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NATIONAL FOIA OFFICE
Timothy Epp
National FOIA Office
202-564-2830
Epp.tim@epa.gov
Larry Gottesman
Team Lead
202-566-2162
Gottesman.larry@epa.gov
Denise Walker
Team Lead
202-564-6520
Walker.denise@epa.gov
Visit our *new* SHAREPOINT SITE
REGULATION CONTACT
Christopher Creech
202-564-4286
creech.christopher@epa.gov
CENTRALIZATION CONTACTS
Kevin W. Hill
202-564-1652
Hill.kevinw@epa.gov
Wendy Schumacher
202-566-2513
Schumacher.wendy@epa.gov
FEEDBACK
Please direct feedback to:
OGCNFOSuggestions@epa.gov
MEDIA
Any Media inquiries should be
directed to:
press@epa.gov
NATIONAL FOIA OFFICE
FACTSHEET	
Issue date: July 25, 2019
UPDATED FOIA REGULATIONS
Overall
•	EPA's updated FOIA regulations will be effective on July 26, 2019.
•	This regulatory amendment does not replace or diminish Ryan Jackson's
November 16, 2018 Memorandum on Awareness Notification.
•	Certain revisions in this action update the EPA's rules to accurately reflect
the Agency's organizational structure and implement statutorily directed
changes.
1.	EPA is updating its FOIA regulations to conform with changes
mandated by the amendments to the FOIA statute in 2007, 2009,
and 2016.
2.	The 2016 Amendments provide that "each agency ... shall review
the regulations of such agency and shall issue regulations in
accordance with the [2016 Amendments]." 130 Stat. 544 § 3.
3.	The National FOIA Office recommended the changes to update
EPA's regulations to comply with nondiscretionary changes in the
statute over the past 10 years and to centralize the intake
process in the NFO to increase our efficiency, effectiveness, and
consistency in early outreach to requesters.
Centralization
All FOIA requests submitted after July 26, 2019 will be directed to
EPA Headquarters by US Mail or FOIAonline.
Regional and program offices will still conduct search, collection,
review, and record releases once the National FOIA Office has
assigned a request to a region or program office.
Centralizing FOIA intake was one of the key process improvement
ideas that emerged from a Lean Management Kaizen event in
early 2018.
In 2018, the FOIA Federal Advisory Committee, convened by the
National Archives, recommended that federal departments and
agencies "centralize FOIA processing where appropriate."
Centralized FOIA submission will allow EPA to ensure consistent
and coordinated communication with the public, regions, and
program offices.
One Month Glidepath
• To assist with the transition, EPA is voluntarily instructing Regions
who receive improperly submitted mailed or emailed requests
directly from requesters to continue accepting those requests
until August 23, 2019. For requests improperly submitted after
August 23, 2019, the Agency has also instructed Regions to
inform requesters of the proper methods for submitting FOIA
requests under the updated FOIA regulation.

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