Skip to main content
ARS Home » Office of Communications » Foia » Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act Reference Guide
Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act Reference Guide
headline bar

FOIA services for USDA's Research, Education, and Economics (REE) agencies:

This website is a reference guide that outlines specific procedures for making a FOIA request to the REE agencies. ARS is responsible for administering the FOIA for all four REE agencies.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) provides that any person has the right to request access to Federal documents and other information. Agencies of the Federal Government are required to disclose documents after receiving a FOIA request for them, unless those documents are protected from disclosure by one of nine exemptions of the FOIA.

The REE agencies are committed to achieving the President's goal of openness and transparency in government. It is our policy to review agency records in light of this presumption of openness by fully responding to FOIA requests in a timely and efficient manner and disclosing the records to the fullest extent possible.

A comprehensive public resource for government-wide FOIA information and data can be found at FOIA.Gov.

Contents:

 

"Nothing could be more irrational than to give the people power and to withhold from them information, without which power is abused. A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both." -James Madison  

 

We Welcome Your Feedback:

The REE FOIA Office is committed to processing FOIA requests in a timely and efficient manner. To provide comments on your experience as well as suggestions for improvements, please submit an email to the REE FOIA Officers - REEFOIA@ars.usda.gov.