22 C.F.R. § 171.11 Definitions.
Title 22 - Foreign Relations
As used in this subpart, the following definitions shall apply: (a) Freedom of Information Act or FOIA means the statute codified at 5 U.S.C. 552, as amended. (b) Department means the United States Department of State, including its field offices and Foreign Service posts abroad; (c) Agency means any executive department, military department, Government corporation, Government controlled corporation, or other establishment in the executive branch of the government (including the Executive Office of the President), or any independent regulatory agency; (d) Information and Privacy Coordinator means the Director of the Department's Office of Information Programs and Services (IPS) who is responsible for processing requests for access to information under the FOIA, the Privacy Act, E.O. 12958, and the Ethics in Government Act; (e) Record means all information under the control of the Department, including information created, stored, and retrievable by electronic means, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made in or received by the Department and preserved as evidence of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations or other activities of the Department or because of the informational value of the data contained therein. It includes records of other Government agencies that have been expressly placed under the control of the Department upon termination of those agencies. It does not include personal records created primarily for the personal convenience of an individual and not used to conduct Department business and not integrated into the Department's record keeping system or files. It does not include records that are not already in existence and that would have to be created specifically to meet a request. However, information available in electronic form shall be searched and compiled in response to a request unless such search and compilation would significantly interfere with the operation of the Department's automated information systems. (f) Control means the Department's legal authority over a record, taking into account the ability of the Department to use and dispose of the record as it sees fit, to legally determine the disposition of a record, the intent of the record's creator to retain or relinquish control over the record, the extent to which Department personnel have read or relied upon the record, and the degree to which the record has been integrated into the Department's record keeping system or files. (g) Direct costs means those costs the Department incurs in searching for, duplicating, and, in the case of commercial requests, reviewing documents in response to a FOIA request. The term does not include overhead expenses. (h) Search costs means those costs the Department incurs in looking for, identifying, and retrieving material, in paper or electronic form, that is responsive to a request, including page-by-page or line-by-line identification of material within documents. The Department shall attempt to ensure that searching for material is done in the most efficient and least expensive manner so as to minimize costs for both the Department and the requester. (i) Duplication costs means those costs the Department incurs in copying a requested record in a form appropriate for release in response to a FOIA request. Such copies may take the form of paper copy, microfiche, audio-visual materials, or machine-readable electronic documentation (e.g., disk or CD-ROM), among others. (j) Review costs means costs the Department incurs in examining a record to determine whether and to what extent the record is responsive to the FOIA request and the extent to which it may be disclosed to the requester. It does not include costs of resolving general legal or policy issues that may be raised by a request. (k) Unusual circumstances. As used herein, but only to the extent reasonably necessary to the proper processing of the particular request, the term “unusual circumstances” means: (1) The need to search for and collect the requested records from Foreign Service posts or other separate and distinct Department offices; (2) The need to search for, collect, and appropriately examine a voluminous amount of separate and distinct records that are demanded in a single request; or (3) The need for consultation with another agency having a substantial interest in the determination of the request or among two or more components of the Department that have a substantial subject matter interest therein. Such consultation shall be conducted with all practicable speed. (l) Commercial use request means a request from or on behalf of one who requests information for a use or purpose that furthers the commercial, trade, or profit interest of the requester or the person on whose behalf the request is made. In determining whether a requester belongs within this category, the Department will look at the use to which the requester will put the information requested. (m) Educational institution means a preschool, a public or private elementary or secondary school, an institution of undergraduate or graduate higher education, an institution of professional education, or an institution of vocational education, that operates a program or programs of scholarly research. (n) Non-commercial scientific institution means an institution that is not operated on a “commercial” basis, as that term is used in paragraph (l) of this section and that is operated solely for the purpose of conducting scientific research, the results of which are not intended to promote any particular product or industry. (o) Representative of the news media means any person actively gathering news for an entity that is organized and operated to publish or broadcast news to the public. The term news means information that is about current events or that would be of current interest to the public. News media include television or radio stations broadcasting to the public at large and publishers of periodicals (but only in those instances when they can qualify as disseminators of “news”) who make their products available for purchase by the general public. Freelance journalists may be regarded as working for a news organization if they can demonstrate, such as by past publication, a likelihood of publication through a representative of the news media, even though not actually employed by it. (p) All other means an individual or organization not covered by a definition in paragraphs (l), (m), (n), or (o) of this section.
Title 22: Foreign Relations
PART 171—AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION AND RECORDS TO THE PUBLIC
Subpart B—Freedom of Information Act Provisions
§ 171.11 Definitions.
