On August 10, 2022, the Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) denied a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) appeal filed by Saurabh Dixit from a final determination letter issued by the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Public Information (OPI). Appellant's FOIA request sought a list of organizations having embargoes, a list of restrictions imposed on organizations by DOE, and a list of restrictions on foreign nationals who have past associations with embargoed organizations. OPI referred Appellant's request to the DOE Office of Environment, Health, Safety, and Security (EHSS) to perform a search. EHSS conducted an electronic search for records including a search for several forms of electronic documentation, but found no responsive documents.

On appeal, Appellant argued that his request to visit one of DOE's national labs was rejected because of his past association with an embargoed organization, and asserted that because DOE conducts very strict screening for foreign visits and assignments, DOE must have the responsive records. OHA contacted EHSS, and discovered that the EHSS subject matter expert (SME) who performed the search has in-depth knowledge and expertise of past and current requirements and policies for agency-level unclassified foreign national access including foreign national access to DOE sites. The EHSS SME explained that if Appellant's requested documents existed in DOE records, it would have been collected in the FACTS system, which documents and tracks foreign national access across the DOE complex. Further, EHSS's electronic search was most likely to uncover responsive documents because the entire policy development process for the relevant DOE Order, DOE Order 142.3B-Unclassified Foreign National Access Program, was conducted online. EHSS had searched using search terms provided in the FOIA request and focused on obtaining any information that indicated that DOE had either developed or implemented restrictions on foreign national access. Upon review, OHA found that EHSS provided a sufficiently detailed description of its search, and determined that the search was reasonably calculated to uncover responsive documents . Accordingly, OHA denied Appellant's appeal. (OHA Case No. FIA-22-0024)