THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91B00389R000500190012-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 3, 2013
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: August 2, 1988
• Content Type: MISC

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United States Department of State
Washingwn, D.C. 20520
REMARKS OF
RICHARD C. FAULK
DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR OPERATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
SUBCOMMITTEE ON TECHNOLOGY AND THE LAW
AUGUST 2, 1988
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(INTRODUCTION)
Good morning. My name is Richard Faulk and I have
been the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Operations
since January 1986. In addition, from October 1, 1987
to July 13, 1988 I served as the Acting Assistant Secretary
for Administration. In both capacities, I have been the
senior agency official responsible for the implementation
of the Freedom of Information Act in the Department of
State.
Briefly, I would like to give you an overview of the
Department's FOIA program, as well as some insight into
our problems and prospects for the future in the hope of
paving the way for constructive interaction between
requesters, government officials, and lawmakers in order
to enable us to comply better with this important mandate.
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(BACKGROUND)
Fact, year the Department receives over 5,000 requests
from the public under the Freedom of. Information Act, the
Privacy Act and other applicable access provisions. in 1987,
we completed processing over 4,000 requests which encompassed
approximately one million pages of material. As the
custodian of records relating to foreign relations-and
foreign policy, the State Department's records are of
immense interest to the public at large. In light of the
enormous volume of requests received, the Department
developed appropriate institutionalized administrative
procedures, as well as a professional staff to meet
these demands. It was determined that it would be
appropriate to develop a centralized information access
program to receive, control, review and respond to the
entire gamut of requests under the FOIA, the Privacy.
Act, Executive Order 12356, the Ethics in Government
Act; Congressional oversight; investigations; GAO audits;
court orders; and so forth.
The overall objectives of this centralization were
to provide uniformity and consistency in decisionmaking,
to minimize the threat of accidental or premature release
of sensitive national security information, and to relieve
the substantive offices of much of their administrative
FOIA burden. We believe that we have had considerable
success in achieving these objectives.
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(MANAGEMENT)
We have recognized the necessity of pursuing an aggressive
long range strategy to enable the Department to better
manage and to increase control over its workload through
the dedication of considerable resources, the implementation
of various management initiatives, and the integration
of information management policies.
Despite exercising fiscal constraint in other areas,
the Department has allocated `nearly six million dollars
during this fiscal year to the total information access
program.
Highlights of our management initiatives include the
following:
-- a more streamlined approach to case processing
through the utilization of a team approach;
-- the availability (for research and sale) on
- microfiche in the Public Reading Room of over
1500 significant cases which are of recurring.
interest to the public;
-- consideration of the feasability of offering this
microfiche collection of significant cases to
libraries and universities which specialize in
foreign affairs;
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-- the utilization of the specialized services of the
Department of Commerce's National Technical
Information Service to respond to certain requests,
for example to satisfy demands for computer
tapes for munitions export licences; the diversion
of such requests to NTIS has resulted in substantial
savings to both the Department and the public=
-- the reduction of redundant processing steps and
the linkage of like tasks;
-- the recent establishment of a pool of part-time
and full-time employees to be held in reserve and
to be available to meet fluctuating workload
requirements;. and
-- the initiation of extensive educational and
outreach programs throughout the Department.
Finally, it is important to note that State's
.information access program was .purposely located in the
organization which has the lead role in the management-of
the Department's information. We integrated information
access as part of the Department's ongoing information
management initiatives and have given full consideration
to FOIA requirements in developing and upgrading our
information systems.
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(REQUESTERS)
Throughout the course of the ongoing evolution of
the management of the Department's FOIA program and the
refinement of the provisions of the Freedom of Information
Act itself, our clientele of requesters has continued to
increase in experience and sophistication. While only
approximately 25$ or our requests are from individuals,
the remaining 75$ come from attorneys representing
clients, the news media, historians, corporations, public
interest groups, and other organizations who employ
professional researchers. As the result of increased
sophistication of these requesters, the complexity and
volume of their requests, and proposed FOIA legislation
which may limit our ability to protect national
security information, last March Deputy Secretary Whitehead
wrote letters to fifteen chairmen of Congressional
committees and interested Members of Congress to advise
them of the Department's concerns in this area.
