U.S. Forest Service (USFS)
For Forest Service records involving national forests, wildfire, permits, timber, contracts, incidents, and policies.
72 federal components · 30 detailed guides
Federal FOIA Agency Directory
Choose the component that created or controls the records. The 30 highest-use entries have dedicated crawlable guides; every listed component can launch directly into the request builder.
Department of Agriculture
Department of Commerce
Department of Commerce
Commerce is decentralized. NOAA, Census, NIST, USPTO and other bureaus may have separate FOIA contacts.
Department of Defense
Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA)
Often relevant to federal background-investigation and security-clearance records. First-party requests may require identity verification.
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
For DIA records. National-security exemptions are common; request identifiable records and narrow date ranges when possible.
Department of Defense (DoD)
DoD is highly decentralized. If you know the military service or defense component that created the record, submit there directly.
Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (DoD OIG)
Separate FOIA office for DoD OIG audits, investigations, evaluations, and oversight records.
Department of the Air Force
For Air Force and certain Space Force agency records. Use the official page to route to the responsible FOIA office.
Department of the Army
For Army-created agency records. Personnel and service records may instead be held by military personnel centers or the National Archives.
Department of the Navy
For Navy-created records. Marine Corps maintains its own FOIA resources for many USMC records.
National Security Agency (NSA)
For NSA records. National-security exemptions are common. The NSA reading room contains many historical releases.
Department of Defense / Intelligence Community
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
For NGA agency records and geospatial-intelligence materials, subject to national-security restrictions.
National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)
For NRO records, including some historical satellite and reconnaissance material. Declassified records are available online.
Department of Education
Department of Education
For Education Department policy, program, enforcement, grant, and administrative records. Individual student-loan records may have separate access methods.
Department of Energy
Department of Energy (DOE)
For DOE agency records, including energy policy, national laboratories, contracts, and historical nuclear-related records, subject to classification restrictions.
Department of Health and Human Services
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
For CDC agency records, public-health response, communications, contracts, policy, and scientific-administrative records.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
For CMS policy, program, provider, contract, and administrative records. Individual claims and beneficiary records may use separate access processes.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
HHS is decentralized. For CDC, NIH, FDA, CMS, or another HHS component, submit directly to that component.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
For FDA records such as inspection materials, regulatory files, approval-related records, policy, and correspondence. Many items are already public.
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
For NIH agency records, including many grant, administrative, policy, and research-management records. Published scientific results may already be available elsewhere.
Department of Homeland Security
DHS Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG)
Separate from DHS Headquarters. Useful for DHS OIG audits, investigations, hotline-related records, and oversight materials.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS Headquarters)
Use DHS Headquarters for headquarters records. Component records are usually better sent directly to CBP, ICE, TSA, USCIS, Secret Service, FEMA, Coast Guard, or another DHS component.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
For FEMA disaster-response, grant, policy, contract, and administrative records. Some individual disaster-assistance records may use specialized access processes.
Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
For TSA records, screening policies, and certain traveler records. Traveler redress issues may belong in DHS TRIP rather than FOIA.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
Best starting point for many A-File and immigration-benefit records. USCIS offers an online FOIA process and electronic reading room.
U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)
For Coast Guard records, maritime enforcement, vessel-related agency records, investigations, and policies. Use the official FOIA page to identify the right component.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
A common destination for border-crossing, entry/exit, customs, inspection, apprehension, and CBP encounter records.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
For ICE enforcement, detention, ERO, and HSI records. Immigration files can be split across USCIS, ICE, CBP, and EOIR.
United States Secret Service (USSS)
For Secret Service agency records such as policies, administrative records, financial-crime records, historical protective records, and other USSS records. Some protective, privacy, and law-enforcement information can be withheld.
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
For HUD program, housing, enforcement, grant, contract, and administrative records.
Department of Justice
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
For ATF agency records. Firearms trace and investigative information can be heavily constrained by statutes and FOIA exemptions.
DOJ Office of the Inspector General (DOJ OIG)
Separate FOIA office for DOJ OIG records, including audits, reviews, investigations, and oversight materials.
Department of Justice — Office of Information Policy (OIP)
OIP processes certain DOJ senior-management records and handles DOJ-wide FOIA policy. Component records should generally go directly to the relevant DOJ component.
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
For DEA investigative, policy, administrative, and registration-related records, subject to law-enforcement and privacy exemptions.
Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR)
For immigration court and Board of Immigration Appeals records held by EOIR. Court-file access and FOIA are not always identical, so follow EOIR instructions for the record type.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
FBI handles federal investigative records and first-party FOIA/Privacy Act requests. The FBI Vault may already contain frequently requested historical records.
Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
For federal prison, inmate, facility, policy, incident, and administrative records. First-party inmate records may require identity verification.
U.S. Marshals Service (USMS)
For USMS records involving fugitive operations, detention/transport, asset forfeiture, and agency administration. Sensitive law-enforcement information may be withheld.
Department of Labor
Department of Labor (DOL)
DOL has multiple components such as OSHA and Wage and Hour. Submit to the component that created the records where possible.
Department of State
Department of State
For diplomatic, foreign-policy, embassy, and many State Department records. Some passport or visa records use specialized procedures.
Department of Transportation
Department of Transportation (DOT)
Use DOT headquarters for department-level records. FAA, NHTSA, FRA, and FMCSA maintain their own FOIA channels.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
For FAA regulatory, certification, enforcement, safety, airport, and administrative records. Accident-investigation records may also involve NTSB.
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)
For FMCSA motor-carrier, commercial-driver, enforcement, safety, and administrative records.
Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)
For FRA rail-safety, inspection, enforcement, accident-related, and administrative records.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
For NHTSA vehicle-safety, recall, defect, enforcement, research, and administrative records.
Department of Veterans Affairs
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
VA is decentralized. Health, benefits, police, contracting, and other records may be held by different VA components.
Department of the Interior
Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
For BLM public-land, lease, permit, enforcement, environmental, and administrative records.
National Park Service (NPS)
For National Park Service records, including park administration, incidents, concessions, contracts, and policies.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)
For Fish and Wildlife Service records, including permits, enforcement, species, refuge, and agency policy materials.
Department of the Navy
U.S. Marine Corps (USMC)
For Marine Corps agency records. Service-member personnel records may use separate records channels.
Department of the Treasury
Department of the Treasury
Treasury has multiple bureaus with separate FOIA offices. If you know the bureau, use it directly.
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)
For FinCEN agency records. Certain Bank Secrecy Act information, including Suspicious Activity Reports, is protected from disclosure.
Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
Tax-return transcripts and copies often use IRS tax-record forms rather than FOIA. FOIA is useful for agency policy and other non-return records.
Executive Office of the President — FOIA-covered component
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
OMB is an Executive Office of the President component subject to FOIA. This differs from the President’s immediate personal staff and advisory White House Office.
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)
USTR is a FOIA-covered EOP component. For trade-policy, negotiation, tariff, and agency records.
Independent Agency
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
For Board records. Some bank-supervision and financial-institution information can be protected from disclosure.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
CIA requests can involve national-security exemptions. For specifically identified classified historical material, Mandatory Declassification Review may sometimes be an alternative to FOIA.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
For CFTC records involving commodities, futures, derivatives, enforcement, and agency operations.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
EPA regions and program offices can hold different records. Include the facility, location, permit, site, or program when possible.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
For FCC records involving telecommunications, broadcasting, spectrum, licensing, complaints, and agency policy.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
For FDIC records, including agency operations and some failed-bank materials, subject to financial and commercial confidentiality protections.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
For FTC enforcement, competition, consumer-protection, complaint, and administrative records.
General Services Administration (GSA)
For GSA procurement, federal-property, contract, policy, and administrative records.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
For NASA administrative, mission, contract, policy, and program records. NASA centers may route requests to their own FOIA offices.
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
For NARA operational records and some archival federal records. Access rules vary by record group. Classified archival records may involve FOIA, Special Access, or Mandatory Declassification Review.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)
For NTSB agency records. Many accident dockets and investigation materials are already posted publicly; search those before filing.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
For NRC regulatory and licensing records. Many NRC documents are already available in ADAMS.
Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
For OPM agency records. Individual personnel or retirement files can involve separate access channels and Privacy Act requirements.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Check EDGAR and the SEC FOIA document library first. FOIA is for agency records that are not already publicly available.
Social Security Administration (SSA)
Personal earnings and benefit records often have direct SSA access processes. FOIA is especially useful for agency policy and non-personal administrative records.
U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)
For SBA administrative, loan-program, contract, grant, and policy records. Personal or commercial information may be redacted.
Independent Bureau
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
For CFPB enforcement, supervision, policy, complaint-data, and administrative records, subject to applicable confidentiality rules.
Independent Establishment
United States Postal Service (USPS)
For USPS agency records. U.S. Postal Inspection Service records may be routed separately.