Section III: Proactive Disclosures

The Attorney General’s FOIA Guidelines emphasize that “proactive disclosure of information is . . . fundamental to the faithful application of the FOIA.”  The Guidelines direct agencies to post “records online quickly and systematically in advance of any public request” and reiterate that agencies should post records “in the most useful, searchable, and open formats possible.”

1. Please describe what steps your agency takes to identify, track, and post (a)(2) proactive disclosures. 

HHS FOIA Offices work with program offices to identify final opinions, agency policy statements, and administrative staff manuals that are required to be made available for public inspection.  HHS FOIA Offices also work with program offices and review their FOIA tracking systems to identify records that have become or are likely to become the subject of subsequent FOIA requests.  Once these types of records are identified, HHS FOIA Offices work with digital communications specialists to ensure that these records are posted to agency websites.

Other steps taken to identify, track, and post (a)(2) proactive disclosures include:

HRSA FOIA’s used a Find Similar Requests tool in its FOIA tracking System.  This tool provided HRSA FOIA with an efficient method to determine whether the same records have been requested three or more times and qualifies as a frequently requested record.

HRSA FOIA worked with HRSA’s Bureau of Primary Health Care to include a feature in the annual Uniform Data System, providing submitters with the opportunity to designate commercial information as confidential at the time of submission.  This effort helped to eliminate the need to coordinate annual pre-disclosure notices, which significantly reduced the administrative burden on HRSA FOIA and the Bureau of Primary Health Care.  This effort saved HRSA’s personnel between 160-200 man-hours annually, streamlined HRSA’s internal review of the Uniform Data System data, and reduced the amount of time between collection of data to publication on HRSA’s Reading Room.

2. Provide examples of any material that your agency has proactively disclosed during the past reporting year, including records that have been requested and released three or more times in accordance with 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(2)(D).  Please include links to these materials as well.

ACF:

CMS:

FDA:

HRSA:

IHS:

NIH:

The Office of the Director regularly updates proactive disclosures in the NIH FOIA Library, found here:

https://www.nih.gov/institutes-nih/nih-office-director/office-communications-public-liaison/freedom-information-act-office/nih-foia-library

Due to the elevated interest in pandemic-related records, NIH has posted records related to this topic on this online FOIA Library.

ORS News2Use newsletter provides a lot of useful information and is publicly available on our website.  (https://news2use.ors.nih.gov/Pages/default.aspx) It is published quarterly.

CSR:

Review Matters Blog: https://www.csr.nih.gov/reviewmatters/

CSR Advisory Council Information (Agenda, minutes, video, roster etc.):

https://public.csr.nih.gov/AboutCSR/Organization/CSRAdvisoryCouncil

Study section information, rosters, and meetings dates:

https://public.csr.nih.gov/StudySections 

https://public.csr.nih.gov/RevPanelsAndDates 

CSR news and Policy:  https://public.csr.nih.gov/NewsAndPolicy 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CSRpeerreview

Review Matters blog: https://www.csr.nih.gov/reviewmatters/

DPCPSI/ORIP:

Twitter feed at homepage

https://orip.nih.gov/   

Highlighting Progress Relative to ORIP’s Strategic Plan

https://orip.nih.gov/strategic-plan/orip-theme-i/highlighting-progress-archives  

FIC:

News and feature articles about Fogarty’s programs and grantee successes, scientific publications etc.:

https://www.fic.nih.gov/News/Pages/News.aspx

Weekly funding newsletter including items of interest to global health researchers:

http://www.fic.nih.gov/Funding/News/ 

Commentary and publications by Fogarty Director:

http://www.fic.nih.gov/About/Pages/director.aspx 

Newly funded grants and awards:

http://www.fic.nih.gov/Grants/Search/Pages/search-grants.aspx 

NCATS:

Annual reports, which can be found on the right rail and bottom at https://ncats.nih.gov/about/center
Translational Science Education and Training: https://ncats.nih.gov/training-education
Funded activities under the NCATS Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA)
Program: https://ncats.nih.gov/files/ctsa-funding-information.pdf
NCATS Strategic Plan: https://ncats.nih.gov/strategicplan
NCATS Toolkit for Patient-Focused Therapy Development: https://ncats.nih.gov/toolkit
E-Newsletter: https://ncats.nih.gov/enews
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ncats.nih.gov
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ncats_nih_gov
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/national-center-for-advancing-translational-science-ncats
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ncatsmedia

NIA:

Budgets and testimony: https://www.nia.nih.gov/about/budget
Inside NIA Blog: https://www.nia.nih.gov/research/blog
Payline information and policies: https://www.nia.nih.gov/research/grants-funding/nia-specific-funding-policies

