National Indian Gaming Commission 

2003 Annual FOIA Report 

I. Basic Information Regarding Report 

A. Name, title, address, and telephone number of 

person to be contacted with questions about the 

report. 

Regina A. McCoy 

FOIA/PA Officer 

National Indian Gaming Commission 

1441 L Street, N.W., Suite 9100 

Washington, D.C. 20005 

Telephone number: (202) 632-7003 

Fax number: (202) 632-7066 

B. Electronic address for report on the World Wide 

Web. 

http://www.nigc.gov/nigcControl?option=FOIA_

2002 need to co-ordinate this with website IT 

person 

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

Contact 

Regina A. McCoy 

FOIA/PA Officer 

National Indian Gaming Commission 

1441 L Street, N.W., Suite 9100 

Washington, D.C. 20005 

Telephone number: (202) 632-7003 

Fax number: (202) 632-7066 

II. How to Make a FOIA Request 

For basic information on how to make a FOIA request, 

visit our Web site at

http://www.nigc.gov/nigc/foia/foia_request.jsp#MR

A. Names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all 

individual agency components and offices that 

receive FOIA requests. 

See above contact information.

B. Brief description of the agency's response-time 

ranges. 
Response times are from one day to more than 

one year depending on complexity of the 

request.

C. Brief description of why some requests are not 

granted. 

Requests for information are not granted if the 

information sought falls within one of the FOIA 

exemptions; the information requested falls 

under the jurisdiction of another authority; or 

no responsive records are located.

III. Definitions of Terms and Acronyms Used 

in the Report (to be included in each 

report) 

A. Agency-specific acronyms or other terms. 

NIGC National Indian Gaming Commission 

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 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. 

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 (nonexpedited) 

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 FOIA exemptions; or a decision to 

disclose some records in their entirety, 

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 FOIA 

exemptions, or for some procedural 

reason (such as no responsive records 

are located). 

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 

withholding 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. 

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. 

IGRA, 25 U.S.C. § 2716(a) provides that 

except as provided in subsection (b), of 

this section, the Commission shall 

preserve any and all information 

received pursuant to this chapter as 

confidential pursuant to the provisions 

of paragraph (4) and (7) of section 

552(b) of Title 5. 

Information withheld under this statute 

would include financial information 

such as tribal gaming revenue reports 

and audits. 

2. Statement of whether a court has upheld 

the use of each statute. If so, then cite 

example. 

None

V. Initial FOIA/PA Access Requests 

A. Numbers of initial requests. 

1. Number of requests pending as of end of 

preceding fiscal year 85 

2. Number of requests received during 

current fiscal year 90 

3. Number of requests processed during 

current fiscal year 102 
4. Number of requests pending as of end of 

current fiscal year 73 (Enter this 

number also in Line VII.B.1.) 

B. Disposition of initial requests. 

1. Number of total grants 25 

2. Number of partial grants 34 

3. Number of denials 13 

a. number of times each FOIA 

exemption used (counting each 

exemption once per request) 

(1) Exemption 1 0 

(2) Exemption 2 2 

(3) Exemption 3 1 

(4) Exemption 4 32 

(5) Exemption 5 23 

(6) Exemption 6 20 

(7) Exemption 7(A) 7 

(8) Exemption 7(B) 1 

(9) Exemption 7(C) 4 

(10) Exemption 7(D) 3 

(11) Exemption 7(E) 1 

(12) Exemption 7(F) 0 

(13) Exemption 8 0 

(14) Exemption 9 0 

4. Other reasons for nondisclosure (total) 

30 

a. no records 17 

b. referrals 1 

c. request withdrawn 11 

d. fee-related reason 0 

e. records not reasonably described 

 0 

f. not a proper FOIA request for 

some other reason 1 

g. not an agency record 0 

h. duplicate request 0 

i. other (specify) 0 

VI. Appeals of Initial Denials of FOIA/PA 

Requests 

A. Numbers of appeals. 

1. Number of appeals received during fiscal 

year 3 

2. Number of appeals processed during fiscal 

year 3 

B. Disposition of appeals. (Pending) 

1. Number completely upheld 3 

2. Number partially reversed 0 

3. Number completely reversed 0 
a. number of times each FOIA 

exemption used (counting each 

exemption once per appeal) 

(1) Exemption 1 0 

(2) Exemption 2 1 

(3) Exemption 3 0 

(4) Exemption 4 2 

(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) 1 

(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 (specify) 0 denial of 

expedited processing

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 

 30 

b. median number of days to process 

 210 

2. Complex requests. 

a. number of requests processed 

 64 

b. median number of days to process 

 510 

3. Requests accorded expedited processing. 

a. number of requests processed 

 8 

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 73 

(Enter this number from Line V.A.4.) 

2. Median number of days that such requests 

were pending as of that date 180 

 

VIII. Comparisons with Previous Year(s) 

(Optional) 

NIGC had a slight increase (17%) in total number of 

cases to be processed in FY03. The number of 

complex cases that were completed in FY03 doubled 

compared to FY02, while the number of simple cases 

that were completed showed only a slight increase. 

Overall, the FOIA backlog was reduced 14% compared 

to FY02. 

NIGC will continue concentrating on completing 

complex cases and reviewing ways to shorten the 

turnaround response time for all FOIA requests. 

IX. Costs/FOIA Staffing 

A. Staffing levels. 

1. Number of full time FOIA personnel 

 2 

2. Number of personnel with part-time or 

occasional FOIA duties (in total work 

years) .5 

3. Total number of personnel (in work years) 

 2.5 

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

1. FOIA processing (including appeals) 

 $210,000.00 

2. Litigation related activities (estimated) 

 $211,000.00 

3. Total costs $118,425.00 

4. Comparison with previous year(s) 

(including percentage of change) (optional) 

C. Statement of additional resources needed for FOIA 

compliance (optional) 

X. Fees 

A. Total amount of fees collected by agency for 

processing requests $82.00 

B. Percentage of total costs <1% 

XI. FOIA Regulations (Including Fee Schedule) 

NIGC FOIA regulations and fee schedule can be found in chapter 25 of the C.F.R. sec. 

517. NIGC Privacy Act regulations can be found in chapter 25 of the C.F.R. sec. 515. A 

paper copy of these regulations can be obtained by contacting the FOIA Officer (see
section I(A) of this report) or electronically at

http://www.nigc.gov/nigcControl?option=LAWS_REGS