American Small Business League v. United States Small Business Administration

• Court: District Court, N.D. California
• Decided: August 29, 2023
• Docket: 3:22-cv-03325
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

AMERICAN SMALL BUSINESS Case No. 22-cv-03325-VC LEAGUE,

Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING THE UNITED STATES SMALL BUSINESS v. ADMINISTRATION'S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT; DENYING UNITED STATES SMALL BUSINESS THE AMERICAN SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, LEAGUE'S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT Defendant. Re: Dkt. Nos. 34, 35

The Small Business Administration’s motion for summary judgment is granted. The SBA located and produced the records in its possession that were responsive to the American Small Business League’s original request. It did so in a .csv file. It is undisputed that ASBL currently has access to the information contained in that .csv file. No further relief is warranted under the Freedom of Information Act. The SBA is not obligated to request the original records from the General Services Administration nor to perform a search of the GSA’s records for any information that the SBA does not itself maintain: an agency is only obligated to produce records that are in its possession. Rojas v. Federal Aviation Administration, 989 F. 3d 666, 677 (9th Cir. 2021); see also Skurow v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 892 F. Supp. 2d 319, 328 (D.D.C. September 26, 2012). Having had its original FOIA request met, ASBL cannot then expand the request to reach additional records or alternate formats. ASBL v. U.S. Office of Management and Budget, 631 F. Supp. 3d 804, 819–21 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 28, 2022). The original FOIA request makes no mention of any desired file format (other than asking that the produced records be contained in a single database to the extent possible). And this is not a case where the format offered by the agency was unworkable. Thus, ASBL is not entitled to a .bak file in addition to the responsive .csv file. The original FOIA request also makes no mention of the criteria used by the agency to determine or verify whether a business is “small.” Thus, ASBL is not entitled to those records. Moreover, the SBA has stated that it has no such records, as it does not independently assess the size of the businesses that it reports on in yearly goaling or Scorecards. Dkt. No. 35-1, Le Declaration, at 2— 3.

IT IS SO ORDERED. Dated: August 29, 2023 VINCE CHHABRIA United States District Judge