Comparing Federal FOIA Processing
Today’s mail delivery included a letter from the VA letting us know that they had found 9 pages responsive to our request and the pages were being released in their entirety. While we appreciate the information, we find it a little strange that the letter is stamped (Nov 2) the day after the VA actually emailed us the report (Nov 1).
On 11/1/2012 the VA emailed us the requested record in full. The note also said that my request for a fee waiver was moot as no fees were assessed in responding to the request.
On 10/26 I walked into my office to find a letter sent by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Inside was a letter acknowledging my request and assigning me a tracking number (13-00159-F). The good news is that VA has classified my request as “simple,” which should mean that I get a response sooner than if it was placed in the “complex” track…I just hope that the final response does not come in the mail.
We are about two weeks into this project now and are already getting final responses back from some agencies. Other agencies, however, have yet to acknowledge receipt of our request, much less give us a tracking number. Here are the agencies we have yet to hear from:
We also still have not been given a tracking number by the Department of State, though we did receive a confirmation email.
We filed our request with the Department of Veterans Affairs via email on 10/5/2012.
