National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s

Freedom of Information Act Annual Report (FY05)

I. Basic Information Regarding Report 

A. Name, title, address, and telephone number of person(s) to be contacted with questions about the report: 

Stephen L. McConnell, NASA FOIA Officer 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 

300 E Street, SW, Washington, DC 20546 

202.358.1750 

B. Electronic address for report on the World Wide Web: 

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/FOIA/FY_2005_report.pdf 

C. How to obtain a copy of the report in paper form: 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 

Office of Public Affairs, Freedom of Information Act Office 

300 E Street, SW, Washington, DC 20546 

II. How to Make a FOIA Request 

A. Names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all individual agency components and offices that receive 

FOIA requests: 

1. NASA Ames Research Center;

Kelly Garcia, ARC FOIA Manager

Mail Stop 943-4, Moffett Field, CA 94035

916.604.3273

foia@arc.nasa.gov 

2. NASA Dryden Flight Research Center;

Kim Lewis, DFRC FOIA Manager

PO Box 273, MS 4839, Edwards, CA 93523

661.276.2704

foia@dfrc.nasa.gov 

3. NASA Glen Research Center; 

Angela Pierce, GRC FOIA Officer 

21000 Brookpark Road, MS 500-313, Cleveland, OH 44135 

216.433.2813 

foia@grc.nasa.gov 

4. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center;

Joan Belt, GSFC FOIA Manager

Mail Code 130, Greenbelt, MD 20771

301.286.4721

foia@gsfc.nasa.gov 

5. NASA Headquarters; 

Kellie Robinson, HQ FOIA Officer 

300 E Street, SW, Suite 9R39, Washington, DC 20546-0001 

202.358.2265 

foia@hq.nasa.gov 

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6. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory;

Dennis Mahon, JPL FOIA Officer

NMO NASA FOIA Officer, Pasadena, CA 91109

818.393.6779

foia@nmo.jpl.nasa.gov 

7. NASA Johnson Space Center;

Stella Luna, JSC FOIA Officer

Mail Code AP121, Houston, TX 77058

281.483.8612

foia@jsc.nasa.gov 

8. NASA Kennedy Space Center;

Penny Myers, KSC FOIA Officer

Mail Code XA-A1, Kennedy Space Center, FL 32899

321.867.9280

foia@ksc.nasa.gov 

9. NASA Langley Research Center;

Cheryl Cleghorn, LaRC FOIA Officer

Mail Stop 154, Hampton, VA 23681

757.864.2497

foia@larc.nasa.gov 

10. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center;

Judi Hollingsworth, MSFC FOIA Officer

Mail Code 943-4, Marshall Space Flight Center, AL 35812

256.544.1837

foia@msfc.nasa.gov 

11. NASA Stennis Space Center;

Joy Smith, SSC FOIA Manager

Mail Code CA100, Stennis Space Center, MS 39529-6000

228.688.2118

foia@ssc.nasa.gov 

12. NASA Office of the Inspector General;

Frank LaRocca, IG FOIA Officer

300 E Street, SW, Suite 8V69, Washington, DC 20546-0001

202.358.2237

foia@oig.nasa.gov 

Brief description of the agency's response-time ranges: 

13. Expedited: 5 working days 

14. Simple: 16 working days 

15. Complex: 47 working days 

B. Brief description of why some requests are not granted: 

• Mainly because of information within the responsive agency records contains ‘export 

control’, ‘ITAR’ and/or ‘proprietary’ exemptible material, as a majority of our FOIA requests 

focus on procurement contracts. Also, as with previous years initial FOIA requests were 

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denied for other reasons; such as ‘no records’ or referred to another agency, withdrawn by the 

requester, or as a duplicate request. 

III. Definitions of Terms and Acronyms Used in the Report 

A. Agency-specific acronyms or other terms. 

1. NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration 

2. HQ - Headquarters 

3. ARC - Ames Research Center 

4. DFRC - Dryden Flight Research Center 

5. GSFC - Goddard Space Flight Center 

6. GRC - Glenn Research Center 

7. JPL -Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

8. JSC - Johnson Space Center 

9. KSC- Kennedy Space Center 

10. LaRC -Langley Research Center 

11. MSFC - Marshall Space Flight Center 

12. SSC - Stennis Space Center 

13. OIG - Office of the Inspector General 

14. OGC - Office of the General Counsel 

15. E-FOIA- Electronic Freedom of Information Act 

B. Basic terms, expressed in common terminology. 

1. FOIA/PA request - Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act request. A FOIA request is 

generally a request for access to records concerning a third party, an organization, or a particular 

topic of interest. A Privacy Act request is a request for records concerning oneself; such 

requests are also treated as FOIA requests. (All requests for access to records, regardless of 

which law is cited by the requester, are included in this report.) 

