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2024 Chief FOIA Officer Report

Ann E. Misback, 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 I: FOIA Leadership and Applying the Presumption of Openness

The guiding principle underlying the Attorney General's 2022 FOIA Guidelines is the presumption of openness. The Guidelines also highlight the importance of agency leadership in ensuring effective FOIA administration.

Please answer the following questions about FOIA leadership at your agency and describe the steps your agency has taken to ensure that the presumption of openness is being applied to all decisions involving the FOIA.

A. Leadership Support for FOIA

1. The FOIA requires each agency to designate a Chief FOIA Officer who is a senior official at the Assistant Secretary or equivalent level. See 5 U.S.C. § 552(j)(1) (2018). Is your agency's Chief FOIA Officer at or above this level?

Yes

2. Please provide the name and title of your agency's Chief FOIA Officer.

Ann E. Misback, Secretary of the Board

3. What steps has your agency taken to incorporate FOIA into its core mission? For example, has your agency incorporated FOIA milestones into its strategic plan?

The Board's Strategic Plan 2020-23 reflects the Board's commitment to promoting broader, ongoing engagement with external individuals and groups and improved understanding of the Board's mission through outreach and public engagement. The plan notes that expanded communication and outreach efforts to increase transparency and understanding of the Board's mission and activities advance the public's understanding of the Board's policy rationales and decision-making processes. In addition, the Board's Annual Performance Plan 2023 notes that the Board's commitment to increase transparency and understanding its mission and activities with the public is achieved, inter alia, through compliance with FOIA and effective records management practices.

B. Presumption of Openness

4. The Attorney General's 2022 FOIA Guidelines provides that "agencies should confirm in response letters to FOIA requesters that they have considered the foreseeable harm standard when reviewing records and applying FOIA exemptions." Does your agency provide such confirmation in its response letters?

Yes, the Board confirms in response letters to FOIA requesters that the foreseeable harm standard was considered when reviewing records and applying FOIA exemptions.

5. In some circumstances, agencies may respond to a requester that it can neither confirm nor deny the existence of requested records if acknowledging the existence of records would harm an interest protected by a FOIA exemption. This is commonly referred to as a Glomar response. If your agency tracks Glomar responses, please provide:

  • the number of times your agency issued a full or partial Glomar response (separate full and partial if possible);
  • the number of times a Glomar response was issued by exemption (e.g., Exemption 7(C) - 20 times, Exemption 1 – 5 times).

N/A

6. If your agency does not track the use of Glomar responses, are you planning to track this information in the future?

The Board is not planning to track the use of Glomar responses in the future. The Board's commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) FOIA case management system does not have the ability to search specifically for Glomar responses because that metric is not captured when closing a request. In order to track Glomar responses in the future, the system's vendor would have to add that metric to a new version of the software that could be installed into the Board's case management system, or the Board would have to develop a manual tracking process for this information.

7. Optional -- 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 devotes significant resources to promoting openness and transparency by providing the public with important information that is easily accessible and accommodates different user preferences. The Board has taken initiatives to further the presumption of openness, such as publishing its public data inventory, updating its FAQs webpages, and engaging the public on social media platforms. See responses to questions in Section III of this report for more specific examples.

Section II: Ensuring Fair and Effective FOIA Administration

The Attorney General's 2022 FOIA Guidelines provide that "[e]nsuring fair and effective FOIA administration requires . . . proper training, and a full understanding of FOIA obligations by the entire agency workforce." The Guidelines reinforce longstanding guidance to "work with FOIA requesters in a spirit of cooperation." The Attorney General also "urge[s] agency Chief FOIA Officers to undertake comprehensive review of all aspects of their agency's FOIA administration" as part of ensuring fair and effective FOIA administration.

A. FOIA Training

1. The FOIA directs agency Chief FOIA Officers to ensure that FOIA training is offered to agency personnel. See 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(j)(2)(F). Please describe the efforts your agency has undertaken to ensure proper FOIA training is made available and used by agency personnel.

