Chief FOIA Officer Report of the Farm Credit Administration

Chief FOIA Officer and Senior Counsel: Jane M. Virga

The FCA is an independent agency in the executive branch of the U.S. Government. It is 

responsible for regulating and examining the banks, associations, and related entities of the 

Farm Credit System (System), including the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation. The 

System is a nationwide network of borrower-owned financial institutions that provides credit to 

farmers, ranchers, and agricultural and rural utility cooperatives. Originally created in 1933 by 

an Executive order, the Agency derives its powers and authorities from the Farm Credit Act of 

1971, as amended. 

The FCA strives to have an exemplary Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) program, to process 

all FOIA requests within the statutory time frames, and to comply with all aspects of the FOIA. 

The FCA is a small Agency, with approximately 250 employees, and receives less than 50 

requests per year. FCA’s FOIA staff conducts records searches quickly, efficiently, and on time. 

We have no backlog. 

The basic FOIA office is housed in the Office of General Counsel. The FOIA Officer processes all 

FOIA requests. FCA’s Director of the Office of Administrative Services, who is not a member of 

the Office of General Counsel, serves as the FOIA Appeals Officer. 

The FCA applies the presumption of openness. When there is a possibility of making a release 

under the foreseeable harm standard, if we determine that release would cause no harm to the 

Agency or is not prohibited by law, we release the record whether or not an exemption would 

have applied. During the reporting period, FCA made many discretionary releases of material 

otherwise exempt from disclosure, especially with respect to b2 and b5. However, it is difficult 

to determine our exact number of discretionary releases because we do not make an official 

determination as to whether an exemption will apply if a release is not likely to cause harm to 

the Agency and is not prohibited by law. Instead, if it meets those two criteria, the release is 

made with no further analysis. Thus, there is likely to be additional releases that would have 

qualified for an exemption without determining whether an exemption applied.

As a matter of discretion during the reporting year we have made numerous proactive 

disclosures. For instance, we disclosed a number of internal personnel policies and waived the 

deliberative process. The FCA has a distinct process to identify records for proactive disclosure.

The Office of Congressional and Public Affairs (OCPA) identifies such records. The Assistant 

Director for OCPA directs the posting of such records to the Agency’s website and consults with 

the FOIA staff as necessary. The Agency strives to continuously expand and improve in this 

regard. Examples of posted material include: testimony of FCA officials, informational 

memoranda, frequently asked questions, and proposed and final regulations. The FCA has a FCA 

News Email List that allows the Agency to highlight proactive disclosures for public awareness.

By subscribing to this list, the public can receive email alerts of items as the following: News 
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releases, Informational Memoranda, Bookletters, Policy Statements, Reports, FCA Handbook 

updates, and Federal Register notices.

We believe we have an effective system for responding to requests in a timely manner. In Fiscal 

Year 2016, We responded to all requests within 20 business days and we adjudicated requests 

for expedited processing in less than ten calendar days. The FOIA staff continuously assesses 

our processes to ensure that our FOIA system operates efficiently and effectively. For example, 

at the end of the fiscal year the FOIA Officer did an internal control review, which looked at 

internal policies and procedures, receipt of requests, response time, and rate and success of 

appeals. The review concluded that the FOIA Office complied with the law and that there was 

an efficient and effective program.

FCA ensures that the FOIA is administered in a “spirit of cooperation.” We strive for good 

communication and good customer service when working with requesters. We communicate 

with requesters via their preferred methods: email, telephone, or mail. We find frequent, 

substantive, and effective communications when working through the processing of FOIA 

requests expedite processing and reduce miscommunications. We work with requesters to 

identify efficiencies in processing the request.