At this point, I would like to highlight the issues
raised in that letter.
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(VOLUMINOUS REQUESTS)
One area of grave concern to the Department
is the increasing trend for Freedom of Information Act
requests which demand the comprehensive production of
entire collections of information. During the past
year, the Department has received a number of requests
using State Department filing designators, TAGS (Traffic
Analysis by Geography and Subject), as the descriptions
for the material requested. The Department does not believe
that such requests are in keeping with the intent of FOIA
and the requirement that requests reasonably describe
particular documents by subject.
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Illustrative of this disturbing trend is a FOIA
request submitted to the Department for cables transmitted
between the U.S. Embassy in Managua and the Department
during the time period of January 1978 through December
1986 bearing the country TAG for Nicaragua in combination
with the six specified TAGS for National Security, Emergency
Planning and Evacuation, Military Affairs in General,
Intelligence, Military Capabilities, and Internal Governmental.
Affairs. For that nine year period, there are nearly
ten thousand telegrams responsive to this description,
telegrams which must therefore, be retrieved, reviewed,
and processed under the Freedom of Information-Act.
A sample of other voluminous requests received
include the following:
-- all documents produced in 1987 by the Bureau
of Intelligence and Research concerning Nicaragua; and
-- all documents produced, received, or maintained
by the Office of Public Diplomacy on Latin America and
the Caribbean. _
Additionally, we have received requests for information
regarding most Department principals including all of their
"logs, records, time records, phone logs, appointment
books, schedules, calendars, diaries, schedules and
correspondence relating to daily meetings, phone calls,
conferences, and activities...from...nomination to
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Clearly, some degree of reasonableness must be
injected into the Freedom of Information process. Sweeping
requests of this kind delay processing of less excessive
requests, and can impose an extreme drain on the agency
and diversion of its resources from its primary mandate.
In addition, there are the potential hazards inherent in
production of entire collections of sensitive foreign
policy information., Breaches of national security become
increasingly likely, either. through inadvertent disclosures
due to human error, which increases exponentially as
tremendous volume of documents are produced, or through
the "mosaic" effect by which data can be pieced together
through providing requesters with an aggregate of information
which reveals sensitive information not necessarily
discernible from smaller segments of information. Disclosure
by the latter means is increasingly likely given the
"fact that identical requests for information are often
sent to several agencies simultaneously.
Furthermore, under current litigation procedures,
agencies are required to prepare an itemized index correlating
each withheld document, or portion, with a specific FOIA _
exemption, and the relevant part of the agency's nondis-
closure justification. This indexing requirement itself
may contribute to the "mosaic," depending upon the degree
of specificity required by the court. Again, the compre-
hensive nature of the information requested accentuates
the potential hazard for the "mosaic" disclosure of
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(NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION)
There has been an increasing tendency among some
requesters to think of the FOIA solely in terms of
administrative processes and procedures. Some suggest
that many agencies deliberately resist responding to
FOIA requests as a further example of bureaucratic foot
dragging. It is not always clear whether they appreciate
the consequences that inadvertent releases of classified
information would have on national security.
We in the foreign affairs community. have .serious
reservations concerning the increasing erosion of-our
ability to strike the delicate balance between rights of
the American public to know the activities of its government
and the need for confidentiality in many aspects of the
diplomatic process.
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(CONCLQSION)
In conclusion, no one at the State Department will
argue with the importance that a well-informed citizenry
plays in .the democratic process. The FOIA exemplifies
the value that our government places on this ideal.
It is abundantly clear that the interest of the public
in foreign affairs and the Congress' commitment to the
principles of the FOIA are enduring. I can assure you
that the Department is fully committed to carrying-out
the statutory mandates of this important legislation.
Our challenge is to allocate the scarce resources in
order to meet the public's demands under the Freedom of
Information Act.
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