2017 Chief FOIA Officer Report
Margaret McCloskey Shanks, Deputy Secretary and Chief FOIA Officer for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), hereby submits the Chief FOIA Officer Report on behalf of the Board.
Section 1: Steps Taken to Apply the Presumption of Openness
The guiding principle underlying the President's FOIA Memorandum and the DOJ's 2009 FOIA Guidelines is the presumption of openness.
Please answer the following questions in order to describe the steps your agency has taken to ensure that the presumption of openness is being applied to all decisions involving the FOIA. You may also include any additional information that illustrates how your agency is working to apply the presumption of openness.
A. FOIA Training
1. Did your FOIA professionals or the personnel at your agency who have FOIA responsibilities attend any FOIA training or conference during the reporting period such as that provided by the Department of Justice?
Yes.
2. If yes, please provide a brief description of the type of training attended and the topics covered.
Board staff with FOIA responsibilities or related interests, including the Board's FOIA professionals, attended FOIA/Privacy Act training provided by the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Information Policy (OIP). This training included topics related to the intersection of the FOIA and Privacy Act; Exemptions 4 and 6 of the FOIA; and the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016, specifically the foreseeable harm standard and Exemption 5.
3. Provide an estimate of the percentage of your FOIA professionals and staff with FOIA responsibilities who attended substantive FOIA training during this reporting period.
Approximately 95% of the Board's FOIA professionals attended substantive FOIA training during this reporting period. The remaining 5% of the Board's FOIA professionals received substantive FOIA training by completing the FOIA modules provided by OIP.
4. OIP has directed agencies to "take steps to ensure that all of their FOIA professionals attend substantive FOIA training at least once throughout the year." If your response to the previous question is that less than 80% of your FOIA professionals attended training, please explain your agency's plan to ensure that all FOIA professionals receive or attend substantive FOIA training during the next reporting year.
N/A
B. Outreach
5. OPTIONAL: Did your FOIA professionals engage in any outreach or dialogue with the requester community or open government groups regarding your administration of the FOIA?
N/A
C. Other Initiatives
6. Describe any efforts your agency has undertaken to inform non-FOIA professionals of their obligations under the FOIA?
The Board has modified its search request to Board staff to notify non-FOIA professionals of their obligation to provide any documents deemed to be potentially responsive to a FOIA request in order to help ensure that an adequate search is conducted and that all potentially responsive documents are identified. In addition, the Board has incorporated OIP's FOIA training modules into the Board's internal training application, which is accessible by all Board staff.
7. If there are any other initiatives undertaken by your agency to ensure that the presumption of openness is being applied, please describe them here.
The Board is committed to promoting transparency and openness not only in how we make decisions regarding FOIA requests, but also by providing information of public interest in a manner that is readily available and easily accessible. To further the following goals, the described items are currently available on the Board's public website:
- Increase public awareness of the Board's activities by providing either live and/or recorded video coverage of events, including (1) open Board meetings; (2) remarks provided by the Chair, other Board members, and senior staff at research conferences and other programs; and (3) press conferences that the Chair holds four times each year following FOMC meetings.
- Provide resources to assist the public in understanding the Board's activities and functions, including:
- Conversation with the Chair: A Teacher Town Hall Meeting;
- Videos that summarize or explain information in recently released Board reports and studies, including:
- Report on Consumers and Mobile Financial Services
- Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households
- Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking, covering topics such as income volatility, retirement planning, auto lending, higher education, and holiday spending
- Findings from the 2015 Survey of Young Workers;
- Video FAQs, including:
- A recruiting video that explains work performed by a financial analyst at the Board;
- Posting an updated version of the Federal Reserve System publication, Purposes and Functions, which details the structure, responsibilities, and mission of the Federal Reserve System;
- Providing a comprehensive list of Board staff publications and working papers; and
- Adding the following new data as part of the Enhanced Financial Accounts Initiative, which is designed to improve public understanding of financial intermediation and activity in the United States:
- Promote openness by, for example, monthly posting of the Chair's meeting calendar to the FOIA Reading Room and publishing the Board's voting record on matters that come before it.
In addition to the items listed above, which are posted on the Board's public website, the Board provides online educational tools for students and teachers and information available through the Board's U.S. Currency Education Program.
Section II: Steps Taken to Ensure that Your Agency Has an Effective System in Place for Responding to Requests
The DOJ's 2009 FOIA Guidelines emphasized that "[a]pplication of the proper disclosure standard is only one part of ensuring transparency. Open government requires not just a presumption of disclosure, but also an effective system for responding to FOIA requests." It is essential that agencies effectively manage their FOIA program.
