USDA CIO 2015 Edge Summit

1. 2015 Edge Summit
FOIA in the Federal IT Environment
December 8, 2015
USDA Chief Information Officer
Jonathan Alboum
United States
Department
of Agriculture
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2. United States
Department
of Agriculture
• Helps keep America's farmers and
ranchers in business despite the weather
and market uncertainties via commodity,
credit, conservation, disaster, and
emergency assistance programs
• Works to end hunger and improve health
in the U.S. through domestic nutrition
assistance programs and science-based
dietary guidance, policy and education
• Ensures that the Nation's commercial
supply of meat, poultry, and egg products
is safe, wholesome, and properly labeled
and packaged
marketing of U.S. agricultural products
and ensures the health and care of
animals and plants
• Supports a safe, sustainable, competitive
U.S. food and fiber system, as well as
strong communities, families, and youth
through integrated research, analysis and
education
• Helps improve the rural economy and
quality of life through financial programs
that support essential public facilities and
services. Promotes economic
development by providing loans to
businesses
A Diverse Mission & Portfolio
Through 17 agencies and 17 offices, USDA:
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3. Mission | Performance |
Stewardship
OCIO
Offices
Agencies
USDA Agencies
1. Agricultural Marketing Service
2. Agricultural Research Service
3. Animal & Plant Health Inspection
Service
4. Center for Nutrition Policy &
Promotion
5. Economic Research Service
6. Farm Service Agency
7. Food & Nutrition Service
8. Food Safety & Inspection Service
9. Foreign Agricultural Service
10. Forest Service
11. Grain Inspection, Packers & Stockyards
Administration
12. National Agricultural Library
13. National Agricultural Statistics Service
14. National Institute of Food &
Agriculture
15. Natural Resources Conservation Service
16. Risk Management Agency
17. Rural Development
USDA Offices
1. Departmental Management
2. National Appeals Division
3. Office of Advocacy & Outreach
4. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil
Rights
5. Office of Budget & Program Analysis
6. Office of the Chief Economist
7. Office of the Chief Financial Officer
8. Office of the Chief Information Officer
9. Office of the Chief Scientist
10. Office of Communications
11. Office of Congressional Relations
12. Office of Environmental Markets
13. Office of the Executive Secretariat
14. Faith-Based & Neighborhood
Partnerships
15. Office of the Inspector General
16. Office of the General Counsel
17. Office of Tribal Relations
The Challenge
17 USDA Agencies with diverse missions and funding sources plus 17 USDA Offices working
collaboratively to deliver our missions and provide our customers a single customer experience while
being good resource stewards.
United States
Department
of Agriculture
3

4. The Federated Environment within USDA
• Without a sense of larger identity, the environment has a tendency
to become “stove-piped,” with a lack of cohesion and
collaboration between USDA agencies
• Agencies and Offices tend to operate as individual entities, and
have difficulty coordinating across functional areas
• The above environment would make it difficult to carry out a
comprehensive and timely Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
program within USDA
United States
Department
of Agriculture
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5. Steps Taken to Increase FOIA Cohesion and Collaboration
• Coordinated with program offices and program managers to elicit their
concerns and issues and build trust
• Created FOIA training courses specifically tailored for FOIA professionals and
to USDA Program Managers/Executives
• Revitalized FOIA Council to better identify issues, build support for investing
in technology and improve the transparency of the FOIA Program
United States
Department
of Agriculture
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6. Implementing IT Technology to Improve FOIA Program Delivery
Implementation of the following four software tools contributed substantially to
decrease overall Department processing time for FOIA records:
1. Enterprise Wide Solution for Tracking and Processing FOIAs and Privacy Act Requests
• Tracks and stores from receipt to response all incoming requests
• Produces USDA reports including those required by the Department of Justice’s Office of
Information Policy
2. Public Access Link (PAL)
• Submits request electronically through a link on our FOIA website
• Tracks the status of requests and downloads records responsive to those requests.
3. e-Discovery Platform
• Identifies duplicate records and provides the ability to search and categorize records;
• Provides the ability to rank and view records by “record custodian”
4. Legal Research Engine
• Provides the ability to do legal research on FOIA matters
United States
Department
of Agriculture
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7. Accomplishments
Despite the USDA Federated Environment, increased Coordination,
Collaboration and building Trust among FOIA Employees across
Agencies/Staff Offices resulted in the following:
• In FY15, the average processing time for simple FOIAs fell below 10 working days, down from
26.5 in FY10
• USDA received a high release rate of 97.9 % for requests processed for disclosure.
• USDA FOIA Service Center processed approximately 96% of the 19,864 FOIA requests received
and decreased its backlog by 69.69%
• Backlogged FOIA requests were eliminated by Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS), Grain
Inspection, Packers & Stockyards (GIPSA), Office of Budget & Program Analysis (OBPA), and
Research Education, Economics (REE)
• Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) decreased its backlog by 86%.
• Slight reductions were also reported in the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) and Rural
Development (RD)
United States
Department
of Agriculture
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8. Recognized Achievements
• USDA FOIA program this year received two 2015 Department of Justice
Sunshine Awards
• USDA ranked #1 in the Center for Effective Government’s 2015 Access to
Information Scorecard
United States
Department
of Agriculture
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9. General Principles for Mission Success
1. Openly communicate the benefits of working together to share information,
collaborate, and make information available
2. Embedding concept of customer service in federal space
3. Promote genuine concern for interacting with individuals/customers and meeting
and exceeding the individuals/customers expectations
4. Develop a strategy that focus’ on the benefits of collaboration to enhance decision-
making, to leverage resources and to develop approaches to share information
5. Identify and publicize best practices and success stories in the development of a
collaborative communications strategy
6. Adopt and leverage new value added Information Technology
United States
Department
of Agriculture

10. Examples where the General Principles can be Applied to
IT Activities within USDA include:
1. Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA)
2. Cybersecurity
3. Shared Services
4. Data Center Consolidation
5. IT Network Modernization
United States
Department
of Agriculture
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