
[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 45, Volume 1]
[Revised as of October 1, 2001]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 45CFR5]

[Page 19-20]
 
                        TITLE 45--PUBLIC WELFARE
 
                    SUBTITLE A--DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
                           AND HUMAN SERVICES
 
PART 5--FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REGULATIONS--Table of Contents
 
Subpart B--Obtaining a Record

Sec. 5.21  How to request records.

    (a) General. Our policy is to answer all requests, both oral and 
written, for records. However, in order to have the rights given you by 
the FOIA and by this regulation (for example, the right to appeal if we 
deny your request and the right to have our decisions reviewed in 
court), you must either make your request in writing or make it orally 
to a Freedom of Information Officer. Freedom of Information Officers and 
their staffs may put in writing any oral requests they receive directly.
    (b) Addressing requests. It will help us to handle your request 
sooner if you address it to the Freedom of Information Officer in the 
HHS unit that is most likely to have the records you want. (See 
Sec. 5.31 of this Part for a list of Freedom of Information Officers.) 
If you cannot determine this, send the request to: HHS Freedom of 
Information Officer, 645-F, Hubert H. Humphrey Building, Department of 
Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC 
20201. Write the words ``Freedom of Information Act Request'' on the 
envelope and letter.
    (c) Details in the letter. You should provide details that will help 
us identify and find the records you are requesting. If there is 
insufficient information, we will ask you for more. Include your 
telephone number(s) to help us reach you if we have questions. If you 
are not sure how to write your request or what details to include, 
communicate with a Freedom of Information Officer.

Sec. 5.22  Requests not handled under the FOIA.

    (a) We will not handle your request under the FOIA and this 
regulation to the extent it asks for records that are currently 
available, either from HHS or from another part of the Federal 
Government, under a statute that provides for charging fees for those 
records. For example, we will not handle your request under the FOIA and 
this regulation to the extent it asks for

[[Page 20]]

detailed earnings statements under the Social Security program, or 
records currently available from the Government Printing Office of the 
National Technical Information Service.
    (b) We will not handle your request under the FOIA and this 
regulation to the extent it asks for records that are distributed by an 
HHS program office as part of its regular program activity, for example, 
health education brochures distributed by the Public Health Service or 
public information leaflets distributed by the Social Security 
Administration.

Sec. 5.23  Referral of requests outside the Department.

    If you request records that were created by, or provided to us by, 
another Federal agency, and if that agency asserts control over the 
records, we may refer the records and your request to that agency. We 
may likewise refer requests for classified records to the agency that 
classified them. In these cases, the other agency will process and 
respond to your request, to the extent it concerns those records, under 
that agency's regulation, and you need not make a separate request to 
that agency. We will notify you when we refer your request to another 
agency.

Sec. 5.24  Responding to your request.

    (a) Retrieving records. The Department is required to furnish copies 
of records only when they are in our possession or we can retrieve them 
from storage. If we have stored the records you want in the National 
Archives or another storage center, we will retrieve and review them for 
possible disclosure. However, the Federal Government destroys many old 
records, so sometimes it is impossible to fill requests. Various laws, 
regulations, and manuals give the time periods for keeping records 
before they may be destroyed. For example, there is information about 
retention of records in the Records Disposal Act of 1944, 44 U.S.C. 3301 
through 3314; the Federal Property Management Regulations, 41 CFR 101-
11.4; the General Records Schedules of the National Archives and Records 
Administration; and in the HHS Handbook: Files Maintenance and Records 
Disposition.
    (b) Furnishing records. The requirement is that we furnish copies 
only of records that we have or can retrieve. We are not compelled to 
create new records. For example, we are not required to write a new 
program so that a computer will print information in the format you 
prefer. However, if the requested information is maintained in 
computerized form, but we can, with minimal computer instructions, 
produce the information on paper, we will do this if it is the only way 
to respond to a request. Nor are we required to perform research for 
you. On the other hand, we may decide to conserve government resources 
and at the same time supply the records you need by consolidating 
information from various records rather than copying them all. Moreover, 
we are required to furnish only one copy of a record and usually impose 
that limit. If information exists in different forms, we will provide 
the record in the form that best conserves government resources. For 
example, if it requires less time and expense to provide a computer 
record as a paper printout rather than in an electronic medium, we will 
provide the printout.
