The FOI Act applies to every “agency,” “department,” “regulatory commission,” “government controlled corporation,” and “other establishment” in the executive branch of the federal government. This includes Cabinet offices, such as the departments of Defense, State, Treasury, Interior, Justice (including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Bureau of Prisons); independent regulatory agencies and commissions, such as the Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission and the Consumer Product Safety Commission; “government controlled corporations,” such as the Postal Service and Amtrak; and presidential commissions. The FOI Act also applies to the Executive Office of the President and the Office of Management and Budget, but not to the President or his immediate staff.

Not all entities which receive federal funds are covered by the FOI Act. For example, corporations such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and entities such as the American Red Cross, both of which receive federal monies but are neither chartered nor controlled by the federal government, are not covered.⁴ The Supreme Court also has ruled that a private organization which is established for the sole purpose of carrying out government research contracts and is totally funded by the federal government is not automatically an “agency” subject to the FOI Act.⁵

The Act does not apply to Congress, the federal courts, private corporations or federally funded state agencies. However, documents generated by these groups and filed with executive branch agencies of the federal government become subject to disclosure under the Act, just as if they were documents created by the agencies. Congressional agencies such as the Library of Congress and the General Accounting Office follow their own records disclosure rules and procedures patterned after the FOI Act.

The FOI Act also does not apply to state or local governments. All states have their own “open records” laws which permit access to state and local records. Information on how to use these state laws is available from The FOI Service Center of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The Reporters Committee publishes “Tapping Officials’ Secrets,” a compendium of open government laws for each state and the District of Columbia. The compendium is available as a one-volume book, as a CD ROM. or online at www.rcfp.org/tapping. Separate booklets on the open government laws of each state are also available.

If documents of a state or local government are submitted to a federal agency, they become subject to the federal FOI Act. This would occur, for example, when a state or local agency that receives federal funds through the Office of Justice Programs submits reports to that federal agency accounting for how the funds were spent.

Next section: What records are available and how do you ask for them?