The Public's Right to Know

By Eimear Murphy, Legal Intern, Freedom of Information Act Office

Sunshine Week, March 16-20, is a nationwide annual celebration of access to public information. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a law that gives you the right to access information from the federal government. It is often described as the law that keeps citizens in the know about their government.

A good FOIA request will save you valuable time and money. FOIA requests must be made in writing outlining the record that is sought. The FOIA Office at the Administration of Children and Families accepts requests via email, fax, postal service and FedEx. A FOIA request can also be submitted online. From time to time requests may be referred from other divisions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and from other federal agencies. In order to make the search as straightforward as possible, there are certain key points to remember when submitting a request:

• Is my request for information a FOIA request? Not every request for information is a FOIA request. A FOIA request is a request for an existing federal agency record. FOIA does not apply to state or local records. You must contact the relevant state and local authorities for these records.
• Do I need to ensure that the record is an existing record? Yes! Agencies are not required to create new documents to respond to your request nor are they required to do further research for you.
• Is there a time limit to ACF’s retention of records? Yes! The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), available at http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/grs/ maintains a records schedule which outlines the general categories of records and lists how long the records in each category are kept. Agency records may also be stored off-site in a NARA storage facility.
• What else should I know before sending in my request? Check  to see if the information can be obtained from online resources. Certain agency records are available online. Check the websites of the various government agencies. For example, the ACF website has policy documents, annual reports and successful grant applications available online.
• Who should I send my request to? You should send requests to the FOIA Office. Also, check that you are sending the FOIA request to the correct agency. This may seem obvious but we do receive requests that are incorrectly sent to ACF. Do some research to determine if ACF has the types of records you are requesting.
• What information should my FOIA request contain? Include appropriate contact information. A mailing address, phone number and email address will allow for easy correspondence. Particularly, an email address will let us send you an automated response that your request has been received. An email address will also allow us to send you the documents electronically, if relevant.
  • State that your request is a Freedom of Information Act Request. This will ensure that the FOIA Officer handles your request.
  • Be as specific as possible.
  • The more specific the request, the easier it will be for the FOIA Officer to understand the nature of the request.
    • Submit factual background information
  • The more information provided to the FOIA Officer, the easier it will be to determine what documents are relevant to your request.
    • Include a document date range. This will help narrow the scope of the document search.
  • What about fees? If the request doesn’t include a statement of fees, we will assume that there is no specific fee limit to your request. If you include a specific fee limit, the FOIA Officer can contact you if the fees are likely to exceed this. Fees are charged according to three criteria as follows:
    • Commercial Use Requesters – charged for search time, document review and duplication.
    • Representatives of the News Media, Educational Institutions and Noncommercial Scientific Institutions – charged for duplication only (after the first 100 pages).
    • All Other Requesters – charged for search time (after two hours) and duplication (after 100 pages).
    • The FOIA Office may waive fees if the request meets the legal standards for disclosure in the public interest.