Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
The Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA (5 U.S.C. 552, as amended), generally provides
any person with the statutory right, enforceable in court, to obtain access to Government
information in executive branch agency records. This right to access is limited
when information is protected from disclosure by one of FOIA's nine statutory exemptions.
Federal Register publications, including the daily Federal Register, the
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Federal Register/CFR
indexes, and the Public Laws are not subject to the request for records provisions
of the FOIA. Under the FOIA, our publications are made available to the public through
numerous sources, including this website, the
GPO Access service, the GPO sales program,
and most of the 1,300 Government depository
libraries located throughout the nation.
For more information, see the National
Archives and Records Administration Freedom of Information Act Reference Guide.
Revised March 2004. This Guide provides instructions for obtaining information
from us using the Freedom of Information Act, both operational and historical records.