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Report of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission On Its Administration of the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. Section 552,for FY 1998(1)

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

I. Basic Information Regarding FOIA Report

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

A. Jacy Thurmond, Jr.
Assistant Legal Counsel
EEOC
Office of Legal Counsel
1801 L Street, NW, 6th floor Washington, DC 20507
(202) 663-4640

B. Electronic address for report on the World Wide Web

http://www.eeoc.gov/foia

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

A paper copy of the report may be requested by submitting a written request to:

A. Jacy Thurmond, Jr.
Assistant Legal Counsel
EEOC
Office of Legal Counsel
1801 L Street, NW, 6th floor
Washington, DC 20507
(202) 663-4640

II. How To Make A FOIA Request

FOIA requests should be made in accordance with the Commission's regulations at 29 C.F.R. 1610.7.

A. Names, address, and telephone numbers of all individual agency components and offices that receive FOIA requests

See 29 C.F.R. 1610.4 and the agency's FOIA web page at http://www.eeoc.gov/foia for the EEOC FOIA contacts.

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

The average response time ranges were 10-20 working days. The median number of calendar days for processing a FOIA request was 15.5 days.

C. Brief description of why some requests are not granted

Many FY 1998 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests received by the Commission were for materials contained in the Commission's investigative case files that involved charges of discrimination filed pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S. C. 2000e     et seq.; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, as amended, 29 U.S.C. 621-633; the Equal Pay Act, 29 U.S.C. 206(d); and Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. 12101-217. Sections 706 (b) and 709 (e) of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. 2000e-5(b) and 8 (e), and section 107 of the ADA, 42 U.S.C. 12117, prohibit Commission employees from making Title VII or ADA charges, conciliation materials, required reports and case file information public. In certain instances, parties to the charge are entitled to access to the disclosable portions of the charge file but not to the non-disclosable portions. (2)

III. Definitions Used In The Report

The definitions set forth in the Department of Justice guidance were followed.

IV. Exemption 3 Statutes

The exemption 3 statutes relied on were sections 706 (b) and 709 (e) of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 2000e-5 (b) and 8 (e) and section 107 of the ADA, 42 U.S.C. 12117. These sections prohibit Commission employees from making Title VII or ADA charges, conciliation materials, required reports and case file information public.

The Commission's use of the third exemption has been upheld by the courts. The landmark case supporting the Commission's position is EEOC v. Associated Dry Goods Corp., 449 U.S. 590 (1981). In FY 1998, there were no court decisions involving EEOC regarding its use of this exemption.

Several requests for bids submitted by unsuccessful bidders were denied under 41 U.S.C. 253 b(m). In FY 1998, there were no court decisions involving EEOC regarding its use of this exemption.

V. Initial FOIA Access Requests

  1. Number of initial requests (total of the numbers in lines one and two, minus the number in line three, should equal the number in four)
    1. Number of requests pending as of end of preceding fiscal year     1,261
    2. Number of requests received during current fiscal year     17,633
    3. Number of requests processed during current fiscal year     17,551
    4. Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year     1,343(This line has also been entered on line VII.B.1.)
  2. Disposition of initial requests
    1. Number of total grants      3,623
    2. Number of partial grants(3)     11,372
    3. Number of denials     1,434
    4. Number of times each exemption was used (counting each exemption once per request)
      1. Exemption 1     0
      2. Exemption 2     69
      3. Exemption 3     1,289
      4. Exemption 4     7
      5. Exemption 5     10,563
      6. Exemption 6     412
      7. Exemption 7(A)     775
      8. Exemption 7(B)     10
      9. Exemption 7(C)     1,368
      10. Exemption 7(D)     105
      11. Exemption 7(E)     22
      12. Exemption 7(F)     0
      13. Exemption 8     0
      14. Exemption 9     0
    5. Other reasons for nondisclosure (total)     1,604
      1. no records     490
      2. referrals     122
      3. request withdrawn     280
      4. fee-related reason     2
      5. records not reasonably described      13
      6. not a proper FOIA request for some other reason     30
      7. not an agency record     13
      8. duplicate request     206
      9. others     448

