such, it is not necessary for me to demonstrate the relevance of this particular subject in advance.
Additionally, case law states that “proof of the ability to disseminate the released information to a broad cross- section of the public is not required.” Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Dep’t of Justice, 365 F.3d 1108, 1126 (D.C. Cir. 2004); see Carney v. U.S. Dep’t of Justice, 19 F.3d 807, 814-15 (2d Cir. 1994). Further, courts have held that "qualified because it also had “firm” plans to “publish a number of . . . ‘document sets’” concerning United States foreign and national security policy." Under this criteria, as well, I qualify as a member of the news media.
Additionally, courts have held that the news media status "focuses on the nature of the requester, not its request. The provision requires that the request be “made by” a representative of the news media. Id. § 552(a)(4)(A)(ii)(II). A newspaper reporter, for example, is a representative of the news media regardless of how much interest there is in the story for which he or she is requesting information." As such, the details of the request itself are moot for the purposes of determining the appropriate fee category.
As my primary purpose is to inform about government activities by reporting on it and making the raw data available, I request that fees be waived.
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,
Emma Best
From:
Good afternoon Ms. Emma Best;
On June 18, 2018, the FOIA Service received your electronic request addressed to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) seeking “the following:
“Lists, indices or other records that describe or enumerate any historical studies produced or commissioned By the agency’s historical staff or various offices/subdivisions.”.
Your request has been assigned FOIA tracking number 18-09147-F. Please refer to this number when contacting the VA regarding your request.
Further clarification is needed before we can begin to process your request. According to our regulations, a request for records “must contain a reasonable description of the records desired so that it may be located with relative ease.” Per 38 CFR, 1.554(d), the requester’s description of the records sought needs to describe such records in enough detail to allow VA FOIA Officers to locate them with a “reasonable amount of effort.” To the extent possible, the requester should include specific information about each record sought, such as the date, title or name, author, recipient and subject matter. Wide ranging requests that lack specificity or contain descriptions of very general subject matters with no description of specific records may be considered “not reasonably described”
In order to complete your request, we are seeking clarification. a) Please be more specific about what records you are seeking; Please be more specific about where we need to search, i.e. the specific VA office(s) where the records are held. You may limit the scope of your request to the offices which are most likely to hold the responsive records. That would include the Office of the Executive Secretary, Office of the Assistant Secretary
for Public Affairs & Intergovernmental Affairs and/or the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Legislative Affairs; b) Please Provide a timeframe for the records you are seeking;
To ensure that VA conducts a thorough and efficient records search, please narrow the scope of your request as requested.
Please contact us within 30 business days of the date of this communication or we will conclude that you are no longer interested in pursuing this request and will close our files. Your request will be placed on hold until we receive your response to our request for clarification.
You may respond directly to this email.
Regards,
VACO FOIA Service
Quality, Privacy, and Risk (QPR)
Office of Information and Technology (OI&T)
Fax: (202) 632-7581
vacofoiaservice@va.gov<mailto:vacofoiaservice@va.gov>
FOIA Service Hotline: 1-877-750-3642
Please take a moment and let us know how we did by completing a quick evaluation: Got a minute? Rate Our Service!<https://vaww.vashare.oit.va.gov/sites/QPR/Lists/QPR%20Customer%20Satisifaction%20Evaluation/Item/newifs.aspx>
[cid:image001.png@01D3A63F.FC6D0530]
QPR’s Mission Statement:
“To instill and promote a culture of quality, privacy and risk management in collaboration with our business partners to enable a better Veteran experience.”
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image001
From: Emma North-Best
The request is reasonably described, as has been affirmed by many other government agencies and departments. The decision to require that I tell you where to physically search is not consistent with the FOIA or case law. I have provided more than enough information for someone familiar to calculate a reasonable search. The case law you cite refers to agencies being unable to determine what might be responsive - my request is more than specific enough for that. As for your request that I identify which office is most likely to have the records, I already provided some information there - whatever office deals with historical records and oral histories.
Also, your link returns the error message "(vaww.vashare.oit.va.gov’s server IP address could not be found.)"
Please proceed with the FOIA request and process it as you're required to do.
From:
Good afternoon Ms. Best:
The VACO FOIA Service received your electronic FOIA request dated June 16, 2018,
in which Lists, indices or other records that describe or enumerate any historical studies
produced or commissioned by the agency’s historical staff or various offices/subdivisions..
You also submitted a clarification email in response to a request for further information.
I have attached a copy of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ acknowledgment letter.
The attached letter provides you with the referral and contact information for the
referring office.
This concludes the FOIA Service’s response to your request.
Joan L. Haynesworth (Contractor)
FOIA Analyst, VACO FOIA Service
Quality, Privacy, and Risk (QPR)
Office of Information and Technology (OI&T)
Fax: (202) 632-7581
vacofoiaservice@va.gov<mailto:vacofoiaservice@va.gov>
FOIA Service Hotline: 1-877-750-3642
Please take a moment and let us know how we did by completing a quick evaluation: Got a minute? Rate Our Service!<https://vaww.vashare.oit.va.gov/sites/QPR/Lists/QPR%20Customer%20Satisifaction%20Evaluation/Item/newifs.aspx>
[cid:image001.png@01D42035.0EBCD980]
QPR’s Mission Statement:
“To instill and promote a culture of quality, privacy and risk management in collaboration with our business partners to enable a better Veteran experience.”
From:
Dear Ms. Best,
Is there a certain timeframe for the documents that you requested?
If not, we have an estimated 10k+ pages of responsive records.
Please advise if you would like to change the scope of your request.
Thank you.
Lynn Buell
FOIA Officer
Resource Management Office (003C3)
Washington, DC
(202) 632-4755
From:
A letter stating the requester must agree to or prepay assessed or estimated fees in order for the agency to continue processing the request.
From: Emma North-Best
I will limit my request to the first 4,000 pages of releasable lists and indices, for which you aren't permitted to charge me due to my status as a member of the news media and your failure to respond within the time limit.
Thanks!
From:
A letter stating the requester must agree to or prepay assessed or estimated fees in order for the agency to continue processing the request.
From: Emma North-Best
As you have failed to respond in the time period required by statute, you are prohibited from charging members of the media (which your letter concedes I am) duplication fees if the responsive records do not exceed 5,000 pages. As we have limited the scope of responsive records to 4,000 pages, you are prohibited from charging duplication fees.
From:
Dear Ms. Best,
As stated in my August 22 letter, you are entitled to 100 free pages of responsive records. After the first 100 pages, you are charged .15 per single sided page. You are not charged for search, review, or redaction fees. There is no rule concerning 4,000 free pages.
Thank you.
Lynn Buell
FOIA Officer
Resource Management Office (003C3)
Washington, DC
(202) 632-4755
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~WRD000
From: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
We are writing to confirm whether you are still interested in the FOIA request below. Due to staffing changes, we were unable to confirm whether we previously responded to this request. In accordance with the Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Information Policy (OIP), July 2015 guidance on still-interested inquiries, https://www.justice.gov/oip/limitations-use-still-interested-inquiries, we are providing you with 30 working days to confirm whether you are still interested in this FOIA request. If we do not hear from you within 30 working days we will administratively close this request. You can file a new request for the same information at any time.
Thank you for your patience as we work on improving our FOIA program and clear our backlogged FOIA requests.
If you should have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 202-461-6448.
Sincerely,
Latonya Hooks , Program Specialist
FOIA REQUEST 19-07730-F
Request a copy of any and all documents in the agency’s possession that pertain to the WikiLeaks website or organization from January 2006 to the present date including but not limited to emails, memos, notes, briefings, reports and other documents related to, etc.
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