The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a law that provides public access to federal agency records, except for those records that are protected from disclosure by any of nine exemptions or three exclusions. The FOIA applies only to federal agencies and does not create a right of access to records held by Congress, the courts, or by state or local government agencies. The FOIA gives any person the right to request access to records of the Executive Branch of the United States Government. However, agencies are not required to do research for the requester, answer written questions, or create records in order to respond to a request.
Before making a FOIA request, it is important to determine if the information is already publicly available. You can find a lot of useful information on individual agency websites and you can also search across the government for information. If the information you want is not publicly available, you can submit a FOIA request. It’s important that you identify the correct agency for your request. There are over 100 agencies and each is responsible for handling its own FOIA requests.
