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The SB Sentinel
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The SB Sentinel

Public Records & FOIA

What this desk asks for, what it publishes when an agency answers, and the templates a reader can use to file their own request.

Request templates

Five letters, one for each agency covered here. Open a template, copy it, fill in everything in brackets and send it in your own name. Each letter names the agency, asks for records on a specific subject with a date range, requests a fee waiver and asks for the response in electronic format.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security — FOIA Office — request letter
To the FOIA Office, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Under the federal Freedom of Information Act, I request the following records.

Records sought: National Terrorism Advisory System bulletins and the internal correspondence, review memoranda and approval records used to decide whether to issue a bulletin. Please include bulletins issued in final form, editions withdrawn or superseded, and bulletins drafted but not issued, together with records showing which decisions were taken and by which office.

Date range: [start date] to [end date].

Fee waiver: I request a fee waiver on public-interest grounds. If the waiver is denied, I will pay up to $[amount] and ask to be told before any cost is incurred.

Format: Please provide the response in electronic format, by email to [your email address].

[add the current statutory citation and response window for this agency]

Requester: [full name], [mailing address], [email], [phone], [date].
Federal Emergency Management Agency — Disclosure Office — request letter
To the Disclosure Office, Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Under the federal Freedom of Information Act, I request the following records.

Records sought: records on grid, water and communications infrastructure incidents, with the incident and situation reports, after-action reviews and preliminary damage assessments that followed them, and the regional readiness assessments held for [state or region].

Date range: [start date] to [end date].

Fee waiver: I request a fee waiver on public-interest grounds. If the waiver is denied, I will pay up to $[amount] and ask to be told before any cost is incurred.

Format: Please provide the response in electronic format, by email to [your email address].

[add the current statutory citation and response window for this agency]

Requester: [full name], [mailing address], [email], [phone], [date].
U.S. Department of Energy — FOIA Office — request letter
To the FOIA Office, U.S. Department of Energy.

Under the federal Freedom of Information Act, I request the following records.

Records sought: records on electricity reliability events and transmission incidents, and on refinery or fuel-supply disruption, together with the incident and disturbance reports, the correspondence with reliability organisations and system operators, and the internal briefings analysing those events, for [state or region].

Date range: [start date] to [end date].

Fee waiver: I request a fee waiver on public-interest grounds. If the waiver is denied, I will pay up to $[amount] and ask to be told before any cost is incurred.

Format: Please provide the response in electronic format, by email to [your email address].

[add the current statutory citation and response window for this agency]

Requester: [full name], [mailing address], [email], [phone], [date].
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — FOIA Office — request letter
To the FOIA Office, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Under the federal Freedom of Information Act, I request the following records.

Records sought: records documenting drinking-water system violations, boil-water notices and the enforcement actions taken on them, held by state and by region, together with the correspondence with state drinking-water agencies and the regional compliance reports summarising them.

Date range: [start date] to [end date].

Fee waiver: I request a fee waiver on public-interest grounds. If the waiver is denied, I will pay up to $[amount] and ask to be told before any cost is incurred.

Format: Please provide the response in electronic format, by email to [your email address]; where the records are held in structured form, please provide an extract rather than a scan.

[add the current statutory citation and response window for this agency]

Requester: [full name], [mailing address], [email], [phone], [date].
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration — FOIA Office — request letter
To the FOIA Office, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

Under the federal Freedom of Information Act, I request the following records.

Records sought: records on natural gas and hazardous liquid pipeline failures, covering the incident reports filed by operators, the inspection and enforcement records, the corrective action orders and the failure investigation reports, and the correspondence with operators or state pipeline safety authorities about those events.

Date range: [start date] to [end date].

Fee waiver: I request a fee waiver on public-interest grounds. If the waiver is denied, I will pay up to $[amount] and ask to be told before any cost is incurred.

Format: Please provide the response in electronic format, by email to [your email address], in native format with metadata where it is available.

[add the current statutory citation and response window for this agency]

Requester: [full name], [mailing address], [email], [phone], [date].

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