Welcome

The NCI FOIA Staff welcomes you to the NCI FOIA Home Page. We hope you will find this site informative and useful.

NCI FOIA Staff:

Suzy Milliard, Freedom of Information/Privacy Act Coordinator (Acting)
Lanesia Washington, Freedom of Information/Privacy Act Specialist
Vontella Mills, Administrative Assistant

The NCI FOIA Office is located at:

Building 31, Room 10A34
31 Center Drive
Bethesda, MD 20892

We are open between the hours of 8:00am and 4:00pm. We may be reached at 301.496.2999. Our fax number is 301.435.2931.

Please note that FOIA requests must have a signature, therefore, email requests are not accepted. FOIA requests are processed on a first-come, first-served basis. We cannot provide an estimate as to how much time it will take to process your request.

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Overview

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552 provides individuals with a right to access records in the possession of the federal government. The government may withhold information pursuant to the nine exemptions and three exclusions contained in the Act. The Electronic FOIA (E-FOIA) Amendments, which were signed into law in 1996, amended the Act in several ways, including:

• extend the time from 10 to 20 business days the time which agencies have to respond to requests for information;
• require agencies to make reasonable efforts to make records available in formats desired by requesters;
• require agencies to submit the NIH FOIA Annual Report by fiscal year and require the reports to be made available to the public by computer telecommunications or other electronic means;
• require agencies to list their major information systems, record locator systems, and a reference guide or guide for obtaining information; and
• require agencies to establish electronic reading rooms that include agency policies, staff manuals, opinions made in the adjudication of cases, and an index of records released by FOIA that are likely to become e the subject of subsequent FOIA requests.

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Guide for Submitting FOIA Requests

Before submitting a request under FOIA, please ensure that the information you are seeking is information that is or may be held by NCI. Furthermore, the information should not already in the public domain. NCI already has a wealth of information available in both published format and electronically. A search of the National Cancer Institute site can assist you in locating information and lists of available publications.

Requesters interested in obtaining information on federally funded biomedical research projects should consult the Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects (CRISP) database. This will enable you to identify whether the grant was an NCI grant, and the grant number.

The more specific information you provide in your FOIA request, the quicker and easier it is for the NCI FOIA Office Staff to readily process your request.

Recently, the Office of Management and Budget(OMB) issued Circular A110 to provide access to date produced under grants awarded by the National Institutes of health and other federal awarding agencies. To the extent you are interested in requesting data produced under an NCI grant pursuant to OMB Revised Circular A110, please understand that it applies only to data:

• first produced under a new or competing continuing grant awarded after the Department f Health and Human Services amends 45 C.F.R. 74 to incorporate the changes mandated by the Revised Circular; and



• cited publicly and officially by the Federal Government in support of an agency action that has the force and effect of law.

Additionally, if the data you request is already available to the public through an archive or other source, we will not process your request under FOIA.

If the information you are requesting is not in the public domain, please follow the suggestions listed below when preparing your FOIA request:

• identify the records requested (be as specific as possible, i.e., describe the subject matter of the records, and, if known, indicate the dates of the records, the places where they originated, and the names of the originating persons or offices);
• state that the records are requested under the Freedom of Information Act;
• include daytime telephone numbers in case additional information is needed before answering requests; and
• mail or fax the request to the address above.

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