October 1, 2005 to September 30, 2006
I. Basic Information
A. Name, title, address, and telephone number of person(s) to be contacted with questions about the report:
Joseph A. Sorbera, FOIA Public Liaison
Export-Import Bank of the United States
811 Vermont Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20571
(202) 565-3241
Dawn R. Kral, FOIA Specialist
Export-Import Bank of the United States
811 Vermont Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20571
(202) 565-3248
B. Electronic address for report on the World Wide Web:www.exim.gov/about/library/foia/index.cfm
C. To receive a hard copy of this report, mail a request to Joseph A. Sorbera
(see section I. A. of this report, Contacts)
II.How to Make a FOIA Request (See Attachment, Sec. 404.4, or www.exim.gov/about/library/foia/foia-request-requirements.cfm )
A. Names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all individual agency components and
offices that receive FOIA requests
Export-Import Bank of the United States
Freedom of Information Act Office
811 Vermont Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20571
(202) 565-3241
B. Brief description of the agency's response-time ranges (see Attachment, Sec.404.5, or thewww.exim.gov/about/library/foia/fedreg.pdf)
C. Brief description of why some requests are not granted.
Ex-Im Bank most commonly withholds documents pursuant to FOIA Exemptions (b)(4) and (b)(5).
III. Definitions of Terms and Acronyms Used in the Report
A. Agency-specific acronyms or other terms N/A
B. Basic terms, expressed in common terminology (see Attachment, Sec.404.2, orwww.exim.gov/about/library/foia/fedreg.pdf)
IV. Exemption 3 Statutes
A. List of Exemption 3 statutes relied on by agency during current fiscal year.
1. Brief description of type(s) of information withheld under each statute.
N/A
2. Statement of whether a court has upheld the use of each statute. If so, then cite
example.
N/A
V. Initial FOIA/PA Access Requests
A. Number of Initial requests
1. Number of requests pending as of end of preceding fiscal year 18
** In prior year report, 19 pending requests were reported at year end, however one request was inadvertently counted twice.The item count has been corrected in this years report. 2
2. Number of requests received during current fiscal year 12
3. Number of requests processed during current fiscal year 128
4. Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year 12
B. Disposition of initial requests
1. Number of total grants 64
2. Number of partial grants 34
3. Number of denials 7
a. number of times each FOIA exemption used
(1) Exemption 1 1
(2) Exemption 2 3
(3) Exemption 3 0
(4) Exemption 4 35
(5) Exemption 5 15
(6) Exemption 6 7
(7) Exemption 7(A) 0
(8) Exemption 7(B) 0
(9) Exemption 7(C) 0
(10) Exemption 7(D) 0
(11) Exemption 7(E) 0
(12) Exemption 7(F) 0
(13) Exemption 8 0
(14) Exemption 9 0
4. Other reasons for nondisclosure (total) 23
a. no records 11
b. referrals 0
c. request withdrawn 12
d. fee-related reason 0
e. records not reasonably described 0
f. not a proper FOIA request forsome other reason 0
g. not an agency record 0
h. duplicate request 0
i. other 0
VI. Appeals of Initial Denials of FOIA/PA Requests
A. Number of Appeals
1. Number of appeals received during fiscal year 2
2. Number of appeals processed during fiscal year 2
B. Disposition of appeals
1. Number completely upheld 2
2. Number partially reversed 0
3. Number completely reversed 0
a. number of times each FOIA exemption used
(1) Exemption 1 1
(2) Exemption 2 0
(3) Exemption 3 0
(4) Exemption 4 1
(5) Exemption 5 1
(6) Exemption 6 0
(7) Exemption 7(A) 0
(8) Exemption 7(B) 0
(9) Exemption 7(C) 0
(10) Exemption 7(D) 0
(11) Exemption 7(E) 0
(12) Exemption 7(F) 0
(13) Exemption 8 0
(14) Exemption 9 0
4. Other reasons for nondisclosure (total) 0
a. no records 0
b. referrals 0
c. request withdrawn 0
d. fee-related reason 0
e. records not reasonably described 0
f. not a proper FOIA request for some other reason 0
g. not an agency record 0
h. duplicate request 0
i. other 0
VII. Compliance with Time Limits/Status of Pending Requests
A. Median processing time for requests processed during the year
1. Simple requests
a. number of requests processed 59
b. median number of days to process 15
2. Complex requests
a. number of requests processed 67
b. median number of days to process 57
3. Expedited Requests
a. number of requests processed 2
b. median number of days to process 12
B. Status of pending requests
1. Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year 12
2. Median number of days that such requests were pending as of that date 47
VIII. Comparisons with Previous Years (optional)
- Ex-Im Bank received two requests for expedited processing, and processed two requests for expedited processing.
