Section III: Steps Taken to Increase Proactive Disclosures

The Department of Justice has long focused on the need for agencies to work proactively to post information online without waiting for individual requests to be received.

Please answer the following questions to describe the steps your agency has taken to increase the amount of material that is available on your agency websites.  In addition to the questions below, you should also describe any additional steps taken by your agency to make and improve proactive disclosures of information.

1. Provide examples of material that your agency has proactively disclosed during the past reporting year, including records that have been requested and released three or more times in accordance with 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(2)(D).  Please include links to these materials as well. 

HHS continues to employ a number of ways to identify records for online public disclosure.  HHS OpDivs use the established threshold of three requests for the same information to identify records of substantial public interest, either by reviewing FOIA logs, manually tracking FOIA requests or from identifying requests for the same records from an electronic tracking system.  In addition, information is gathered from program areas and offices about significant policy documents that may be candidates for proactive disclosure, and public affairs and communications staff provide input and suggestions for records they believe should be proactively disclosed to the public.

Please see the examples, listed below, of material that HHS has proactively disclosed during 2020 reporting period.

  • ACL monitors incoming requests and has not had any requests for the same record(s) three or more times.  The stakeholder community has expressed interest in performance data from ACL’s disability programs.  In response, ACL added new databases specific to disability programs to the data portal (https://agid.acl.gov/).
  • The CMS has proactively disclosed the following information:
  • FDA has proactively disclosed the following information:
  • FAERs public dashboard, an interactive web-based tool that allows for the querying of FAERS data in a user friendly fashion. The intention of this tool is to expand access of FAERS data to the general public to search for information related to human adverse events reported to the FDA by the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare providers and consumers. See: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/guidancecomplianceregulatoryinformation/surveillance/adversedrugeffects/ucm070093.htm. 
  • Data sets, such as http://govdashboard.fda.gov/, which relate to inspections, compliance and recalls. This dynamic online tool presents information in an easy-to-read graphical format. It provides access to the underlying data, allowing the public to see related data and trends. Users can also view, download and manipulate the data.
  • Agency components continue to create web pages for specific issues of heightened consumer or media interest, to better inform the Agency’s constituency without requiring the submission of a FOIA request.  For example, FDA has posted extensive information in the reporting period on such subjects as:
  • Drug compounding:
  • FDA also continues to post the following records on a regular basis, among others:
  • HRSA continues to post the Universal Data Set (UDS) report which contains the data reported by over 1,300 HRSA-funded Federally Qualified Community Health Centers (FQHCs).  Every FQHC must file an annual UDS report made up of 14 highly detailed tables with approximately 20,000 data points. This past year provided clear evidence of the efficiency that can result from such disclosures.  In FY 15, the first year that the UDS data was posted, there were over 60 FOIA requests for UDS data.  In FY 19 there were only 20.  The link to the Reading Room is:  https://www.hrsa.gov/foia/electronic-reading.html

The Reading Room page also lists the HTML links for several of HRSA’s most requested databases and programs.  These include the HRSA Data Warehouse, the National Practitioner Data Bank, the Office of Pharmacy Affairs 340B Database, and the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Data and Statistics.  In addition, it contains links to a wide assortment of other related databases, health center policy statements and announcements of HRSA funding opportunities.

  • NIH has proactively disclosed the following information:

OD:

CSR:

DPCPSI/ORIP:

  • Cost of Maintaining Humane Care and Welfare of Chimpanzees (updated yearly)
  • Twitter feed at homepage: https://orip.nih.gov/  
  • Highlighting Progress Relative to ORIP’s Strategic Plan
  • Data on S10 Instrumentation awards
  • Nonhuman Primate Evaluation and Analysis Part 2: Report of the Expert Panel Forum on Challenges in Assessing Nonhuman Primate Needs and Resources for Biomedical Research
  • Fiscal Year 2020 Interim Awards Funding Policy
  • Publication of Notices, RFIs, and Funding Opportunities
  • Chimpanzee Management Program
  • Physiological and Welfare Concerns of the At-Risk Chimpanzee Population
  • Executive Summary for Physiological and Welfare Concerns of the At-Risk Chimpanzee Population
  • Chimpanzee Health Categorization Framework: Harmonized Across NIH-supported Facilities
  • Contract Solicitations: Contract for the operation and maintenance of the Chimpanzee Care Center (CCC). In accordance with FAR 5.2, a sources sought notice was published on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website on October 3, 2019. The notice sought sources capable of satisfying the SOW in compliance with applicable federal laws, regulations, and policies.

FIC

  • News and feature articles about Fogarty’s programs and grantee successes, scientific publications etc.:
  • Weekly funding newsletter including items of interest to global health researchers:
  • Commentary and publications by Fogarty Director:
  • Newly funded grants and awards:
  • Distribute Global Health Matters newsletter featuring articles on program and grantee successes to more than 60k subscribers every 2 months
  • Distribute global health funding news to more than 46k subscribers weekly
  • Share related information multiple times a week with more than 6,300 followers on Facebook
  • Share related information each business day with more than 13,700 followers on Twitter

NCATS:

NCI:

  • Cancer Moonshot funding opportunities and updates:
  • Data Releases from the Genomic Data Commons (GDC):

NHLBI:

  • Health Topics:
  • Spanish Health Topics:
  • Information about new research:
  • New initiatives:

NIA:

NIAID:

NIAMS:

  • NIAMS Intramural Research Program researchers regularly deposit data into public datasets. Some examples of such datasets are:

NIBIB:

NIDCR:

  • Information about funding opportunities and decisions is of particular interest to NIH/NIDCR stakeholders and the public. Examples of funding-related items that were posted on the NIDCR website in FY18 include:
  • Request for input on Proposed Research/Funding Initiatives
  • Information on Research Investments and Advances
  • Meetings and proceedings of the NIDCR Advisory Council
  • Funding Opportunity Announcements searchable by topic, funding type, activity codes, and other.
  • Yearly lists of total award amounts to U.S. Academic Institutions and Dental Schools
  • Funding Outcomes     
  • NIH/NIDCR and grantee press releases and other news
  • The NIDCR website also posts updated information (in English and Spanish) on a wide range of oral health topics. To answer frequent requests for how to obtain free or low-cost dental care, the Institute has created a Finding Dental Care web page.
  • The Institute also produces a quarterly e-newsletter.

NIDA:

NIEHS:

NIMH:

  • Funding Opportunities (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/funding/index.shtml):  This information is continually updated with many postings on program announcements, requests for applications, policy announcements, and other opportunities as well as related information on Institute priorities and our Strategic Plan, grant writing and approval, managing grants, and training and development.
  • Federal Advisory Committee Act (Activities):
  • National Advisory Mental Health Council (NAMHC): The NAMHC advises the HHS Secretary, the NIH Director, and the NIMH Director on all policies and activities relating to the conduct and support of mental health research, research training and other programs of the Institute.  In response to scheduled meetings, NIMH updated these dedicated web pages with agendas, Director’s reports, and minutes:
  • Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC):
  • The IACC is a FACA that provides advice to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.  The Office of Autism Research Coordination (OARC/NIMH) oversees and regularly adds new material to the IACC website including agendas, meeting materials and slides, biographies, transcripts, approved minutes, Congressional and other reports, publications, news items, public comments, and webcasts.  [NOTE:  IACC information is posted on the HHS site by the staff of the Office of Autism Research Coordination, NIMH: https://iacc.hhs.gov/
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