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Like the UK the Freedom of Information Act in the United States of America allows anyone, anywhere in the world to make a request for information. 

However there are a lot of differences and a lot of FOI Acts across the country. More often than not requests require a fee to be paid, although this isn’t always the case for the media who can also have their requests expedited to receive faster replies. There’s a decent guide to making requests here. And an easy to understand infographic here.

Using the U.S. federal government’s FOIA website we’ve pulled together all the contact details, which are available, for making requests to the agencies that are covered. These are only federal agencies. Different states and the services within them have their own FOI laws – the federal one is specifically called FOIA.

The FOIA has been in place since the 1960s but unlike the UK it isn’t always possible to send FOIA requests by emails. Many of the departments are now handling requests by email but some still require posted requests and others still use faxes). The majority of the agencies listed below now have emails, or web forms, but in some cases links to their webpages will take you to a postal address.

A list of all agencies (more than 300 different offices) can be found below and we have split the larger departments down into each separate lists as many agencies have different FOIA contact details for each of their offices.

If you encounter any incorrect or outdated email addresses during the use of the contact details on this website it is greatly appreciated if you would email mattburgess100@gmail.com the correct details. Alternatively use the contact box the bottom of this page. This allows the website to be updated and the process of making FOI requests to be as smooth as possible.


US Federal Agencies