The Board incorporated the Office of Information Policy's (OIP) FOIA training modules into the Board's internal training application, which is accessible by all Board staff. Employees with responsibility for administering the FOIA are required to take substantive FOIA training and demonstrate appropriate subject matter expertise as part of their employee performance standards.

2. Did your FOIA professionals or the personnel at your agency who have FOIA responsibilities attend substantive FOIA training during the reporting period such as that provided by the Department of Justice?

Yes

3. If yes, please provide a brief description of the type of training attended or conducted and the topics covered.

Board FOIA professionals attended virtual trainings provided by OIP on the following topics:

  • Introduction to FOIA – covered the process of a FOIA request from receipt by the agency to final response to the requester and an overview of the FOIA's exemptions;
  • Administrative Appeals, FOIA Compliance, and Customer Service – discussed the FOIA administrative appeal process, an overview of how agency FOIA professionals can help their agency accurately report about their FOIA administration, and an overview of the Office of Government Information Services with a focus on providing good customer service;
  • Continuing FOIA Education – provided an update of current legal and policy developments impacting FOIA administration and an overview of recent FOIA court decisions;
  • Exemption 4 and Exemption 5 Training – provided an overview of the requirements of Exemption 4 protecting trade secrets, certain commercial and financial information, and the submitter-notice process for exemption determinations and an overview of Exemption 5, which incorporates civil discovery privileges;
  • Advanced FOIA Training – discussed topics in FOIA administration including personal privacy exemptions, various FOIA procedural requirements, and FOIA's requirements to make information available proactively to the public;
  • Exemption 1 and Exemption 7 Training – gave an overview of Executive Order 13526 and the withholding of classified national security information and an overview of the primary exemption for withholding law enforcement records, including this exemption's threshold requirement and substantive subparts;
  • Litigation Workshop – covered guidance on successful litigation strategy and preparation of Vaughn indices and declarations; and
  • Privacy Considerations Training – discussed the interface between the FOIA and the Privacy Act and an overview of Exemptions 6 and 7(C).

Board FOIA professionals also attended the following trainings provided by the American Society of Access Professionals:

  • 16th Annual National Training Conference – provided information and guidance on numerous FOIA topics, including commonly used FOIA exemptions, the Privacy Act and related privacy issues, records management and searches, and hot topic panel discussions;
  • Exemption 5 Training – provided a basic understanding of Exemption 5, including the deliberative process, attorney work-product, and attorney-client privileges, as well as the applicability of the discretionary release and the foreseeable harm standard; and
  • FOIA Procedural Overview – discussed the key FOIA procedural elements of the statute and a summary of its exemptions.

4. Please provide an estimate of the percentage of your FOIA professionals and staff with FOIA responsibilities who attended substantive FOIA training during this reporting period.

All (100%) of the Board's FOIA professionals with responsibility for administering the Board's FOIA program attended substantive FOIA training during this reporting period.

5. 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


6. Describe any efforts your agency has undertaken to inform non-FOIA professionals of their obligations under the FOIA. In particular, please describe how often and in what formats your agency provides FOIA training or briefings to non-FOIA staff; and if senior leaders at your agency received a briefing on your agency's FOIA resources, obligation and expectations during the FOIA process.

All Board staff can access OIP's FOIA training modules, which are incorporated into the Board's internal training application. In addition, the Board's Chief FOIA Officer and FOIA Public Liaison have briefed senior leaders about the Board's FOIA staffing resources and routinely assist Board staff in understanding their responsibilities under the FOIA as well as exemption application and the foreseeable harm standard.

B. Outreach

7. As part of the standard request process, do your FOIA professionals proactively contact requesters concerning complex or voluminous requests in an effort to clarify or narrow the scope of the request so requesters can receive responses more quickly? Please describe any such outreach or dialogue, and, if applicable, any specific examples.

Yes, the Board's FOIA professionals proactively contact requesters concerning complex or voluminous requests in an effort to clarify or narrow the scope. For example, the Board regularly receives requests for various types of banking application records which are often complex or voluminous. The Board's FOIA professionals proactively contact requesters of banking applications about modifying the scope of their request to accept the public version of the application or previously released application records. Requesters who modify the scope of those requests receive responses more quickly.

