3.7 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Requests

HHS Age of Open/Pending Initial FOIA Requests

The HHS Office of the Secretary (OS) supports the department-wide implementation of the “intelligent case management” concept.  The OS FOIA Office developed a quarterly report, produced with data submitted by HHS Operating Divisions (OpDivs) that provides a point in time forecast of future production performance by the HHS FOIA offices.

Although the HHS average response times were below the government-wide averages for “simple,” “complex,” and “expedited” requests, in FY 2015, it is a Department-wide goal to significantly improve response times for all FOIA requests. Therefore, beginning with the data reported as of  the end of January 2017, the OS FOIA Office will publish to the HHS FOIA website, the open/pending request data submitted by the HHS OpDiv FOIA offices.  This additional transparency will demonstrate the commitment by the HHS OpDivs to implement the tenets of active and “intelligent case management” to identify and accurately assess the classification and age of all open, pending requests and focus Department-wide processing efforts to significantly improve future response times.