VI. Appeals

  1. Number of appeals
    1. Number of appeals received during current fiscal year     326
    2. Number of appeals processed during current fiscal year     326
  2. Disposition of appeals
    1. Number of initial determinations completely upheld     127
    2. Number of initial determinations partially reversed(4)     129
    3. Number of initial determinations completely reversed     22
    4. Number of times each exemption was used (counting each exemption once per request)
      1. Exemption 1     0
      2. Exemption 2     0
      3. Exemption 3     53
      4. Exemption 4     0
      5. Exemption 5     188
      6. Exemption 6     6
      7. Exemption 7(A)     23
      8. Exemption 7(B)     0
      9. Exemption 7(C)     38
      10. Exemption 7(D)     2
      11. Exemption 7(E)     0
      12. Exemption 7(F)     0
      13. Exemption 8     0
      14. Exemption 9     0
    5. Other reasons for nondisclosure (total)     48
      1. no records     11
      2. referrals     26
      3. request withdrawn     0
      4. fee-related reason     0
      5. records not reasonably described      0
      6. not a proper FOIA request for some other reason     0
      7. not an agency record     0
      8. duplicate request     2
      9. other     9

VII. Compliance With Time Limits/Status of Pending Requests

  1. Median(5)
    1. Ordinary requests
      1. number of requests processed      17,551
      2. median number of days to process      15.5
    2. Complex requests
      1. number of requests processed      0
      2. median number of days to process      0
    3. Requests accorded expedited processing
      1. number of requests processed      438
      2. median number of days to process      4
  2. Status of pending requests
    1. Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year     1,343 (Enter this number from line V.A.4)
    2. Median(6) number of days that such requests were pending as of that date     15

VIII. Comparison With Previous Year (Optional)

  1. Comparison of number of requests received     13,673(7)
  2. Comparison of numbers of requests processed     12,791(8)
  3. Comparison of median number of days requests were pending as of end of fiscal year     N/A.
  4. Other statistics significant to agency     N/A
  5. Other    NA

IX. Costs/FOIA Staffing

  1. Staffing levels.
    1. Number of full-time FOIA personnel      14
    2. Number of personnel with part-time or occasional FOIA duties     161
    3. Total number of personnel (in work-years)     45.93(9)
  2. Total costs (including staff and all resources).
    1. FOIA processing(10)(including appeals)     $1,602,254.00
    2. Litigation-related activities (estimated)     $0.00
    3. Total costs     $1,602,254.00
    4. Comparison with previous years (optional)     N/A

X. Fees

  1. Total amount of fees collected by agency for processing requests     $49,801.03
  2. Percentage of total costs      N/A

XI. FOIA Regulations

EEOC's FOIA regulations are located at 29 C.F.R. Part 1610.

Footnotes:

1. This report is submitted to the Attorney General of the United States pursuant to 5 U.S.C. Section 552 (e)(1). The format utilized in this report adheres to the format recommended by the Department of Justice.

2. An example of non-disclosable material in a charge file would be the internal intra-agency deliberative documents. These documents are generally withheld under the fifth exemption to the FOIA, 5 U.S.C. section 552 (b)(5).

3. This category only includes those situations where some records have been released and an exemption has been asserted to others; it does not include situations where some documents were released but others could not be found - that would be a total grant.

4. This category only includes those situations where some records have been released and an exemption asserted as to others; it does not include situations where some documents were released but others could not be found - that would be a total grant.

5. The median number is the middle, not the average, number. For example, the median number of 3, 7, 20, 21 and 24 is 20, while the average is 15. Reference to the median number in this Report pertains to calendar days.

6. See footnote 5.

7. Number of requests received from January 1, 1997 through September 30, 1997.

8. Number of requests processed from January 1, 1997 through September 30, 1997.

9. For example, if each of 4 employees devotes 50% of his or her time to FOIA, 4 people and 2 total work years would be reported.

10. Personnel costs were estimated by multiplying the percentage used for computing IX.A.3. by the average annual salary rates for those persons. This line item excludes indirect costs, such as equipment, rental payments, etc. We estimate these indirect costs to be $320,451.

This page was last modified on February 2, 1999.