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                              2024 Chief FOIA Officer Report - Section 1
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2024 Chief FOIA Officer Report - Section 1








  
  
    

  
      





**The guiding principle underlying****the  Attorney General’s 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.  FOIA Leadership

**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 this level?**

Yes.

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

Jeffrey A. Nesbit
Agency Chief FOIA Officer
Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

**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 Department underscored its  commitment to FOIA by filling a Senior Executive Service position with the sole  function of serving as Deputy Agency Chief FOIA Officer during 2023, as HHS is committed  to transparency and the fair and effective administration of FOIA. It  incorporated FOIA into its strategic  activities through continued investments in staffing, contract support,  training, and technology resources, and close monitoring of FOIA process  data.  HHS has invested significant  resources and prioritized efforts to reduce the Department’s FOIA backlog, to  address the continued increase in FOIA litigation, to improve customer service  for our requesters, and to standardize FOIA practices and procedures throughout  the Department.

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?**

All HHS FOIA Offices have updated their response letters to  indicate that they have considered the foreseeable harm standard 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).**For  the relevant reporting period, HHS FOIA Offices issued the following *Glomar*responses:

CMS issued two *Glomar*responses.  For these responses, Exemption  7(C) was cited twice.
  FDA issued eighteen *Glomar*responses.  The following exemptions  were cited for these responses:
  Exemption 3 - 7 times; Exemption 4 -15 times; Exemption 5– 1  time;
Exemption 6 – 1 time; and Exemption 7(A) – 2 times.HRSA issued one *Glomar*response.  For this response,  Exemptions 3 and 6 were cited.
  OS issued two *Glomar*responses.  For these responses, Exemptions 6 and 7(C)  were cited twice.The remaining HHS FOIA Offices either did not report issuing *Glomar*responses or do not track this information. It should be noted that several HHS  FOIA Offices rarely issue *Glomar*responses because of the limited number  of requests that they receive for investigatory records.

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

Currently, six out of eleven HHS FOIA Offices (ACF, ACL, CDC,  IHS, and OIG) lack the capability to track *Glomar*responses.  To address this, those FOIA Offices would need to work  with their tracking system providers to determine whether they can enhance  their tracking systems by adding a *Glomar*-related field.  When considering this option, HHS FOIA  Offices would need to weigh the benefits associated with tracking this  information against any potential costs incurred from updating their tracking  system.  HHS FOIA Offices may also  consider how often they receive requests for investigatory records and issue *Glomar*responses.

**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.**

HHS FOIA Offices apply the foreseeable  harm standard and only withhold exempt portions of records when they reasonably  foresee that disclosure would harm an interest protected by an exemption or if  disclosure is prohibited by law.  When  there is doubt, HHS FOIA Offices err on the side of openness, and where  appropriate, make discretionary disclosures.   Furthermore, when the full disclosure of a record is not possible, HHS  FOIA Offices consider whether partial release is possible and take reasonable  steps to segregate and release nonexempt information.

HHS FOIA Offices have taken several steps to ensure that the presumption  of openness is applied including providing program offices with guidance on the  foreseeable harm standard, encouraging FOIA professionals to attend trainings centered  on the foreseeable harm standard such as DOJ FOIA trainings a national training  conference provided by a private entity, and reinforcing the presumption of  openness during HHS FOIA Officer meetings. Additionally, HHS FOIA Offices have  worked closely with program offices to identify records that can be posted  proactively and have worked to modernize electronic FOIA libraries in order to  improve the public’s ability to obtain and understand agency records.

**Introduction:** Agency Chief Freedom of Information Act Officer
	**Section I:** FOIA Leadership and Applying the Presumption of Openness
	**Section II:** Ensuring Fair and Effective FOIA Administration
	**Section III:** Proactive Disclosures
	**Section IV:** Steps Taken to Greater Utilize Technology
	**Section V:** Steps Taken to Remove Barriers to Access, Improve Timeliness in Responding to Requests, and Reduce Backlogs

                    
  


Content created by Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Division Content last reviewed March 7, 2024 Back to top
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