NIBIB:

NIBIB-funded science highlights: http://www.nibib.nih.gov/news-events/newsroom

Funding opportunities: http://www.nibib.nih.gov/research-funding#quicktabs-funding_tabs=1

National Advisory Council for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering meeting agendas and meeting minutes: http://www.nibib.nih.gov/about-nibib/advisory-council   

NIBIB Congressional Justification: http://www.nibib.nih.gov/about-nibib/budget   

NIDA:

The NIDA Data Share web site (https://datashare.nida.nih.gov/

NIEHS:

Databases & Searches - NTP makes several databases and online searches available at no cost. See http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/results/dbsearch/index.html

NTP Monographs - NTP conducts literature-based evaluations that assess evidence on substances in our environment that may cause adverse health effects. See https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/pubhealth/hat/index.html

NIMH:

NIMH Clinical Trials Funding Opportunity Announcements: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/funding/opportunities-announcements/clinical-trials-foas/index.shtml

Funding Opportunities: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/funding/index.shtml

NIMHD:

Director’s Corner - Director’s Corner -  http://nimhd.nih.gov/about/directors-corner/index.html

NIMHD Staff Directory - https://www.nimhd.nih.gov/about/overview/staff-directory.html 

Extramural Research Programs - https://www.nimhd.nih.gov/programs/extramural 

NIMHD Research Framework - https://nimhd.nih.gov/about/overview/research-framework.html

NIMHD funding opportunities - https://nimhd.nih.gov/funding/nimhd-funding/ 

Intramural Research Programs - https://www.nimhd.nih.gov/programs/intramural/ 

NIMHD Publications - https://www.nimhd.nih.gov/about/publications/

OIG:

OS:

OS launched several new websites in 2022 including COVID.gov; Reproductiverights.gov; HHS.gov/formula.  COVID.gov serves as a one-stop shop to help all people in the United States gain access to information about vaccines, tests, treatments, and masks, as well as the latest updates on COVID-19 in their area.  Reproductiverights.gov provides timely and accurate information about reproductive rights and access to reproductive health care.  This includes information about the right to birth control, the right to access an abortion, and the right to access other preventative health services. In addition, Reproductiverights.gov includes guidance for how to file a patient privacy or nondiscrimination complaint with HHS’s Office for Civil Rights.  HHS.gov/formula was launched to assist families unable to find baby formula and includes manufacturer hotlines, community resources, and general guidance.

OS FOIA also continued to work with the Department of Army to proactively post COVID-19 contracts to the HHS Reading Room.  Those contracts can be found here: https://www.hhs.gov/foia/electronic-reading-room/index.html            

3. Beyond posting new material, is your agency taking steps to make the posted information more useful to the public, especially to the community of individuals who regularly access your agency’s website? 

Yes

4. If yes, please provide examples of such improvements.  In particular, please describe steps your agency is taking to post information in open, machine-readable, and machine-actionable formats, to the extent feasible.  If not posting in open formats, please explain why and note any challenges.

OS provides open access to health information and health datasets on HealthData.gov.        

CDC makes data available on several subjects, including COVID-19, available on its website (https://data.cdc.gov/). 

CMS made data available in comma-separated values (CSV) format to condense the size of data files, which increases the speed of download and transmission.

HRSA makes Provider Relief Fund data and other agency data sets available in several formats, including CSV (https://data.cdc.gov/Administrative/HHS-Provider-Relief-Fund/kh8y-3es6/data; https://data.hrsa.gov/data/download).

NIH’s RePORT Expenditures and Results (RePORTER) module provides the public with an electronic tool that allows users to easily search a repository of NIH-funded research projects and access publications and patents resulting from NIH funding (https://reporter.nih.gov/).

5. Does your proactive disclosure process or system involve any collaboration with agency staff outside the FOIA office?  If so, describe this interaction.

HHS FOIA Offices strive to promote the Department’s goals of openness and transparency.  To support those goals, HHS FOIA Offices work with program offices and IT staff to proactively disclose (a)(2) records and other records sets that are most useful to the public and promote the Department’s mission of enhancing the health and well-being of all Americans.  HHS FOIA Offices also work with agency communications offices, which monitor correspondence from the public and other outside stakeholders, to gain an understanding of which topics are of greatest interest.  In addition, HHS FOIA Offices work with public affairs offices to promote the release of new records.    

6. Optional -- Please describe the best practices used to improve proactive disclosures and any challenges your agency faces in this area.

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