8. Outside of the standard request process or routine FOIA Liaison or FOIA Requester Service Center interactions, did your FOIA professionals engage in any outreach or dialogue, with the requester community or open government groups regarding your administration of the FOIA? For example, did you proactively contact frequent requesters, host FOIA-related conference calls with open government groups, or provide FOIA training to members of the public? Please describe any such outreach or dialogue, and, if applicable, any specific examples of how this dialogue has led to improvements in your agency's FOIA administration.

No, the Board's FOIA professionals did not engage in any outreach or dialogue outside of the standard request process with the requester community; however, the Board's FOIA professionals regularly dialogue with the requester community to explain the Board's FOIA processes. The dialogue that the Board's FOIA professionals have with the requester community assists requesters with submitting more targeted requests that can be processed faster which improves the Board's overall FOIA administration.

9. 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 the number of times requesters sought assistance from your agency's FOIA Public Liaison during FY 2023 (please provide a total number or an estimate of the number for the agency overall).

FOIA requesters sought assistance from the Board's FOIA Public Liaison approximately thirty times during FY 2023.

C. Other Initiatives

10. Has your agency evaluated the allocation of agency personnel resources needed to respond to current and anticipated FOIA demands? If so, please describe what changes your agency has or will implement.

Yes, the Board evaluated the allocation of agency personnel resources needed to respond to current and anticipated FOIA demands. The Board hired an additional FOIA professional to address the increased FOIA demands.

11. How does your agency use data or processing metrics to ensure efficient management of your FOIA workload? For example, case management reports, staff processing statistics, etc. In addition, please specifically highlight any data analysis methods or technologies used.

The Board uses case management reports and staff processing statistics to ensure efficient management of FOIA workload. The Board's Information Disclosure Section manager uses monthly FOIA backlog reports and weekly staff processing reports/statistics to assign or reassign cases among the FOIA professionals as necessary.

12. Optional -- If there are any other initiatives undertaken by your agency to ensure fair and effective FOIA administration, please describe them here.

The Board's Chief FOIA Officer and the Board's FOIA Public Liaison regularly review the status of pending FOIA requests to mitigate processing delays and to strategize ways to close backlogged FOIA requests. The Chief FOIA Officer and the FOIA Public Liaison also communicate with Board staff in other divisions, when necessary, to facilitate closing requests.

Section III: Proactive Disclosures

The Attorney General's 2022 FOIA Guidelines emphasize that "proactive disclosure of information is … fundamental to the faithful application of the FOIA." The Guidelines direct agencies to post "records online quickly and systematically in advance of any public request" and reiterate that agencies should post records "in the most useful, searchable, and open formats possible."

1. Please describe what steps your agency takes to identify, track, and post (a)(2) proactive disclosures.

The Board's FOIA Public Liaison collaborates with staff from other Board divisions to identify and proactively post records of public importance in the Board's electronic FOIA reading room. In addition, the Board's FOIA professionals regularly review the Board's case management system to identify previously released records that can be posted when processing requests. The Board's Information Disclosure Section manager also dedicated one FOIA professional who periodically reviews the Board's FOIA logs to identify, track, and post records for proactive disclosure.

2. How long after identifying a record for proactive disclosure does it take your agency to post it?

The Board takes approximately two months to post a record after identifying it for proactive disclosure.

3. Does your agency post logs of its FOIA requests?

No, the Board does not post logs of its FOIA requests.

  • If so, what information is contained in the logs?
  • Are they posted in CSV format? If not, what format are they posted in?

N/A

4. Provide examples of material that your agency has proactively disclosed during the past reporting year, including records that have been requested and released three or more times in accordance with 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(2)(D). Please include links to these materials as well.

As previously stated in Section I, the Board is committed to increasing openness and transparency by posting information of public interest in a variety of searchable and open formats to accommodate a broad range of user preferences. The items described below are examples of information that has been proactively disclosed on the Board's public website.

