How to Respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request

Updated 09/25/2008

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request must be answered within 20 working days of receipt. The FOIA Officer will assign the request to the appropriate office for response.

1. Office receives a copy of the FOIA request and takes the following steps:

Determines if the office has responsive documents.

If the office does not have responsive documents,

1. A return letter is prepared to the requester which states that no responsive documents were found.
2. This letter must include an appeal paragraph (See Sample Letter #2) and must be signed by the Office Director or the FOIA Officer.

If the office has responsive documents.

1. Determine if search and review time is necessary to locate responsive material and whether fees can be charged.
2. If fees will be charged, action office must calculate amount and submit a fee estimate to the FOIA Officer within 2 days. For assistance with fee determination and calculation, see Part I attached.
3. If a fee estimate is sent to the requester, the action office is on hold until further notification from the FOIA Officer.
4. After the FOIA Officer has addressed the fee issue with the requester, the FOIA Officer will then advise the action office to begin processing the request or notify the action office that the request has been withdrawn.
5. If the action office is advised to continue processing the request, all records in the office, including archived records, should be searched for responsive documents.
6. Determine whether each document should be released in its entirety, partially denied or totally denied. If there are questions about this determination, contact the FOIA Officer for assistance.

2. Action office prepares a response letter.

If all documents are to be released, action office prepares a response letter to send with the releasable documents (See Sample Letter #1).

If documents are being partially or totally denied, the Office Director must include an appeal paragraph and must sign the letter (See Sample Letter #3).

3. Action office obtains clearance:

When the response is ready, action office prepares package including:

• Concurrence Record;
• Response letter;
• Incoming correspondence from requester; and
• Releasable and denied materials.
• Action office submits to the FOIA Officer, Room 4001 for clearance.

4. Action office signs and mails cleared package.

5. Action office provides copy of the final response letter to the FOIA Officer for inclusion in the official FOIA files.

6. For FOIA document retention requirements, please see Retention of ITA Documents.

7. Due to the sensitive nature of the information you may be providing, please take the following steps to protect Personally Identifiable  Information (PII):

• Conceal documents through the use of coversheets, folders or sealed envelopes; and
• Contact ITA FOIA Officer, Linda Bell at 202-482-4032 or via e-mail linda.bell@mail.doc.gov, before dropping off FOIA documents.