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 conduct its records searches quickly and 

efficiently. 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. 

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. To ensure timely 

and appropriate responses, the FOIA staff attends annual training and provides training to 

all FCA staff. 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.

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

provided electronic records whenever available. 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 and to 

reduce fees in processing the requests.

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 an 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 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 2017, we responded to all, but one, 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. The late response (by 1 day) for one request was due to both the FOIA Officer 

and Chief FOIA Officer being on extended sick leave. To ensure this does not happen in the 

future, the FOIA office will provide for additional staff backup.