Current and former employees of the Department of Stateįor more information on the organization and responsibility of the Department of State, go to Department Organization.īefore submitting a request for Department of State records, you may wish to search through the Department’s FOIA website and the websites of the offices and bureaus within the Department of State.Visa requests from non-citizens to enter the U.S.The administration and operations of the Department of State and U.S.The Department of State maintains records dealing with: You may access these records by visiting the Department’s Administrative Rulings, Policy Statements, and Other Publications. Subsection (a)(2) of the FOIA requires that certain types of records - final agency opinions and orders rendered in the adjudication of cases, specific policy statements, certain administrative staff manuals, and some records previously processed for disclosure under the Act - be routinely made "available for public inspection and copying.” This was commonly referred to as the "Reading Room" provision. Records falling within exclusion are not subject to the requirements of the FOIA. The third exclusion is limited to the FBI and protects the existence of foreign intelligence or counterintelligence, or international terrorism records when the existence of such records is classified. The second exclusion is limited to criminal law enforcement agencies and protects the existence of informant records when the informant’s status has not been officially confirmed. The first exclusion protects the existence of an ongoing criminal law enforcement investigation when the subject of the investigation is unaware that it is pending and disclosure could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings. The provisions protecting those records are known as “exclusions”. geological and geophysical information.Ĭongress provided special protection in the FOIA for three narrow categories of law enforcement and national security records.information concerning bank supervision and.law enforcement records or information.inter-agency or intra-agency memoranda or letters that are protected by legal privileges.trade secrets and confidential business information.information that is exempt under other laws.internal personnel rules and practices.classified information for national defense or foreign policy.The nine exemption categories that authorize government agencies to withhold information are: The FOIA does not require agencies to do research for you, answer written questions, or in any other way create records (such as lists or statistics) in order to respond to a request.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 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) generally provides that any person has the right to request access to federal agency records or information except to the extent the records are protected from disclosure by any of nine exemptions contained in the law or by one of three special law enforcement record exclusions.The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is found in Title 5 of the United States Code, Section 552. Title 22 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), part 171, will provide all of the necessary information needed to file a request for access to Department of State records. One of these milestones requires the Department to consolidate information on requesting access to Department of State records into a single document.Ĭonsistent with these requirements, the Office of Information Programs and Services (IPS) has prepared this guide for requesting Department of State records. The Department of State’s plan, entitled “Review of Department FOIA Operations and Plan for Improvement” lists a number of milestones for improving the Department’s FOIA operations. Bush issued Executive Order 13392, part of which required each agency to provide a plan for improving the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The amendments require agencies to prepare a guide for requesting access to information maintained by the appropriate agency. The Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 1996 (E-FOIA) was signed into law on October 2, 1996.
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