FOIA

Federal agencies are allowed to charge “reasonable” costs for responding to your FOIA request. This typically includes fees for the time the record-keeper spends searching for the correct documents as well as the cost of duplicating those documents. See 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(4)(A).

FOIA breaks down requesters into three categories for determining fees:

• Commercial use requesters, who must pay all fees for search, duplication, and review
• Requesters from the professional media, educational institutions, and scientific institutions, who do not have to pay search fees and only pay duplication costs after the first 100 pages
• All other requestors, who pay search fees after the first two hours and duplication costs after the first 100 pages

Note that this means that small requests should always be free as long as the information is not intended for commercial purposes. Also, you should always be as specific as possible when describing the documents in your initial FOIA request. This will reduce the amount of time that the record-keeper must spend searching for the documents, which will potentially save you money.   read more »

Technically, government organizations must respond to a FOIA request with a denial or grant of access within 20 business days. Note that the agency must only respond within 20 days; it does not have to deliver the records within the 20-day time period. The time period does not begin until the proper agency or office actually receives your request. Furthermore, under the new 2007 FOIA amendments, the agency may exceed the 20-day time limit if it needs to request more information from you in order to process your request.

Agencies may extend this time limit by up to 10 additional working days (they must informing you they are doing so) if one of the following "exceptional circumstances" exists: the record-keeper must search an extraordinary amount of records; the search involves records from multiple offices; or the search involves records from multiple organizations. See the FOIA Guide's section on time limits for a more detailed explanation. If your request cannot be fulfilled within these time periods, the agency may ask you to reasonably modify your request or allow for an alternative time frame.

Realistically, many agencies do not comply with these time limits. Some agencies may have a large backlog of requests, and they are usually permitted to treat requests on a "first come, first served" basis as long as they devote a reasonable amount of staff to responding to the requests. These agencies generally have a processing system that allows simpler requests to be handled quickly so that these requests do not have to "wait in line" behind more complex requests.   read more »

Written requests are the only way to legally assert your FOIA rights. These should be mailed, faxed, e-mailed, or hand-delivered to the relevant agency’s offices, depending on which methods the agency allows. A quick online search of the "agency's name" and "FOIA" should provide you with specific information about how the particular agency accepts FOIA requests. If you can't find the information through an online search, check the Federal Register, which should include this information.

A FOIA request should be addressed to the agency's FOIA officer or the head of the agency. It must include:   read more »

While the records you've requested might be covered by FOIA, the information contained in the records may relate to certain subject areas that are exempt from disclosure under FOIA. FOIA contains nine exemptions that might impact your request:   read more »

Any records created, possessed, or controlled by a federal regulatory agency, cabinet and military departments, offices, commissions, government-controlled corporations, the Executive Office of the President, and other organizations of the Executive Branch of the federal government must be disclosed unless the information contained in the records is covered by a specific FOIA exemption. FOIA only extends to existing records; you cannot compel an agency to create or search for information that is not already in its records. Nor can you use FOIA to compel agencies to answer your general questions under FOIA. However, you sometimes can agree to accept information in an abbreviated form rather than the actual documents.

Agencies are required to make the following records available for public inspection and copying without a formal FOIA request via the Federal Register:

• final opinions made in the adjudication of cases;
• unpublished policy statements and agency interpretations;
• staff manuals that affect the public;
• copies of records released in response to previous FOIA requests have been or will likely be the subject of additional requests; and
• a general index of released records determined to have been or likely to be the subject of additional requests.

If you are interested in records that don't fall into one of these categories, you will need to file a FOIA request. See the section on How to Request Records Under FOIA in this guide for more information.

Physical Records   read more »

There are a number of ways that you can receive government records. The easiest method is to access an agency's online “reading room” which provides free access to certain government documents. If you can't get what you want through a reading room, you should carefully consider how (and in what form) you want the responding agency to provide the documents to you.

Before you jump into filing a FOIA request, however, you should spend some time researching which agency or agencies have the records you want. There is no central depository for federal government information, and each agency has its own office for handling FOIA requests. This can make your search rather difficult, but there are a number of resources that may help you in determining which federal entities are likely to have the information you seek:   read more »

You have several options if your FOIA request is denied in whole or in part. First, you can attempt to resolve informally any disputes you have with the responding agency. If informal resolution fails, you should appeal the denial within the relevant agency before taking any other action. If your appeal is unsuccessful and the agency withheld the information because it is classified, you can apply to have the information declassified. If these options have failed to resolve the dispute, you can seek mediation through the newly authorized FOIA ombudsman or file a lawsuit in court to enforce your rights under FOIA.

Each of these options is described briefly in this section.

Informal Resolution

The simplest -- and often most effective -- remedy is to seek informal resolution of the dispute. Delays are frequently due to the overworked nature of most FOIA officers. Your offer to "revise" or "narrow" the scope of your request can go a long way toward getting faster, and better, treatment of your request. If you revise your request, be sure to make clear that you willingness to compromise is not considered a "new" request by the agency (a new request will start the FOIA clock running again). If the agency tells you that the records don't exist, ask them to describe their search methodology. Perhaps they aren't looking for the right things or in the right places. It might also help if you offer to resolve fee or fee waiver issues by paying a small amount.

While you engage in informal resolution be sure and keep records of all of your contacts with the agency. Track all time and response deadlines carefully.

Appealing within the Relevant Agency   read more »