  • The Board published additional research on a wide range of economic topics through FEDS Working Papers, IFDP Working Papers, and FEDS Notes.
  • To promote engagement with members of the public, the Board:
    • Responded to 18,985 emails received through the public website;
    • Issued approximately 145 press releases and published approximately 74 speeches; and
    • Engaged with the public on social media platforms from October 1, 2022, through September 30, 2023, such as
      • Facebook posts reached 490,231 Facebook users;
      • Twitter account had 53 million impressions;
      • LinkedIn account had 2.7 million impressions;
      • YouTube account had 2,293,458 views; and
      • FedResearch Twitter account had 1,055,250 impressions.

5. 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, the Board is taking steps to make the posted information more useful to the public.

6. If yes, please provide examples of such improvements. In particular, please describe steps your agency is taking to post information in open, machine-readable, and machine-actionable formats, to the extent feasible. If not posting in open formats, please explain why and note any challenges.

Board staff and contractors post information in open, machine-readable, and machine-actionable formats when feasible. The items below are examples of such information.

  • The Board published its inaugural public data inventory as part of the federal data catalogue on Data.gov to make government data available to the public to the greatest extent possible. The Board's inaugural data assets can be found on Data.gov at Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System - Organizations - Catalog. This initial public data inventory is focused on structured data assets that are in open file format and currently available to the public on the Board's website along with information collections subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act that are part of the Interagency Data Inventory.
  • The Board published the Master Account and Services Database which provides comprehensive, searchable information on which financial institutions have or have requested access to Federal Reserve Bank financial services. The database includes an FAQs page and has two components:
    • The Existing Access database consists of financial institutions that have access to Reserve Bank financial services; and
    • The Access Requests database consists of financial institutions that have requested access to Reserve Bank financial services after December 23, 2022, along with the status of these requests.
  • The Board updated statistical release reports, such as:
    • H.2, which provides information on actions of the Board, its staff, and the Federal Reserve Banks;
    • H.4.1, which provides information on factors affecting reserve balances;
    • H.6, which provides information about money stock measures;
    • H.8, which provides information about assets and liabilities of commercial banks in the United States;
    • H.10, which provides information about foreign exchange rates; and
    • H.15, which provides information about selected interest rates.

7. Does your proactive disclosure process or system involve any collaboration with agency staff outside the FOIA office, such as IT or data personnel? If so, describe this interaction.

The Board's FOIA Public Liaison collaborates with Board staff in other divisions, such as Legal, to identify information of broad public interest that should be proactively disclosed. In addition, the Board's FOIA Public Liaison collaborates with Board IT staff to post the information on the Board's public website.

8. Optional -- Please describe the best practices used to improve proactive disclosures and any challenges your agency faces in this area.

As noted in response to Question 1 in Section III, the Board's Information Disclosure Section dedicated one FOIA professional to identify, track, and post records for proactive disclosure. In addition, the Board's FOIA professionals seek to identify previously released records that can be posted on the public website when processing requests. The Board has not faced challenges in this area. As evident from the examples above, the Board has dedicated substantial resources to identifying and proactively posting a broad spectrum of information concerning Board actions, policies, and decisions.

Section IV: Steps Taken to Greater Utilize Technology

A key component of FOIA administration is using technology to make information available to the public and to gain efficiency in FOIA processing. The Attorney General's 2022 FOIA Guidelines emphasize the importance of making FOIA websites easily navigable and complying with the FOIA.gov interoperability requirements. Please answer the following questions to describe how your agency is using technology to improve its FOIA administration and the public's access to information.

1. Has your agency reviewed its FOIA-related technological capabilities to identify resources needed to respond to current and anticipated FOIA demands?

Yes, the Board reviewed its FOIA-related technology capabilities to identify resources needed to respond to current and anticipated FOIA demands.

2. Please briefly describe any new types of technology your agency uses to support your FOIA program.

The Board's COTS software, which is fully interoperable with FOIA.gov, streamlines and automates the end-to-end processing of FOIA requests to increase efficiency in FOIA processing. The Board installed system updates to the software during the reporting period to improve the system's functionality.