IX. Costs/FOIA Staffing
A. Staffing levels
1. Number of full-time FOIA personnel 1
2. Number of personnel with part-time or occasional FOIA duties (in total work- years) 2
3. Total number of personnel (in work-years) 3
B. Total costs (including staff and all resources)
1. FOIA processing (including appeals) $340,000
2. Litigation-related activities (estimated) -0-
3. Total costs $340,000
4. Comparison with previous year(s)(including percentage of change)(optional) N/A
C.Statement of additional resources needed for FOIA compliance (optional)
N/A
X. Fees
A. Total amount of fees collected by agency for processing requests $1,920.00
B. Percentage of total costs .6%
XI.FOIA Regulations (Including Fee Schedule)
These can be found in www.exim.gov/about/library/foia/fedreg.pdf.
XII. Report on FOIA Executive Order Implementation
The following describes the status of the implementation of Export-Import Bank’s FOIA improvement plan.
A.Description of supplementation/modification of agency improvement plan (if applicable).
Not applicable.
B.Report on agency implementation of its plan, including its performance in meeting milestones, with respect to each improvement area.
Ex-Im Bank implemented two goals to improve customer service while two goals to improve information on the Bank’s web site have not yet been implemented.
In the area of customer service, the initial acknowledgment letter sent to the requester was improved to include additional agency contact information such as contact names, phone numbers and email addresses.This improvement was implemented on time in June 2006.
Another customer service improvement that was implemented in January 2007 was to provide a link on Ex-Im’s web site to a FOIA request template which can be filled in on-line by a requester and automatically submitted to a FOIA mailbox for processing.The template will help to ensure that the request is proper and complete and should reduce the need to go back to the requester for clarification or agreement to pay fees, further improving processing time.The implementation of this improvement was delayed from September 30, 2006. The delay was due to the Bank changing web support contractors at the end of the fiscal year, with further delays caused by a turnover in the personnel provided by the contractor.
- Identification and discussion of any deficiency in meeting plan milestones (if applicable).
In the area of improving the Bank’s web site, the goal was to include additional frequently requested information on the FOIA web page or to the extent that the information already existed at other locations on Ex-Im Bank’s web site, include links to this information on the FOIA web page.In conjunction with this effort, an electronic “reading room” was to be established which would more formally organize information of interest to FOIA requesters.This project was targeted for completion by December 31, 2006; the target date has been revised to June 30, 2007.Delays have been due to a shortage of personnel resources available to be devoted to this project.
D. Additional narrative statement regarding other Executive Order-related activities (optional).
None.
E. Concise descriptions of FOIA exemptions
The FOIA exemptions authorize federal agencies to withhold information covering: (1) classified national defense and foreign relations information; (2) internal agency rules and practices; (3) information that is prohibited from disclosure by another federal law; (4) trade secrets and other confidential business information; (5) inter-agency or intra-agency communications that are protected by legal privileges; (6) information involving matters of personal privacy; (7) records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, to the extent that the production of those records (A) could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings, (B) would deprive a person of a right to a fair trial or an impartial adjudication, (C) could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, (D) could reasonably be expected to disclose the identity of a confidential source, (E) would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions, or would disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions, or (F) could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual; (8) information relating to the supervision of financial institutions; and (9) geological information on wells.
F. Additional statistics:
1. Time range of requests pending, by date of request (or, where applicable, by date of referral from another agency)
As of January 31, 2007, the time range of pending requests was April 10, 2006 to January 30, 2007.
2. Time range of consultations pending with other agencies, by date of initial interagency communication.
None.
G. Attachment: Agency improvement plan (in current form).Ex-ImBankFOIA-ExecutiveOrder13392-June142006.pdf