Welcome to the United States Department of Agriculture Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) web-site!

During USDA's maximized telework operating status, you may experience delays of records requests sent by mail and facsimile. You may also experience delays in those records requests requiring paper files maintained in offices with reduced access. Accordingly, until further notice, USDA encourages electronic submissions through our Public Access Link or designated email addresses. For more efficient processing, please consider scoping your records requests to those items that can be retrieved electronically. For questions regarding status and/or assistance with scoping your request, please feel free to contact the FOIA professional assigned to your records requests. If no FOIA professional has been assigned, please contact USDAFOIA@usda.gov or the designated email address where you submitted your request. We sincerely appreciate your patience and cooperation.

USDA offers several ways to submit a FOIA request. Instructions for all methods are listed below.

Submit Online via USDA’s Public Access Link (PAL)

PAL is a web portal that allows you to create, submit, and track the status of your FOIA request(s). Prior to use, you must register and create a username and password using the link below. Please note the submission site does not currently provide the ability to submit a single FOIA request to multiple agencies. You can, however, easily submit the same request to multiple agencies or in the alternative you can submit one request to the Office of the Chief Information Officer (“OCIO”) detailing the agencies likely to maintain responsive records. Upon receipt, the OCIO will then forward your request.

USDA PUBLIC ACCESS LINK

Submit via Email or Mail

FOIA requests can also be submitted via email or mail to any one of USDA’s agencies. Please use the link below to access the FOIA Points of Contact for email or mail submissions.

USDA POINTS OF CONTACT