3. Does your agency currently use any technology to automate record processing? For example, does your agency use machine learning, predictive coding, technology assisted review or similar tools to conduct searches or make redactions? If so, please describe and, if possible, estimate how much time and financial resources are saved since implementing the technology.

The Board uses COTS software to automate record processing. The software allows Board staff to simultaneously redact the same information and multiple pages. The Board also uses COTS software to conduct email searches and de-dupe records. The use of automated technology may have reduced the Board's processing time by approximately one-third depending upon the volume and nature of the records.

4. OIP issued guidance in 2017 encouraging agencies to regularly review their FOIA websites to ensure that they contain essential resources and are informative and user-friendly. Has your agency reviewed its FOIA website(s) during the reporting period to ensure it addresses the elements noted in the guidance?

Yes, the Board's FOIA Public Liaison reviewed the Board's FOIA website during the reporting period to ensure it addresses the elements noted in the guidance.

5. Did all four of your agency's quarterly reports for Fiscal Year 2023 appear on FOIA.gov?

Yes, all four of the Board's quarterly reports for Fiscal Year 2023 appear on FOIA.gov.

6. If your agency did not successfully post all quarterly reports on FOIA.gov, please explain why and provide your agency's plan for ensuring that such reporting is successful in Fiscal Year 2024.

N/A

7. The FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 requires all agencies to post the raw statistical data used to compile their Annual FOIA Reports. Please provide the link to this posting for your agency's Fiscal Year 2022 Annual FOIA Report and, if available, for your agency's Fiscal Year 2023 Annual FOIA Report.

2022 Report: https://www.federalreserve.gov/foia/annrept_2022.htm

2022 Raw Data: https://www.federalreserve.gov/foia/annualreports.htm

8. In February 2019, DOJ and OMB issued joint Guidance establishing interoperability standards to receive requests from the National FOIA Portal on FOIA.gov. Are all components of your agency in compliance with the guidance?

Yes, the Board is in compliance with the guidance establishing interoperability to receive requests from the National FOIA Portal on FOIA.gov.

9. Optional -- Please describe the best practices used in greater utilizing technology and any challenges your agency faces in this area.

The Board uses robust electronic recordkeeping software to assist with maintaining and archiving records needed to process FOIA requests. The Board's electronic recordkeeping system, known as FIRMA, currently maintains almost 7 million documents and increases in volume by about 750,000 documents each year.

Section V: Steps Taken to Remove Barriers to Access, Improve Timeliness in Responding to Requests, and Reduce Backlogs

The Attorney General's 2022 FOIA Guidelines instruct agencies "to remove barriers to requesting and accessing government records and to reduce FOIA processing backlogs." Please answer the following questions to describe how your agency is removing barriers to access, improving timeliness in responding to requests, and reducing FOIA backlogs.

A. Remove Barriers to Access

1. Has your agency established alternative means of access to first-party requested records, outside of the typical FOIA or Privacy Act process?

Yes, the Board has established alternative means of access to first-party requested records outside of the FOIA process.

2. If yes, please provide examples. If no, please indicate why not. Please also indicate if you do not know.

First-party requesters can submit requests to the Board by using the online portal or by mailing requests to the Board's address.

3. Please describe any other steps your agency has taken to remove barriers to accessing government information.

The Board accepts remote identity-proofing and authentication to removes barriers to accessing information in response to first-party requests. Remote identity-proofing and authentication expedites the identity requirement for disclosure of first-party records.

B. Timeliness

4. For Fiscal Year 2023, 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 2023 Annual FOIA Report.

The Board adjudicated requests for expedited processing in an average of seven days.

5. If your agency's average number of days to adjudicate requests for expedited processing was above ten calendar days, according to Section VIII.A. of your agency's Fiscal Year 2023 Annual FOIA Report, 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

6. Does your agency utilize a separate track for simple requests?

Yes, the Board uses simple, complex, and expedited tracks to process requests.

7. If your agency uses a separate track for simple requests, according to Annual FOIA Report Section VII.A., was the agency overall average number of days to process simple requests twenty working days or fewer in Fiscal Year 2023?

