Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
37 lines (30 loc) · 3.91 KB

usda-data-inventories.md

File metadata and controls

37 lines (30 loc) · 3.91 KB
title agency date status status_link request_id last_updated summary request_letter updates
USDA Data Inventories
Department of Agriculture (USDA)
2023-01-30 00:00:00 -0500
Liberated
/documents/usda-data-inventories
2023-DA-01942-F
2023-08-04
We're requesting Department of Agriculture records describing its inventories of data and "major information systems."
date title body
2023-02-08 07:46:00 -0500
Request Acknowledged
On February 8, 2023, the USDA sent an [email 📄](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23601706-2023-02-08-2023-osec-01942-f-foia-request-acknowledgement) acknowledging the request, and categorizing the Data Liberation Project as a “news media” requester.
date title body
2023-07-26 16:25:00 -0400
Records Provided
On July 26, 2023, the USDA emailed a [final response letter 📄](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23894814-2023-07-26-2023-da-01942-f-final-response_x). "The [Office of the Chief Information Officer] searched for records responsive to your request between January 1, 2013 and the present. The search identified one excel spreadsheet responsive to your request. The spreadsheet is being released to you in full, with no exemptions applied." The letter also noted that the request tracking number had been changed from 2023-OSEC-01942-F to 2023-DA-01942-F "to accurately reflect the correct USDA action office."
date title body
2023-08-04 08:30:00 -0400
Records Published
On August 4, 2023, the Data Liberation Project [published the spreadsheet](https://www.data-liberation-project.org/documents/usda-data-inventories) received via this request.

44 U.S. Code § 3511(a) mandates that “the head of each agency shall, to the maximum extent practicable, develop and maintain a comprehensive data inventory that accounts for all data assets created by, collected by, under the control or direction of, or maintained by the agency.” These comprehensive data inventories have specific requirements, are distinct from “data catalogs,” and are not restricted to public datasets.

Another portion of federal law, 44 U.S. Code § 3505(c), requires that “[t]he head of each agency shall develop and maintain an inventory of major information systems (including major national security systems) operated by or under the control of such agency.”

Our FOIA request 📄 to the Department of Agriculture (USDA) seeks all records that contribute to the agency's fulfillment of those two requirements.

Notably, the USDA is listed as ones of the "contributing agencies" to an April 2022 report underscoring the importance of agency data inventories.

Although agency does publish a listing of datasets via https://www.usda.gov/data.json, that file appears to be substantially incomplete. As evidence: Only three agencies of the USDA (Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Farm Service Agency, and Rural Development) appear to have listed more than one non-public dataset; several agencies (such as the Rural Utilities Service and Rural Housing Service) appear not to be represented even in the public datasets; and some agencies are represented by far fewer datasets than seem to be realistic (for example, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which appears to have contributed only 3 entries to the file).

Note: The Data Liberation Project's initial attempt to submit this request through the USDA's FOIA portal appears to have failed; we resubmitted it February 7, 2023.