§ 70.19 Requirements for making a request.

(a) General information. The Department of Labor has a decentralized system for responding to requests submitted under the FOIA, as explained in § 70.1 of this part. In addition to processing requests for its own records, each agency component has the ability to receive FOIA requests in writing by mail, delivery service/courier or facsimile at its designated mailing address. However, to enable proper handling, any FOIA request submitted electronically, by email, must be submitted to the Department's central FOIA mailbox at foiarequests@dol.gov. FOIA requests sent electronically to any other email address will not be accepted. A FOIA request submitted via email should designate the component or components to which the requester is submitting his/her request. The Department's central FOIA mailbox is regularly monitored, and requests will be assigned to the appropriate DOL FOIA component.

(b) Request for records. To make a request for records of the Department, whenever possible, a requester should write directly to the FOIA office of the component that maintains the records sought or, if emailing a request to the DOL central FOIA mailbox, should identify the component(s) to which the request is directed. Submitting the request directly to the FOIA office of the component that maintains the records sought, or identifying that component when sending a FOIA request via email, will facilitate the quickest response. The requester must provide a mailing address to receive correspondence, and it may facilitate processing if telephone and email contact information are provided.