Untitled (Department of Homeland Security)
| Tracking # |
2019-HQFO-00519 |
| Multi Request | Annual Funding for FOIA Compliance |
| Submitted | March 10, 2019 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Matthew Topic
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
1. Reports, studies, and other such records from Jan 1 2017 to the date of search analyzing or discussing the amount of annual funding needed to improve compliance with the Freedom of Information Act.
2. Emails, memos, and other such records in which FOIA staff have requested additional resources and the discussions of and responses to those requests.
I request expedited processing because the federal government is about to enter into the annual budgeting process. I am primarily engaged in the dissemination of information because I am an attorney who primarily represents FOIA requesters seeking to obtain information to be disseminated to the public.
I request a fee waiver because: (1) these records concern the activities of government, namely, FOIA compliance and budgeting needs; (2) this information is meaningfully informative on the budgeting process; (3) this information will help the public understand the extent to which federal departments and agencies are seeking sufficient funding for FOIA compliance; (4) the information will significantly contribute to understanding whether departments and agencies are seeking and receiving adequate funding for FOIA compliance; (5) I have no commercial interest in these records, but rather, will use these records to contribute to the public discourse on FOIA funding; (6) the significant public interest in these records outweighs my non-existence personal commercial interest.
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,
Matthew Topic
From: Department of Homeland Security
Good Afternoon,
Attached is our acknowledgment of your DHS FOIA request. If you need to contact this office again concerning your request, please provide the DHS reference number. This will enable us to quickly retrieve the information you are seeking and reduce our response time. This office can be reached at 866-431-0486.
Regards,
DHS Privacy Office
Disclosure & FOIA Program
STOP 0655
Department of Homeland Security
245 Murray Drive, SW
Washington, DC 20528-0655
Telephone: 1-866-431-0486 or 202-343-1743
Fax: 202-343-4011
Visit our FOIA website (http://www.dhs.gov/foia)
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following request, copied below. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 10, 2019. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #2019-HQFO-00519.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 10, 2019. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #2019-HQFO-00519.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 10, 2019. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #2019-HQFO-00519.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 10, 2019. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #2019-HQFO-00519.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 10, 2019. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #2019-HQFO-00519.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 10, 2019. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #2019-HQFO-00519.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 10, 2019. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #2019-HQFO-00519.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 10, 2019. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #2019-HQFO-00519.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 10, 2019. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #2019-HQFO-00519.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 10, 2019. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #2019-HQFO-00519.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Department of Homeland Security
Good afternoon Mr. Topic, We make every effort to respond to requests in as timely a manner as possible, however the DHS Privacy Office does have a backlog due to the large number of requests we receive and the volume and complexity of the records we regularly process. While conducting a search for the records requested our search produce an enormous amount of records (924,772 responsive and non-responsive records). As you know, this request involves a very large amount of data that we located during a broad search for records that might be responsive to your request for reports, studies, and other such records from Jan. 1, 2017 to the date of search analyzing or discussing the amount of annual funding needed to improve compliance with the Freedom of Information Act; AND emails, memos, and other such records in which FOIA staff have requested additional resources and the discussions of and responses to those requests. It is very common for broad keyword searches of electronic records, including email, to return a large amount of data that upon review is not responsive to the request. In order to fulfill request 2019-HQFO-00519, our office will need to conduct a page-by-page, line-by-line review of each of the approximately 924,777 pages involved. As we hope you can appreciate, reviewing this amount of material for redaction will require a substantial amount of manpower, meaning that we will not be able to complete processing your request for quite some time. Processing this volume of records will also have a negative impact on our ability to respond to other requests for records. Additionally, while we do not have an estimate at this point, the fees associated with processing this request are likely to be substantial. We appreciate your interest in these records, and want to negotiate an agreement with you that will enable you to better understand the agency’s actions during the processing of your initial request without unduly burdening the FOIA process. Are you willing to narrow the scope of your request to provide moretargeted search terms and possibly reduce the timeframe of the request? We look forward to your response, and hope that you find this proposal to be mutually beneficial. Best, The Privacy Office.
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