2. Initial Request - a request to a federal agency for access to records under the Freedom of 

Information Act. 

3. Appeal - a request to a federal agency asking that it review at a higher administrative level a full 

denial or partial denial of access to records under the Freedom of Information Act, or any other 

FOIA determination such as a matter pertaining to fees. 

4. Processed Request or Appeal - a request or appeal for which an agency has taken a final action 

on the request or the appeal in all respects. 

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5. Multi-track processing - a system in which simple requests requiring relatively minimal review 

are placed in one processing track and more voluminous and complex requests are placed in one 

or more other tracks. Requests in each track are processed on a first-in/first out basis. A 

requester who has an urgent need for records may request expedited processing (see below). 

6. Expedited processing - an agency will process a FOIA request on an expedited basis when a 

requester has shown an exceptional need or urgency for the records which warrants 

prioritization of his or her request over other requests that were made earlier. 

7. Simple request - a FOIA request that an agency using multi-track processing places in its fastest 

(non-expedited) track based on the volume and/or simplicity of records requested. 

8. Complex request - a FOIA request that an agency using multi-track processing places in a 

slower track based on the volume and/or complexity of records requested. 

9. Grant - an agency decision to disclose all records in full in response to a FOIA request. 

10. Partial grant - an agency decision to disclose a record in part in response to a FOIA request, 

deleting information determined to be exempt under one or more of the FOIA's exemptions; or a 

decision to disclose some records in their entireties, but to withhold others in whole or in part. 

11. Denial - an agency decision not to release any part of a record or records in response to a FOIA 

request because all the information in the requested records is determined by the agency to be 

exempt under one or more of the FOIA's exemptions, or for some procedural reason (such as 

because no record is located in response to a FOIA request). 

12. Time limits - the time period in the Freedom of Information Act for an agency to respond to a 

FOIA request (ordinarily 20 working days from proper receipt of a "perfected" FOIA request). 

13. "Perfected" request - a FOIA request for records which adequately describes the records sought, 

which has been received by the FOIA office of the agency or agency component in possession 

of the records, and for which there is no remaining question about the payment of applicable 

fees. 

14. Exemption 3 statute - a separate federal statute prohibiting the disclosure of a certain type of 

information and authorizing its with holding under FOIA subsection (b)(3). 

15. Median number - the middle, not average, number. For example, of 3, 7, and 14, the median 

number is 7. 

16. Average number - the number obtained by dividing the sum of a group of numbers by the 

quantity of numbers in the group. For example, of 3, 7, and 14, the average number is 8. 

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. 

a. 5 USC 638(j)(2); Contracts withheld data generated by contractors who elected to 

retain their data rights in accordance with the retention period agreed to under the 

contract. 

b. 10 USC 2305(g); Procurement, unsuccessful proposals for competitive procurements 

and those portions of successful proposals that were not incorporated into the contracts. 

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c. 22 USC 2751; Arms Export Control Act, technical data withheld according to 

regulations establishing lists or categories of technical data that may not be exported. 

2. Statement of whether a court has upheld the use of each statute. If so, then cite example. 

a. None cited. 

b. None cited. 

c. None cited. 

V. Initial FOIA/PA Access Requests 

A. Numbers of initial requests. 

1. Number of requests pending as of end of preceding fiscal year: 257 

2. Number of requests received during current fiscal year: 1229 

3. Number of requests processed during current fiscal year: 1351 

4. Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year: 135 

B. Disposition of initial requests. 

1. Number of total grants: 469 

2. Number of partial grants: 367 

3. Number of denials: 40 

a. Number of times each FOIA exemption used: 

