Federal Maritime Commission 2019 Chief FOIA Officer Report

Chief FOIA Officer: Rachel E. Dickon, Secretary

The Federal Maritime Commission (Commission or FMC) is an independent 

federal agency responsible for regulating the U.S. international ocean 

transportation system for the benefit of U.S. exporters, importers, and the 

U.S. consumer. Our mission is to ensure a competitive and reliable 

international ocean transportation supply system that supports the U.S. 

economy and protects the public from unfair and deceptive practices. We 

are dedicated to the presumption of openness and keeping the public 

apprised of our efforts to accomplish this mission.

We continuously strive to improve the FMC’s administration of the FOIA 

program. Specifically, during this reporting period, we have conducted 

informal discussions within the FOIA office, and with other FMC 

components on how to streamline our FOIA process. The FOIA specialist met 

with individuals from other Commission offices to better understand the 

type of documents each office maintains and how to best provide 

significant information to the public in the most efficient manner. 

Requesters are sometimes not aware of how the Commission maintains 

records and what type of information is contained in those records. In that 

case, the FOIA staff will describe the records and information to the 

requester in way that is easy for them to understand and help the requester 

define or narrow the scope of the request, if necessary. We remain 

dedicated to this type of personalized customer service and responding to 

all FOIA requests with the presumption of openness.

During this reporting period, our internal systems have proven to be 

successful in the efficient processing of FOIA requests and the managing of 

our backlog. We have closed all pending FOIA requests from the previous 

years’ report. 

All new Commission employees are trained on the importance of the FOIA, 

their obligations under the FOIA, and the FMC’s process for responding to 

requests. This training is also designed to focus on the specific program 

area where the employee will be working. During this reporting period, the 

FMC FOIA professionals attended relevant FOIA training and continue to 

keep abreast of any new FOIA requirements. 

The Chief FOIA Officer works directly with the webmaster to timely post 

information regarding Commission actions and news alerts. The public is 

invited to subscribe to the FMC’s RSS feed to keep informed. 
FMC’s management encourages employees to be transparent and to always 

consider ways to proactively and appropriately provide relevant 

information to the public. Commission Offices in conjunction with our 

Office of Information Technology ensure that relevant databases are up-todate and posted to our website. For example, the listing of Ocean 

Transportation Intermediaries (OTI) consists of searchable information 

pertaining to entities licensed by the FMC. This list is refreshed daily and is 

available to the public as a downloadable spreadsheet from our website. 

Also, of interest to the shipping public and posted to our website are 

agreement filings under the Shipping Act. This information is included in 

the online Agreement Library which provides real-time notice of recently 

filed agreements, synopses, and the full text of nearly all carrier and marine 

terminal operator agreements on file with the Commission. To provide the 

public with useful up-to-date information, 2018 saw the substantial 

completion of a comprehensive audit of all MTO Agreements on file with the 

Commission. This endeavor eliminated obsolete or inactive agreements 

from the FMC’s Agreement Library and allowed for a clearer understanding 

of what activities are taking place pursuant to those agreements.

The Commission, at the highest level, is committed to proactively providing 

useful information to the public. The Commission will continue to evaluate 

and make any necessary improvements to our FOIA program through 

proactive disclosures and efficient administration of our FOIA program.