Upcoming FOIA Reporting Deadlines

October marks the end of Fiscal Year 2016 and the beginning of the FOIA reporting season.  Today, OIP announces the deadlines for the submission of agencies' Fiscal Year 2017 Annual FOIA Reports, Fiscal Year 2018 Quarterly FOIA Reports, and 2018 Chief FOIA Officer Reports.  The overall report requirements and process will be similar to last year. 

Last year, for the Fiscal Year 2016 Annual FOIA Reports, agencies fulfilled three new requirements resulting from the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016.  We remind agencies of these requirements for Fiscal Year 2017.  Agencies must:

• Proactively make available the raw data elements used in the creation of their final Annual FOIA Report,
• Include in their Annual FOIA Report the number of times an exclusion was used, and
• Include in their Annual FOIA Report the number of records that were made available for public inspection under subsection (a)(2) of the FOIA (proactive disclosures). 

OIP published guidance in October 2016 to assist agencies in meeting these new requirements.  We encourage agencies to continue to reference the guidance and the Department’s Annual FOIA Report Handbook in preparing their Fiscal Year 2017 reports.

While agencies are hard at work compiling the data for their Fiscal Year 2017 Annual FOIA Report, deadlines for agency Chief FOIA Officer Reports and Quarterly FOIA Reports are also upcoming.  All three of these reports serve a vital role in illustrating the steps taken and the progress made by agencies in administering the FOIA.  Additionally, these reports provide valuable information about how agencies are employing tools to promote efficiency, making more information available proactively, and using technology to improve FOIA administration.

Agencies should mark the following deadlines on their calendars to ensure that they are able to satisfy all of their reporting obligations in the upcoming year:

FISCAL YEAR 2017 ANNUAL FOIA REPORT

November 20, 2017 – Agencies are required to submit their Fiscal Year 2017 Annual FOIA Report to OIP for review and clearance.

For guidance on the requirements for completing the Annual FOIA Report, please see the Department’s Annual FOIA Report Handbook and the guidance on the new requirements for Annual FOIA Reports from the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016.

FISCAL YEAR 2018 QUARTERLY FOIA REPORTS

January 26, 2018 – Quarter 1 data is required to be posted.
April 27, 2018 – Quarter 2 data is required to be posted.
July 27, 2018 – Quarter 3 data is required to be posted.
October 26, 2018 – Quarter 4 data is required to be posted.

For guidance on the requirements for completing the FY 2018 Quarterly Reports, please see OIP’s guidance on quarterly reporting.

2018 CHIEF FOIA OFFICER REPORTS

January 19, 2018 – Agencies receiving more than 50 requests in Fiscal Year 2016 (noted in the 2018 Guidelines) are required to submit their 2018 Chief FOIA Officer Reports to OIP for review and clearance.

February 2, 2018 – Agencies receiving less than 50 requests in Fiscal Year 2016 (noted in the 2018 Guidelines) are required to submit their 2018 Chief FOIA Officer Reports to OIP for review and clearance.

March 12, 2018 – Agencies are required to post their 2018 Chief FOIA Officer Reports online.

For guidance on the requirements for completing the 2018 Chief FOIA Officer Report, please see OIP's 2018 Chief FOIA Officer Report Guidelines.

If you have any questions regarding any of the deadlines noted above or the requirements for any of the reports, please contact OIP’s FOIA Compliance Team at (202) 514-3642 (FOIA). You can also find all of these reporting deadlines on the Reports page of OIP’s website.