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NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
(NASA)
178 DAYS TO RESPOND TO ARCHIVE; OUTSTANDING REQUESTS AS
OLD AS 2 YEARS
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Recordkeeping Issues - NASA informed the Archive
that it had recently been inundated with FOIA requests due
to the Space Shuttle tragedy and that it would take some time
to process the request. |
Ten Oldest - NASA responded 178 days after the initial
FOIA request. It provided ten requests dating from July 12,
2001 - April 3, 2003. These requests concerned shipments of
big leafed mahogany detained by U.S. authorities upon entry
into the United States from Latin America from January 2002
to present (a referral of one document from the Department
of Interior, and a referral of a request submitted to the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), correspondence and records
of Ted Kassinger, General Counsel of the Commerce Department
(a referral from the Department of Commerce), NRO Directive
NROD 82-6 "NRO Space Debris Mitigation Policy,"
and several referrals of records that other agencies, including
NRO, Department of Commerce and Department of State, determined
contained NASA equities. |
Workload Statistics - Although NASA's reported statistics
from 1998 through 2002 indicate that the agency has received
a decreasing number of FOIA requests (down 20.10% from 2144
in 1998 to 1713 in 2002), the number processed each year also
has decreased (down 18.50% from 2114 processed in 1998 to
1723 processed in 2002). NASA's processing rate per year --
a comparison of the number of requests processed to the number
received - increased from 98.60% in 1998 to 100.58% in 2002.
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Backlog Statistics - NASA's backlog of pending FOIA
requests has decreased (from 230 FOIA requests pending at
the end of 1998 to 137 FOIA requests pending at the end of
2002). NASA's backlog as a percentage of FOIA requests processed
each year has decreased from 10.88% in 1998 to 7.95% in 2002.
Its backlog rate per year -- a comparison of the number of
requests pending at the end of the year to the number received
during that year -- has increased from 7.70% in 1998 to 8.00%
in 2002. |
Processing Time - While its median days to process
simple requests has ranged from 15-24 days over the 1998-2002
period, the median days to process complex requests has ranged
from 27-45 days over the 1998-2002 period. Expedited requests
have been processed in 3-20 days over the 1998-2002 time period.
The median days that backlogged requests have been pending
has 31 to 78 days over the 1998-2002 period, with 44 days
reported for 2002. |
TEN
OLDEST REQUESTS
NASA Response
Letter
NASA July 12, 2001 Letter
NASA February 1, 2002
Letter
NASA December 9, 2002
Letter
NASA February 6, 2003
Letter
NASA February 12, 2003
Letter
NASA February 25, 2003
Letter
NASA April 3, 2003 Letter
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