In November 2022, the Data Liberation Project sent the Department of Agriculture a request for data from — and documentation of — the agency’s Web Based Supply Chain Management System (WBSCM), which it uses for coordinating the purchase and distribution of federal food and commodity orders.
In conversations with the Data Liberation Project, the agency said it was unable to export the data records requested; the Data Liberation Project agreed to re-focus the request on the documentation records. The agency initially refused to provide those records, citing FOIA exemptions 3 and 7(E). After the Data Liberation Project appealed this decision (with the assistance of the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic), the USDA has begun to provide the records.
On April 19, 2024, the USDA provided a “first supplemental response” of 356 pages of records:
- Part 1A_Redacted.pdf (59 pages): Materials from various WBSCM user trainings dated August 2018, March 2022, July 2022, March 2023, April 2023, September 2023, and October 2023.
- Part 1B_Redacted.pdf (70 pages): Materials from various WBSCM user trainings dated October 2017, March 2022, September 2023, and January 2024. Includes a list of WMSCM document types (pp. 2–4), list of user roles (pp. 36–40), and glossary (pp. 41–49).
- Part 2_Redacted.pdf (110 pages): Materials from various WBSCM user trainings dated November 2019, October 2020, November 2021, July 2022, March 2023, June 2023, September 2023, and February 2024. Includes a glossary (pp. 30–34) and definitions of various status codes (pp. 82–88).
- Part 3A_Redacted.pdf (57 pages): Materials from various WBSCM user trainings dated December 2016, June 2017, August 2017, June 2019, October 2019, September 2020, May 2021, September 2021, September 2021, October 2022, December 2023, and March 2024. Includes definitions of complaint statuses and resolutions (pp. 3-5), purchase requisition statuses (p. 25), domestic fulfillment processes and terms (pp. 26–39), and national warehouse movement types (pp. 40–42).
- Part 3B_Redacted.pdf (60 pages). Materials from various WBSCM user trainings dated July 2014, December 2016, and December 2021. Also includes an short XML file definition of unknown provenance (p. 56).
The agency says it is reviewing additional records for disclosure.