Please answer the following questions to describe the steps your agency has taken to ensure that the management of your FOIA program is effective and efficient. You should also include any additional information that that describes your agency's efforts in this area.
A. Processing Procedures
1. For Fiscal Year 2016, what was the average number of days your agency reported for adjudicating requests for expedited processing? Please see Section VIII.A. of your agency's Fiscal Year 2016 Annual FOIA Report.
The Board adjudicated requests for expedited processing in an average of eight days.
2. If your agency's average number of days to adjudicate requests for expedited processing was above ten calendar days, please describe the steps your agency will take to ensure that requests for expedited processing are adjudicated within ten calendar days or less.
N/A
3. OPTIONAL: During the reporting period, did your agency conduct a self-assessment of its FOIA program? If so, please describe the methods used, such as reviewing Annual Report data, using active workflows and track management, reviewing and updating processing procedures, etc.
Following enactment of the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016, the Board undertook a review of policies and procedures related to its FIOA program. As a result of this review, the Board took several actions, such as updating FOIA regulations, revising standard language in FOIA response letters, and modifying the FOIA tracking system, in order to meet the new statutory requirements. For example, the Board revised language in FOIA response letters to provide for the 90 day appeal period and to inform requesters about ways to seek additional assistance regarding their requests, including contacting the Board's FOIA Public Liaison and utilizing mediation services offered by the Office of Government Information. In addition, the Board's FOIA tracking system was modified to enable staff to produce the raw data required for the new reporting requirements.
In addition to these actions, FOIA professionals routinely review data, including Annual Report data, to identify opportunities for improving efficiency of FOIA processing procedures.
4. Please provide an estimate of how many requests your agency processed in Fiscal Year 2016 that were from commercial use requesters. If your agency is decentralized, please identify any components within your agency that received a majority of their requests from commercial use requesters.
The Board processed approximately 294 requests from commercial use requesters in Fiscal Year 2016.
B. Requester Services
5. OPTIONAL: Does your agency provide a mechanism for requesters to provide feedback about their experience with the FOIA process at your agency? If so, please describe the methods used, such as making the FOIA Public Liaison available to receive feedback, using surveys posted on the agency's website, etc.
The FOIA Service Center operates dedicated telephone lines that requesters can utilize to obtain information or raise concerns about their requests. The Board also provides a status update/feedback form on the FOIA Service Center page on its public website.
6. The FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 requires additional notification to requesters about the services provided by the agency's FOIA Public Liaison. Please provide an estimate of how often requesters sought assistance from your agency's FOIA Public Liaison.
FOIA requesters have sought assistance from the Board's FOIA Public Liaison for approximately 30% of all FOIA requests.
7. The FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 requires agencies to make their reference material or guide for requesting records or information from the agency electronically available to the public. Please provide a link to your agency's FOIA reference guide.
The Board's FOIA reference guide is available at: https://www.federalreserve.gov/foia/about_foia.htm
C. Other Initiatives
8. If there are any other steps your agency has undertaken to ensure that your FOIA system operates efficiently and effectively, such as improving search processes, eliminating redundancy, etc., please describe them here.
To ensure that the Board continues to be able to respond to FOIA requests in a timely and efficient manner, staff with responsibility for records management have made significant progress with respect to several initiatives that involve digitizing paper records and finding aids to improve search processes. For example, staff are continuing to digitize paper records from the Board's legacy central filing system, making searches for older records far more efficient. Staff also continue to digitize finding aids to assist in locating restricted controlled documents, which are stored as paper records, more readily. In addition, staff are in the process of digitizing approximately 500,000 microfiche of banking supervision and regulation records. Staff also recently undertook an effort to digitize the records of former Board Chairs.
In addition to the efforts described above, FOIA professionals utilize an automated system to track FOIA requests, which helps ensure that they are being processed appropriately. Further, all FOIA correspondence and responsive records are maintained electronically to improve efficiency.
Section III: Steps Taken to Increase Proactive Disclosures
Both the President's and DOJ's FOIA memoranda focused on the need for agencies to work proactively to post information online without waiting for individual requests to be received.
Please answer the following questions to describe the steps your agency has taken to increase the amount of material that is available on your agency websites. In addition to the questions below, you should also describe any additional steps taken by your agency to make and improve proactive disclosures of information.
