The FOIA offices in the bureaus/offices of the Department of the Interior are continuing to process FOIA requests to the best of their ability during the COVID-19 pandemic.
To keep employees healthy and safe, the Department is maximizing telework flexibility and employing social distancing protocols. As a result of these precautions, most employees are working remotely and unable to collect hard copy records located in government facilities at this time. If your request is for hard copy records, the response to your request will very likely be delayed.
In addition, employees may not receive FOIA requests that are sent by U.S. mail, overnight mail services, or facsimile in a timely manner. We recommend, therefore, that requesters submit requests through FOIAonline, a secure, web-based tracking and case-management system, at https://www.foiaonline.gov or the government-wide portal at https://www.foia.gov.
You may use the below contact information to ask questions to the bureau/office FOIA Contacts to assist you in determining what information you can obtain without submitting a FOIA request or where such information may be located. Please note that FOIA requests submitted via email, whether sent to any of the below FOIA Contacts or elsewhere, will not be accepted for processing and will be returned to you with instructions to resubmit the requests using FOIAonline at https://www.foiaonline.gov or the government-wide portal at https://www.foia.gov. Alternatively, you may send a letter or facsimile to an appropriate FOIA contact.
Additionally, you may contact the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) for assistance. OGIS serves as a bridge between requesters and agencies, particularly in situations where clear, direct communication has been lacking. You can reach OGIS by email at ogis@nara.gov, by phone at 1-877-684-6448, or by fax at (202) 741-5769.
*Effective October 7, 2014, the Office of the Secretary handles all ONRR FOIA requests.
If you have comments about the DOI FOIA Program or its website or would like to offer suggestions for improvement, you can submit them via our customer comment form. Please note that if your comments are not related to the operation of this website or the mission of the DOI FOIA Office, we may not respond. The Department of the Interior FOIA Office's toll-free telephone number is 1-888-603-7119.