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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Inspector General
At a Glance
14-P-0262
May 16, 2014
Why We Did This Review
In Office of Inspector General
planning outreach we conducted
with the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) and
congressional sources, they
expressed concern about
possible inconsistencies in how
the EPA decides what
information to release under the
Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA). In response, we
conducted this review to
determine how the EPA offices
and regions decide what
information to release under the
FOIA.
The FOIA is a law that
governs public access to
U.S. government records.
FOIA carries a presumption of
disclosure.
This report addresses the
following EPA theme:
• Embracing EPA as a high
performing organization.
For further information,
contact our public affairs office
at (202) 566-2391.
The full report is at:
www.epa.aov/oia/reports/2014/
20140516-14-P-0262.pdf
Briefing Report: Review of EPA's
Process to Reiease Information Under the
Freedom of Information Act
What We Found
Each EPA region and headquarters office has processes for addressing FOIA
requests. While the regional and headquarters' processes vary, they all lead to
a decision to release or withhold information based on an evaluation of the
request and the exemptions and exclusions prescribed in the FOIA. To ensure
consistency in the processes used throughout the agency, the EPA's Office of
Environmental Information approved agencywide Interim FOIA Procedures in
September 2013, and plans to finalize them by the end of September 2014.
During our review, we obtained and reviewed FOIA procedures from all
10 regions and four headquarters program offices, and found the following:
•	All offices, except one, had internal FOIA procedures in writing to varying
degrees. For example, some procedures were still in draft or were dated
prior to the EPA's implementation of its current online electronic system
for processing FOIA requests—FOIAonline. In addition, some were
detailed while others consisted of a basic flowchart or narrative
description of the process.
•	Seven offices (three EPA regions and all four headquarters program
offices reviewed) had procedures that were not consistent with the EPA's
current interim FOIA procedures. Primarily, the procedures did not
include language regarding the use of FOIAonline, or were silent or
unclear regarding who has the authority to sign EPA letters responding to
FOIA requests.
Recommendations and Planned Agency Corrective Actions
We recommend that the EPA Assistant Administrator for Environmental
Information: (1) issue the final agency FOIA procedures by September 30,
2014; and (2) require that Senior Information Officials at each region and
headquarters program office certify that their local FOIA procedures are
consistent with the agency's final procedures by March 31, 2015. The EPA
agreed with both of our recommendations, and its actions, when completed,
will address the issues presented in this report. All recommendations are
resolved.

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