A. Posting Material
1. Describe your agency's process or system for identifying "frequently requested" records that should be posted online.
When the Board receives a FOIA request, FOIA professionals use processing software to identify previous requests for the same or similar records. If it is determined that multiple requests for records subject to disclosure under the FOIA have been received, the documents are deemed "frequently requested" and are posted on the Board's website.
2. Does your agency have a distinct process or system in place to identify other records for proactive disclosure? If so, please describe your agency's process or system.
Yes. The Board's FOIA professionals routinely review records to determine whether they should be posted on the Board's website. In addition, other Board staff are aware that records of public interest should be proactively disclosed, if possible, and will often identify records or other information for posting on the Board's website.
3. Has your agency encountered challenges that make it difficult to post records you otherwise would like to post?
Yes.
4. If so, briefly explain those challenges and how your agency is working to overcome them.
The Board continues to encounter challenges in making some records, such as bank application materials, Section 508 complaint. These records are not created by the Board but are submitted by financial institutions, are often voluminous, and typically contain complicated formatting and tables. The Board recently purchased new software and has worked with a contractor to assist staff in overcoming the challenges in making these types of documents Section 508 compliant.
5. Provide examples of material that your agency has proactively disclosed during the past reporting year, including links to the posted material.
As previously discussed in response to Question 7 in Section 1, the Board routinely discloses material and information by posting items of public interest on its website, including, for example:
- reports to Congress, such as the Monetary Policy Report, which is submitted semiannually to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and to the House Committee on Financial Services;
- minutes from all regularly scheduled meetings of the FOMC (typically available three weeks after the date of the policy decision) and minutes from certain meetings of the Board;
- the Chair's monthly calendars and communications with Congress;
- Supervision and Regulation and Consumer Affairs letters, which address significant policy and procedural matters related to the Federal Reserve System's supervisory responsibilities;
- Information regarding formal enforcement actions brought by the Board or a Reserve Bank (acting under delegated authority) against a supervised institution, as well as copies of final enforcement orders and written agreements; and
- Orders on banking applications deemed likely to be of public interest.
For additional examples of information that the Board proactively posts on its public website, please see the response to Question 7 in Section 1 of this report.
6. Did your agency use any means to publicize or highlight important proactive disclosures for public awareness? If yes, please describe these efforts.
The Board provides "What's New" and "What's Next" pages on its public website to help highlight recent developments and upcoming items, respectively. In addition, the Board utilizes numerous social media sites, including Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Flickr, to disseminate information. In Fiscal Year 2016, the Board launched a Facebook page to provide the public with another means of accessing information. The Board's social media sites provide public followers with educational materials about the Board's mission and responsibilities, press releases, speeches, testimony, reports, FAQs, photos, and videos.
The public can also opt to be notified by email when various items, including press releases, speeches, testimony, and other information is posted to the Board's public website. In addition, the public may subscribe to RSS feeds that relay timely information about new Board releases, including:
- press releases on a wide range of topics, such as enforcement actions, monetary policy reports, and orders on banking applications;
- speeches and testimony by the Chair, other Board members, and Board staff;
- information about Board meetings;
- available data sets and certain information about various rates, such as interest rates and foreign exchange rates; and
- published research and discussion papers.
B. Other Initiatives
7. If there are any other steps your agency has taken to improve proactive disclosures, please describe them here. For example, has your agency engaged requesters in determining how and what to post? Has your agency used web analytics to inform your proactive disclosures?
N/A
Section IV: Steps Taken to Greater Utilize Technology
A key component of the President's FOIA Memorandum was the direction to "use modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and done by their Government." In addition to using the internet to make proactive disclosures, agencies should also be exploring ways to utilize technology in responding to requests.
Please answer the following questions to describe how your agency is utilizing technology to improve its FOIA administration and the public's access to information. You should also include any additional information that that describes your agency's efforts in this area.
A. Making Material Posted Online More Useful
1. Beyond posting new material, is your agency taking steps to make the posted information more useful to the public, especially to the community of individuals who regularly access your agency's website?
Yes.
2. If yes, please provide examples of such improvements.
- The Board's Data Download Program (DDP) has significantly improved the transparency and accessibility of Federal Reserve statistical data. The DDP allows users to download datasets in a variety of electronic formats (Excel, CSV, and XML), either as preformatted or customizable data packages (including charts and graphs), for easy publication or distribution.
- In addition, the Board has improved the usefulness of information by, for example
- Creating new charts and redesigning the Financial Accounts of the United States - Z.1 release;
- Adding a new data series in FEDS Notes: Recession Risk and the Excess Bond Premium; and
- Adding the following new data as part of the Enhanced Financial Accounts (EFA) initiative:
B. Other Initiatives
3. Did your agency successfully post all four quarterly reports for Fiscal Year 2016?
Yes. The Board successfully posted all four quarterly reports for Fiscal Year 2016.
