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FOIA: A Public Guide

This page explains a public right established by federal law. FDRT publishes it as an educational resource. FDRT is an independent research body and is not affiliated with any government agency. We do not file requests on anyone’s behalf. Every step below is one that any member of the public can take on their own.

Contents

  1. What FOIA is
  2. Why the law exists
  3. Who can file
  4. What you can ask for
  5. The nine exemptions
  6. Which agency holds the records
  7. How to file, step by step
  8. Cost and fee waivers
  9. Timelines and speed
  10. Appeals and mediation
  11. What FOIA has brought to light
  12. Official resources

1. What the Freedom of Information Act is

FOIA (pronounced “FOY-uh”) is a federal law that gives any person the right to request records from federal government agencies. It has existed since 1967. The principle is simple: the records the government creates doing the public’s business generally belong to the public, and a citizen should not have to explain why they want them. When you file, the agency is legally required to search for the records you describe and release them, unless a specific part of the law lets it withhold them. This right of access is enforceable in federal court. It is one of the few tools an ordinary person has to see, in the government’s own words and on the government’s own paper, what the government has actually done.

2. Why the Law Exists

A democracy depends on a public that can find out what its government is doing. Before FOIA was signed into law in 1966, there was no general right to government records; access depended on whether an official chose to grant it. FOIA reversed that default. The burden shifted from the citizen, who had to justify the request, to the government, which now has to justify withholding. Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court have all described FOIA as foundational to American self-government, built on a “presumption of openness”: records get released, and withholding is the exception the agency must justify. That is the theory. In practice the law is used far less than it could be. Most requests come from businesses, law firms, and journalists; comparatively few come from private individuals, not because the records are unavailable to them, but because most people do not know the right exists or assume the process is beyond them. It is not.

3. Who Can File a Request

Almost anyone. You do not have to be a U.S. citizen, a journalist, a lawyer, or a researcher. You do not need to explain why you want the records, with one narrow exception below (records about yourself, or a fee waiver). FOIA applies only to federal executive-branch agencies: departments like Defense, State, Justice, and Homeland Security, and independent agencies like the CIA, the FBI (part of Justice), and NASA. It does not cover Congress, the federal courts, the President’s immediate personal staff, or state and local governments. Every state has its own separate public-records law for state and local records, outside federal FOIA.

4. What You Can Ask For, and What You Cannot

You can request any existing agency record: emails, memos, reports, contracts, photographs, video, data files, meeting minutes, correspondence. You may specify the format, such as electronic files rather than paper. The firm limits, which separate a request that succeeds from one that gets rejected:
  • FOIA covers records that already exist. The law does not require an agency to create a new record, do research, analyze data, or answer questions. "Send me all reports on Project X" can work; "Tell me whether Project X existed" is a question, not a records request, and can be refused on that basis.
  • The record must be one the agency actually holds. Asking the Navy for Air Force records gets you nowhere. Identifying the right agency is the single most important step (Section 6).
  • You must reasonably describe what you want. A request bounded by subject, office, date range, and record type moves faster than "all records" about a broad topic across decades.

5. The Nine Exemptions: Why Some Records are Withheld

FOIA requires release, but Congress wrote nine categories agencies may withhold. When an agency withholds, it must tell you which exemption applies, and it must release any part of a record separable from the exempt part (which is why released documents sometimes arrive with sections blacked out, or “redacted,” rather than withheld entirely):
  • National security — properly classified defense or foreign-policy information.
  • Internal agency rules — solely internal personnel rules and practices.
  • Other laws — information another federal statute prohibits from release.
  • Trade secrets — confidential commercial or financial information from a business.
  • Internal deliberations — privileged agency communications, like draft decisions and legal advice.
  • Personal privacy — release would invade an individual's privacy.
  • Law enforcement — records where release would cause specific harms, like interfering with a case or exposing a confidential source.
  • Financial institutions — supervision of banks and similar institutions.
  • Wells — geological and geophysical information about wells.
The first, national security, is the one most often applied to the subjects this archive covers. Understand what it means: an agency invoking Exemption 1 is asserting the information is currently classified, not that it does not exist. A withholding is not a denial of existence. It is also not permanent. Classification is reviewed over time, records declassify on schedules, and a document withheld today may be released in a later request years on. Persistence is a genuine feature of how this record has been pried open.

6. How to Figure Out Which Agency Holds the Records

This is where most first-time requests go wrong, and where a few minutes of thought saves months. Requests go to the specific agency that holds the records; there is no single office that takes all requests and routes them. Work through it like this:
Match the subject to the mission of the agency. Examples relevant to this site’s topics:
  • Military aircraft program, test-range activity, or a base's operations → the relevant military department (Air Force, Army, or Navy) or the Department of Defense.
  • Records held by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, or many defense agencies and field activities → the DoD OSD/Joint Staff FOIA office, run by Washington Headquarters Services (link in Section 12).
  • Investigative or federal law-enforcement records → the FBI, through the Department of Justice.
  • Foreign-intelligence or foreign-policy records → the CIA or the Department of State.
  • Aviation incidents or airspace → the FAA, within the Department of Transportation.
  • Space, satellite, or aeronautics research → NASA.
Check whether the records are already public before you file. Agencies must post frequently requested records in online “reading rooms.” A great deal is already published, including decades of previously released files on the subjects catalogued in this archive. The central search tool at FOIA.gov searches across agencies for already-released records, which can save the wait entirely.
When a subject spans several agencies, file with each separately. One event can generate records at the Air Force, the FBI, and NASA at once, each holding a different piece. There is no penalty for parallel requests, and it is often the only way to assemble the full picture.
If you cannot tell which agency to ask, FOIA.gov includes a step-by-step tool that identifies the likely agency and builds the request. Use it rather than guessing.

