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Agencies are required to respond to a FOIA request within 20 business days, excluding
Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays. For the Privacy Act, the time limit is 10
business days. This period does not begun until the request is actually received
by the FOIA office.
In specific situations, an additional 10-day extension may be granted in responding
to a request. The FOIA provides for extensions of initial time limits under unusual
circumstances, which are defined as 1) the need to search for and collect records from
separate offices; 2) the need to examine a voluminous amount of records required by the
request; and 3) the need to consult with another agency within 20 working days of
receiving it.
If there is a delay in fulfilling your request beyond the 20-day time frame, we will
notify you. Our response might include an explanation of how soon we can provide the
records you requested, a copy of all the records you requested, a portion of the records
requested with an explanation of why we withheld some records, or an explanation that we
have found no records responsive to your request. When we deny records or cannot find
them, you have a right to appeal our actions with 45-days of the date of our reply to
you.
For more information, contact Terrie Ray
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