4. If your agency did not successfully post all quarterly reports, with information appearing on FOIA.gov, please explain why and provide your agency's plan for ensuring that such reporting is successful in Fiscal Year 2017.
N/A
Section V: Steps Taken to Improve Timeliness in Responding to Requests and Reducing Backlogs
The President's FOIA Memorandum and the DOJ's 2009 FOIA Guidelines have emphasized the importance of improving timeliness in responding to requests. This section of your Chief FOIA Officer Report addresses both time limits and backlog reduction. Backlog reduction is measured both in terms of numbers of backlogged requests or appeals and by looking at whether agencies closed their ten oldest requests, appeals, and consultations.
For the figures required in this Section, please use the numbers contained in the specified sections of your agency's 2016 Annual FOIA Report and, when applicable, your agency's 2015 Annual FOIA Report.
A. Simple Track
Section VII.A of your agency's Annual FOIA Report, entitled "FOIA Requests – Response Time for All Processed Requests," includes figures that show your agency's average response times for processed requests. For agencies utilizing a multi-track system to process requests, there is a category for "simple" requests, which are those requests that are placed in the agency's fastest (non-expedited) track, based on the low volume and/or simplicity of the records requested.
1. Does your agency utilize a separate track for simple requests?
Yes, the Board utilizes a separate track for simple requests.
2. If so, for your agency overall in Fiscal Year 2016, was the average number of days to process simple requests twenty working days or fewer?
Yes. In Fiscal Year 2016, the Board processed simple requests in an average of nine days.
3. Please provide the percentage of requests processed by your agency in Fiscal Year 2016 that were placed in your simple track.
Fifty-seven percent of requests processed by the Board in Fiscal Year 2016 were categorized as simple requests, and, as such, were processed in an average of nine days.
4. If your agency does not track simple requests separately, was the average number of days to process all non-expedited requests twenty working days or fewer?
N/A
B. Backlogs
Section XII.A of your agency's Annual FOIA Report, entitled "Backlogs of FOIA Requests and Administrative Appeals" shows the numbers of any backlogged requests or appeals from the fiscal year. You should refer to these numbers from your Annual FOIA Reports for both Fiscal Year 2015 and Fiscal Year 2016 when completing this section of your Chief FOIA Officer Report.
BACKLOGGED REQUESTS
5. If your agency had a backlog of requests at the close of Fiscal Year 2016, did that backlog decrease as compared with the backlog reported at the end of Fiscal Year 2015? If not, explain why and describe the causes that contributed to your agency not being able reduce its backlog.
No. The Board's backlog of requests did not decrease from Fiscal Year 2015 to Fiscal Year 2016; however, the percentage of the Board's requests that are backlogged is very low. In addition, 19 of the 69 requests that were backlogged at the end of Fiscal Year 2016 have been completed, leaving only 50 requests currently backlogged.
6. If not, explain why and describe the causes that contributed to your agency not being able to reduce its backlog. When doing so, please also indicate if any of the following were contributing factors:
The Board was not able to reduce its backlog of requests for several reasons. Primarily, requests received by the Board have continued to increase in complexity. As a result, a significant number of requests received in Fiscal Year 2016 required broad searches and extensive review. In addition, FOIA professionals focused considerable time and effort in Fiscal Year 2016 on successfully closing the ten oldest FOIA requests that were reported pending in the previous reporting period.
7. If you had a request backlog please report the percentage of requests that make up the backlog out of the total number of requests received by your agency in Fiscal Year 2016.
Six percent of requests received by the Board in Fiscal Year 2016 make up the backlog.
BACKLOGGED APPEALS
8. If your agency had a backlog of appeals at the close of Fiscal Year 2016, did that backlog decrease as compared with the backlog reported at the end of Fiscal Year 2015? If not, explain why and describe the causes that contributed to your agency not being able reduce backlog.
No. The Board's backlog of appeals did not decrease from Fiscal Year 2015 to Fiscal Year 2016.
9. If not, explain why and describe the causes that contributed to your agency not being able to reduce its backlog. When doing so, please also indicate if any of the following were contributing factors:
The Board had three backlogged appeals at the end of Fiscal Year 2016. One appeal remains pending, though we expect to close it in the near future.