Yes, the average number of days to process a simple request was six.

8. If not, did the simple track average processing time decrease compared to the previous Fiscal Year?

N/A

9. Please provide the percentage of requests processed by your agency in Fiscal Year 2023 that were placed in your simple track. Please use the following calculation based on the data from your Annual FOIA Report: (processed simple requests from Section VII.C.1.) divided by (requests processed from Section V.A.) x 100.

Eighteen percent of FOIA requests processed by the Board were placed in the simple track.

10. 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

C. Backlogs

BACKLOGGED REQUESTS

11. If your agency had a backlog of requests at the close of Fiscal Year 2023, according to Annual FOIA Report Section XII.D.2, did that backlog decrease as compared with the backlog reported at the end of Fiscal Year 2022?

No, the backlog of requests at the close of Fiscal Year 2023 increased compared with the backlog reported at the end of Fiscal Year 2022.

12. If not, according to Annual FOIA Report Section XII.D.1, did your agency process more requests during Fiscal Year 2023 than it did during Fiscal Year 2022?

The Board processed more requests during Fiscal Year 2023 than it did during Fiscal Year 2022.

13. If your agency's request backlog increased during Fiscal Year 2023, please 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:

  • An increase in the number of incoming requests
  • A loss of staff
  • An increase in the complexity of the requests received (if possible, please provide examples or briefly describe the types of complex requests contributing to your backlog increase)
  • Litigation
  • Any other reasons – please briefly describe or provide examples when possible

The Board had a thirteen percent increase in the number of incoming requests in Fiscal Year 2023 compared to Fiscal Year 2022. The Board also experienced a fifty percent reduction in staff with FOIA responsibilities for approximately half of the fiscal year. In addition, approximately ten percent of the incoming requests involved complex and highly sensitive information from news media requesters pertaining to the bank system issues concerning Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Silvergate Bank. Lastly, the Board also experienced a significant increase in FOIA litigation.

14. 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 2023. Please use the following calculation based on the data from your Annual FOIA Report: (backlogged requests from Section XII.A.) divided by (requests received from Section V.A.) x 100. This number can be greater than 100%. If your agency has no request backlog, please answer with "N/A."

The percentage of requests that make up the backlog out of the total number of requests received is 4.87%.

BACKLOGGED APPEALS

15. If your agency had a backlog of appeals at the close of Fiscal Year 2023, according to Section XII.E.2 of the Annual FOIA Report, did that backlog decrease as compared with the backlog reported at the end of Fiscal Year 2022?

No, the backlog of appeals at the close of Fiscal Year 2023 remained the same compared with the backlog reported at the end of Fiscal Year 2022.

16. If not, according to Section XII.E.1 of the Annual FOIA Report, did your agency process more appeals during Fiscal Year 2023 than it did during Fiscal Year 2022?

No, the Board processed less appeals in Fiscal Year 2023 than it did during Fiscal Year 2022.

17. If your agency's appeal backlog increased during Fiscal Year 2023, please 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:

  • An increase in the number of incoming appeals
  • A loss of staff
  • An increase in the complexity of the requests received (if possible, please provide examples or briefly describe the types of complex requests contributing to your backlog increase)
  • Litigation
  • Any other reasons – please briefly describe or provide examples when possible

N/A

18. 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 2023. Please use the following calculation based on the data from your Annual FOIA Report: (backlogged appeals from Section XII.A.) divided by (appeals received from Section VI.A.) x 100. This number can be greater than 100%. If your agency did not receive any appeals in Fiscal Year 2023 and/or has no appeal backlog, please answer with "N/A."

The percentage of appeals that make up the backlog out of the total number of appeals received is eight percent.

D. Backlog Reduction Plans

19. In the 2023 guidelines for Chief FOIA Officer Reports, any agency with a backlog of over 1000 requests in Fiscal Year 2022 was asked to provide a plan for achieving backlog reduction in the year ahead. Did your agency implement a backlog reduction plan last year? If so, describe your agency's efforts in implementing this plan and note if your agency was able to achieve backlog reduction in Fiscal Year 2023?

