On May 3, 2023, the Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) denied a Privacy Act Appeal filed by VP (Appellant) from a determination letter issued by the Department of Energy's ( DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). In the Appeal, the Appellant challenged the adequacy of the search by NNSA in response to her March 7, 2023 Privacy Act request.
The Appellant argued that NNSA had not used sufficient search terms and had not searched all relevant NNSA offices but did not identify any terms or offices that were not searched. The NNSA analyst responsible for responding to the request provided documentation that NNSA had conducted a search in the one NNSA office that conducts background investigations. She further explained that many of the records that the Appellant was asking for were the property of the third -party contractor, and, therefore, the government did not have access to them. Accordingly, the Appeal was denied. (OHA Case No. PAA-23-0001)