10. If you had an appeal backlog please report the percentage of appeals that make up the backlog out of the total number of appeals received by your agency in Fiscal Year 2016. If your agency did not receive any appeals in Fiscal Year 2016 and/or has no appeal backlog, please answer with "N/A."
Twenty percent of appeals were backlogged at the end of Fiscal Year 2016.
C. Status of Ten Oldest Requests, Appeals, and Consultations
Section VII.E, entitled "Pending Requests – Ten Oldest Pending Requests," Section VI.C.(5), entitled "Ten Oldest Pending Administrative Appeals," and Section XII.C., entitled "Consultations on FOIA Requests – Ten Oldest Consultations Received from Other Agencies and Pending at Your Agency," show the ten oldest pending requests, appeals, and consultations. You should refer to these numbers from your Annual FOIA Reports for both Fiscal Year 2015 and Fiscal Year 2016 when completing this section of your Chief FOIA Officer Report.
TEN OLDEST REQUESTS
11. In Fiscal Year 2016, did your agency close the ten oldest requests that were reported pending in your Fiscal Year 2015 Annual FOIA Report?
Yes. In Fiscal Year 2016 the Board closed the ten oldest requests that were reported pending in its Fiscal Year 2015 Annual FOIA Report.
12. If no, please provide the number of these requests your agency was able to close by the end of the fiscal year, as listed in Section VII.E of your Fiscal Year 2015 Annual FOIA Report. If you had less than ten total oldest requests to close, please indicate that.
N/A
13. Of the requests your agency was able to close from your ten oldest, please indicate how many of these were closed because the request was withdrawn by the requester. If any were closed because the request was withdrawn, did you provide any interim responses prior to the withdrawal?
None of the ten oldest requests were closed because the request was withdrawn.
TEN OLDEST APPEALS
14. In Fiscal Year 2016, did your agency close the ten oldest appeals that were reported pending in your Fiscal Year 2015 Annual FOIA Report?
Yes. The Board closed the one appeal that was reported pending in its Fiscal Year 2015 Annual FOIA Report.
15. If no, please provide the number of these appeals your agency was able to close by the end of the fiscal year, as listed in Section VII.C.(5) of your Fiscal Year 2015 Annual FOIA Report. If you had less than ten total oldest appeals to close, please indicate that.
N/A
TEN OLDEST CONSULTATIONS
16. In Fiscal Year 2016, did your agency close the ten oldest consultations that were reported pending in your Fiscal Year 2015 Annual FOIA Report?
Yes. The Board closed the one consultation that was reported pending in its Fiscal Year 2015 Annual FOIA Report.
17. If no, please provide the number of these consultations your agency was able to close by the end of the fiscal year, as listed in Section XII.C. of your Fiscal Year 2015 Annual FOIA Report. If you had less than ten total oldest consultations to close, please indicate that.
N/A
E. Additional Information on Ten Oldest Requests, Appeals, and Consultations & Plans
18. Briefly explain any obstacles your agency faced in closing its ten oldest requests, appeals, and consultations from Fiscal Year 2015.
N/A
19. If your agency was unable to close any of its ten oldest requests because you were waiting to hear back from other agencies on consultations you sent, please provide the date the request was initially received by your agency, the date when your agency sent the consultation, and the date when you last contacted the agency where the consultation was pending.
N/A
20. If your agency did not close its ten oldest pending requests, appeals, or consultations, please provide a plan describing how your agency intends to close those "ten oldest" requests, appeals, and consultations during Fiscal Year 2017.
N/A
F. Success Stories
OPTIONAL: Out of all the activities undertaken by your agency since March 2016 to increase transparency and improve FOIA administration, please briefly describe here at least one success story that you would like to highlight as emblematic of your agency's efforts. The success story can come from any one of the five key areas. As noted above, these agency success stories will be highlighted during Sunshine Week by OIP. To facilitate this process, all agencies should use bullets to describe their success story and limit their text to half a page. The success story is designed to be a quick summary of key achievements. A complete description of all your efforts will be contained in the body of your Chief FOIA Officer Report.
- The Board live-streamed four FOMC press conferences, four open Board meetings, a conference on student loans, and a speech, with a question and answer session, with the Vice Chairman.
- The Board produced numerous highlight videos to accompany publications, including the Report on Consumers and Mobile Financial Services; the Report on Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households, and the Survey of Young Workers.
- Produced several FAQs videos, highlighting topics such as interest rates, inflation, and monetary and fiscal policy.
- Launched a Facebook page to provide the public with another easily accessible means of receiving information about the Board's functions and activities.
- Closed the ten oldest requests reported pending at the end of Fiscal Year 2015.