i. Exemption 1: 1 

ii. Exemption 2: 27 

iii. Exemption 3: 47 

iv. Exemption 4: 294 

v. Exemption 5: 71 

vi. Exemption 6: 51 

vii. Exemption 7(A) : 6 

viii. Exemption 7(B) : 2 

ix. Exemption 7(C) : 21 

x. Exemption 7(D) : 3 

xi. Exemption 7(E) : 3 

xii. Exemption 7(F) : 2 

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xiii. Exemption 8: 0 

xiv. Exemption 9: 0 

4. Other reasons for nondisclosure (total): 475 

a. No records: 163 

b. Referrals: 137 

c. Request withdrawn: 47 

d. Fee-related reason: 7 

e. Records not reasonably described: 41 

f. Not a proper FOIA request for some other reason: 15 

g. Not an agency record: 20 

h. Duplicate request: 11 

i. Other (specify) : 

- Required creating records 8 

- Received via FOIA email and handled outside FOIA 26 

VI. Appeals of Initial Denials of FOIA/PA Requests 

A. Numbers of appeals. 

1. Number of appeals received during fiscal year: 22 

2. Number of appeals processed during fiscal year: 22 

B. Disposition of appeals. 

1. Number completely upheld: 16 

2. Number partially reversed: 2 

3. Number completely reversed: 4 

a. number of times each FOIA exemption used: 

i. Exemption 1: 0 

ii. Exemption 2: 3 

iii. Exemption 3: 2 

iv. Exemption 4: 3 

v. Exemption 5: 8 

vi. Exemption 6: 1 

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vii. Exemption 7(A) : 1 

viii. Exemption 7(B) : 0 

ix. Exemption 7(C) : 2 

x. Exemption 7(D) : 1 

xi. Exemption 7(E) : 2 

xii. Exemption 7(F) : 0 

xiii. Exemption 8: 0 

xiv. 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 (specify) : 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: 938 

b. Median number of days to process: 19 

2. Complex requests: 

a. Number of requests processed: 410 

b. Median number of days to process: 49 

3. Requests accorded expedited processing: 

a. Number of requests processed: 3 

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b. Median number of days to process: 15 

B. Status of pending requests. 

1. Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year: 135 

2. Median number of days that such requests were pending as of that date: 64 

VIII. Comparisons with Previous Year(s) (Optional) 

A. Comparison of numbers of requests received: NA 

B. Comparison of numbers of requests processed: NA 

C. Comparison of median numbers of days requests were pending as of end of fiscal year: NA 

D. Other statistics significant to agency: NASA received five (5) FOIA requests seeking expedited 

processing and granted three (3). 

E. Other narrative statements describing agency efforts to improve timeliness of FOIA performance and to 

make records available to the public (e.g., backlog-reduction efforts; specification of average number of 

hours per processed request; training activities; public availability of new categories of records) : 

• NASA combined annual training with the agency’s annual FOIA conference; thus providing all 

assigned FOIA staff professional developed training. Combining the two allowed center 

management to conserve travel and training dollars making it cost effective to send their staff to 

attend both events. 

• Conducting technical assistance visits to each of the decentralized FOIA offices to conduct a 

review of their processing procedures, and to standardize the FOIA process across the agency, 

which will increase of interoperability between the NASA centers. 

IX. Costs/FOIA Staffing 

A. Staffing levels. 

1. Number of full-time FOIA personnel: 15 

2. Number of personnel with part-time or occasional FOIA duties: 3.8 

3. Total number of personnel (in work-years) : 18.8 

B. Total costs (including staff and all resources). 

1. FOIA processing (including appeals) : $1,128,410.00 

2. Litigation-related activities (estimated) : $0.00 

3. Total costs: $1,128,410.00 

4. Comparison with previous year(s): 

a. $1,659,840.00 (FY04) 

b. $1,128,410.00 (FY05) 

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c. Difference of 33% from previous year. 

C. Statement of additional resources needed for FOIA compliance: 

• In accordance with Executive Order 13392, this agency is currently reviewing its current 

process, policies and procedures to evaluate the need for any additional resources (logistics, 

personnel, etc...) to improve upon our agency’s compliance under the FOIA. 

X. Fees 

A. Total amount of fees collected by agency for processing request: $21,362 

B. Percentage of total costs: 1.9% 

XI. FOIA Regulations 

Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, Chapter V- National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Availability of 

Agency Records to Members of the Public, Part 1206. 

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/FOIA/fedregix.html 

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