N/A

20. If your agency had a backlog of more than 1,000 requests in Fiscal Year 2023, please explain your agency's plan to reduce this backlog during Fiscal Year 2024.

N/A

E. Reducing the Age Requests, Appeals, and Consultations

TEN OLDEST REQUESTS

21. In Fiscal Year 2023, did your agency close the ten oldest pending perfected requests that were reported in Section VII.E. of your Fiscal Year 2022 Annual FOIA Report?

No, the Board did not close the ten oldest pending perfected requests that were reported in the Board's Fiscal Year 2022 Annual FOIA Report.

22. 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 2022 Annual FOIA Report. If you had less than ten total oldest requests to close, please indicate that.

The Board closed eight of the ten oldest requests that were reported in the Board's Fiscal Year 2022 Annual FOIA Report. After the close of Fiscal Year 2023, the Board closed the two remaining ten oldest requests that were reported in the Board's Fiscal Year 2022 Annual FOIA Report.

23. Beyond work on the ten oldest requests, please describe any steps your agency took to reduce the overall age of your pending requests.

To reduce the overall age of pending requests, the Board assigned new requests to FOIA professionals who had prior experience processing similar types of requests and contacted requesters to reduce the scope of requests by accepting similar previously released records or publicly available records.

TEN OLDEST APPEALS

24. In Fiscal Year 2023, did your agency close the ten oldest appeals that were reported pending in Section VI.C.5 of your Fiscal Year 2022 Annual FOIA Report?

Yes, the Board closed the ten oldest appeals that were reported pending in the Board's Fiscal Year 2022 Annual FOIA Report.

25. 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 2022 Annual FOIA Report. If you had less than ten total oldest appeals to close, please indicate that.

The Board had less than ten total oldest appeals to close by the end of the fiscal year.

26. Beyond work on the ten oldest appeals, please describe any steps your agency took to reduce the overall age of your pending appeals.

The Board reconsidered adverse determinations, where applicable, to reduce the overall age of pending appeals.

TEN OLDEST CONSULTATIONS

27. In Fiscal Year 2023, did your agency close the ten oldest consultations that were reported pending in Section XII.C. of your Fiscal Year 2022 Annual FOIA Report?

Yes, the Board closed the ten oldest consultations that were reported pending in the Board's Fiscal Year 2022 Annual FOIA Report.

28. 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 2022 Annual FOIA Report. If you had less than ten total oldest consultations to close, please indicate that.

The Board had less than ten total oldest consultations to close by the end of the fiscal year.

Additional Information Regarding Ten Oldest

29. If your agency did not close its ten oldest pending requests, appeals, or consultations, please explain why and provide a plan describing how your agency intends to close those "ten oldest" requests, appeals, and consultations during Fiscal Year 2024.

As noted above, the Board closed the two "ten oldest" pending requests in Fiscal Year 2024.

F. Additional Information about FOIA Processing

30. Were any requests at your agency the subject of FOIA litigation during the reporting period? If so, please describe the impact on your agency's overall FOIA request processing and backlog. If possible, please indicate:

  • The number and nature of requests subject to litigation
  • Common causes leading to litigation
  • Any other information to illustrate the impact of litigation on your overall FOIA administration

The Board had eighteen requests from four requesters that were the subject of FOIA litigation during the reporting period. Six of the eighteen requests concerned the bank system stresses involving Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Five of the eighteen requests concerned ethics matters involving Federal Reserve System leadership. The seven remaining litigations concerned various subjects, such as OIG reports and audits, Board member emails, proposed FOIA legislation regarding the Reserve Banks, systemic racism, selecting Reserve Bank presidents, credit bubbles, and quantitative easing. Most of the litigations resulted from the Board's untimely responses to the initial requests. Four of the eighteen litigations closed during the reporting period because the Board was granted summary judgment for two cases and one plaintiff voluntarily dismissed two cases. Despite having eighteen litigations, the Board processed twelve percent more requests in Fiscal Year 2023 compared to Fiscal Year 2022.

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Last Update: February 09, 2024