Essential Elements of a FOIA Request Letter

• Provide your full name and address
• Provide a reasonable description of the record(s) requested
• Provide a statement of your fee category and your willingness to pay applicable fees

Send the Letter to the Following Addresses

U.S. Southern Command
Attn:  SCSJA-FOIA /RE: JIATF-S
9301 NW 33rd St
Doral, FL 33172-1202

Sample Request

United States Southern Command
Attn: SCSJA-FOIA
9301 NW 33rd St
Doral, Fl 33172

Dear United States Southern Command FOIA manager:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. § 552). I request that a copy of the
following records (or documents containing the following information) be provided to me: [identify the
information or documents as specifically as possible].

In order to help you determine my status for the purpose of assessing fees, you should know that I am
[insert one of the descriptions below]
• a representative of the news media affiliated with the _______ newspaper (magazine, television
station, etc.), and this request is made as part of news gathering and not for a commercial use.

• affiliated with an educational or noncommercial scientific institution and this request is made for
a scholarly or scientific purpose and not for a commercial use.

• affiliated with a private business and am seeking information for use in the company’s business.

• an individual seeking information for personal use and not for a commercial use.

I am willing to pay fees for this request up to a maximum of $___. If you estimate that the fees will
exceed this limit, please inform me first.

I also include a telephone number at which I can be contacted if necessary to discuss any aspect of my
request.

Sincerely,
[Name]
[Address]
[City, State, Zip Code]
[Telephone number]

Categories and Fees

Fee Categories

• Educational and Scientific: Any accredited U.S. educational or research institution or instructor/researcher of such an institution using the information in a scholarly or analytical work contributing to public knowledge and disseminated to the public.
• Commercial: Increases the commercial interest of the requester – for example, book publishers and authors.
• U.S. News Media: Representatives of U.S. newspapers, television stations, radio stations, and freelancers (if publishing through one of these news organizations) disseminating current events of interest to the general public to enhance its understanding of the operation or activities of the U.S. Government. LI>
• All Others: Requests from individuals who do not fit into the previous three categories. 

Fees

The FOIA provides for the collection of fees for:

• Searches: Time spent in looking for and retrieving material, either paper or electronic files, that may be responsive to the request, included.
• Reviews: Time spent to determine if the record is releasable under legal guidelines, excluding the resolution of legal or policy issues.  This includes blacking out or redaction of text.
• Reproduction: Generating a copy of a requested record in the appropriate medium, for example paper or computer disk. 

FOIA Exemptions

Records that meet the FOIA exemption criteria may be withheld from public disclosure and do not have to be published in the Federal Register, made available in a library reading room, or provided in response to a FOIA request.  The following types of records may be withheld in whole or in part from public disclosure under the FOIA:

Exemption # 1  
Those properly and currently classified in the interest of national defense/security or foreign policy.  If the information qualifies as exemption 1, there is no-discretion regarding its release.

Exemption # 2
Those related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of the Department of Defense or any of its components.

Exemption # 3     
Those concerning matters that a statute specifically exempts from disclosure by terms that permit no discretion on the issue.  A few examples of such statues are:  Patent secrecy, restricted data, communication intelligence, confidentiality of medical quality, contractor proposals, etc.

Exemption # 4     
Those containing trade secrets or commercial or financial information that a DoD component receives from a person or organization outside the government.  The disclosure of such records will likely cause substantial harm to the competitive position of the source providing the information.

Exemption # 5   
Those containing information considered privileged in litigation, primarily under the deliberative process privilege.

Exemption # 6
Information of personnel and medical files, as well as similar personal information in other files, that would result in a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

Exemption # 7
Records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes; i.e., civil criminal, or military law, including the implementation of Executive Orders or regulations issued pursuant to law. 

Exemption # 8
Records pertaining to the regulation or supervision of financial institutions.

Exemption # 9
Those records containing geological and geophysical information and data (including maps) concerning wells.