The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is the implementation of freedom of information legislation in the United States. This act allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the U.S. Government. The Act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure procedures and grants nine exemptions to the statue.

The Oak Ridge Office of Chief Counsel is responsible for administering policies, programs, and procedures to ensure DOE compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Privacy Act (PA), 5 U.S.C. 552 and 5 U.S.C. 552a, respectively.

The resources on these pages are provided to aid in finding answers to your questions about programs of the Department of Energy and to obtain information that is publicly available without submitting a FOIA request. If the information is not available here, submit an electronic Freedom of Information Act request

To assist obtaining publicly available information, we suggest you first conduct a search on the specific topic or information you are seeking using the SEARCH function on the DOE Home Page. From the results of the search if you can determine which DOE Program Office or Field Operations Sites might have the needed information, you can proceed to that location’s Public Reading Facilities using the FOIA Requester Service Centers and FOIA Public Liaisons list.  This list provides FOIA Web Page addresses for each location from which Public Reading Facility and DOE FOIA Public Liaison contact information can be obtained.

Please note, many of the documents on these pages will require Adobe Reader for viewing.

ORO FOIA/Privacy Act Officer

US Department of Energy

P.O. Box 2001

Oak Ridge, TN 37831

Phone: (865) 57601216 or toll free 1-800-382-6938, option 7

Fax:(865) 576-1556

Email: FOIA@oro.doe.gov