7. How to File a Request, Step by Step

A request must simply be in writing and reasonably describe the records sought. There is no official form you must use.
  • Identify the right agency (Section 6).
  • Search that agency's reading room and FOIA.gov first, in case it is already released.
  • Write the request. Describe the records specifically: subject, the office likely to hold them, a date range, record type. State the format you want. To control costs, include a sentence stating the maximum you are willing to pay in fees (Section 8).
  • Submit through the agency's preferred channel. Most agencies now accept requests electronically: web form, email, or the central portal at FOIA.gov. Online submission is generally fastest and usually generates a tracking number automatically. Some agencies, including parts of Homeland Security, now require online submission and no longer accept mailed or emailed requests, so check the agency's current instructions before sending.
  • Keep your tracking number and records. You will use the number to check status and, if needed, to appeal.
Requesting records about yourself: the agency must verify your identity first, to protect your own privacy, usually via a signed statement under penalty of perjury or a notarized statement. Requesting records about another living person is harder, because their privacy is protected; you generally need their written authorization or proof they are deceased.

8. What it Costs, and How to Ask For a Fee Waiver

There is no fee just to file. Fees, when they apply, are for the work the request generates. For a typical individual, an agency may charge for search time and duplication, and by long-standing practice there is usually no charge for the first two hours of search time and the first 100 pages of duplication. Many modest requests cost nothing. Two tools keep costs down:
  • Cap your fees in advance. State the maximum you will pay. If estimates exceed it, the agency must notify you and let you narrow the request before charging.
  • Request a fee waiver. Allowed when release is in the public interest, likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of government operations and not primarily for your commercial benefit. A higher bar than a fee cap; records about yourself usually do not qualify, and inability to pay is not by itself a basis.

9. How Long it Takes, and How to Get a Faster Response

The law sets a standard 20-business-day window for the agency to make a determination, but timelines vary widely. Agencies generally work in order of receipt and many carry backlogs. A narrow, specific request is “simple” and moves faster; a broad one seeking high volume or searches across multiple offices is “complex” and takes longer. Two practical points: specificity is speed, and every agency has a FOIA Public Liaison whose job is to answer questions, explain delays, and help resolve problems, contacting them is free and often the quickest way to unstick a stalled request. In limited situations you can request expedited processing. The bar is high: show either that delay could reasonably threaten someone’s life or physical safety, or that you are primarily engaged in disseminating information to the public and there is genuine urgency to inform the public about actual or alleged government activity. If it applies, state it clearly and certify it is true.

10. If Your Request is Denied: Appeals and Mediation

A denial is not the end. If an agency withholds records, refuses your request, or you believe its search was inadequate, you have the right to file an administrative appeal, at no cost. It is usually as simple as emailing the agency’s designated appeal authority, stating you are appealing and referencing your tracking number. A different official, independent of the first, reviews it. Agencies release additional records at appeal more often than people expect, because the first decision may have applied an exemption too broadly. If that does not resolve it, the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), part of the National Archives, offers free mediation as an alternative to court. And because the right of access is enforceable in court, a requester who has exhausted the administrative process can ultimately sue. Most never need to; knowing the option exists is often enough to move an agency.

11. What FOIA has Brought to Light

FOIA is not a theoretical right. For decades, individual requesters, researchers, and journalists have used it to move information from government files into the public record. Through FOIA and related declassification, agencies have released large volumes of previously withheld material, including files on Cold War programs, historical intelligence activities, and government studies never before public. On the subjects catalogued in this archive specifically, the public record exists in large part because people asked for it: government files on mid-20th-century investigations, declassified program records, and official assessments have entered the public domain through requests and declassification review, and now sit in agency reading rooms available to anyone. The documents indexed throughout this site are, in many cases, records that became public precisely because someone exercised this right. The record has been pried open one request at a time, over decades, by ordinary people who understood the law entitled them to ask. That work is unfinished, and the tools to continue it are available to anyone reading this page.

12. Official Resources and Links

Official U.S. government resources, the authoritative sources. Where anything on this page differs from them, follow the government source.
  • FOIA.gov (central government FOIA site, learn the process, search already-released records, use the request tool, start a request): https://www.foia.gov/
  • DoD OSD/Joint Staff FOIA Requester Service Center (Washington Headquarters Services, FOID, processes requests for OSD, the Joint Staff, and numerous defense agencies and field activities): https://www.esd.whs.mil/FOID/
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