AR 25-55: Army FOIA Requests, Fees, and Exemptions

AR 25-55 is the Department of the Army regulation that governs Freedom of Information Act requests to the Army. To use it, send a written or electronic request that reasonably describes the records you want to the Army FOIA office that holds them; the Army generally has 20 working days to respond, can charge fees based on your requester category, and must cite a specific statutory exemption for anything it withholds.¹ The regulation covers records held by all Army components, including the Army National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve, in every format from paper files to digital data, photographs, and maps.²

Who Can File and What Records Qualify

Any person can file. U.S. citizens, foreign nationals, businesses, partnerships, and organizations all have equal standing, and you do not have to explain why you want the records.² Soldiers and Army civilians can also use FOIA for records outside their official duties, though records they need for their actual job should go through internal channels.

FOIA reaches existing records only. The Army has no obligation to create new documents, compile data, or answer questions in response to a request. If the record does not already exist in some form the Army holds, no FOIA request will produce it.

Writing the Request

A request stands or falls on how well you describe what you want. The legal standard is that the records be “reasonably described,” meaning a staff member familiar with the subject can locate them without unreasonable effort.² Vague requests stall. Narrow yours with specific subject matter, a date range, and, when you can, the installation or command likely to hold the file.

Include your full name, mailing address, and a phone number so the Army can reach you with questions. State your fee category (commercial, news media, educational or scientific institution, or general public) and set a maximum dollar amount you are willing to pay. Without a stated ceiling, the Army may pause processing to ask about fees, and that back-and-forth adds weeks.

How to Submit

You have two routes. The fastest is electronic, either the government-wide portal at FOIA.gov or the Army’s own system at foia.army.mil.³ The other is mail, sent directly to the FOIA Service Center for the specific Army command that holds the records. If you are not sure which office that is, the Army’s FOIA Public Liaison can help you route the request before you file.⁴

You will receive an acknowledgment with a unique tracking number. Keep it. That number is how you check status and reference the request in any follow-up.

How Long It Takes

Federal law gives the Army 20 working days, roughly a calendar month, to decide whether to comply and notify you of the determination.¹ The clock starts when the correct component receives the request, but no later than 10 days after any Army office first gets it. The Army may pause the clock once to ask for clarifying information or to resolve a fee question; it resumes as soon as you respond.

Complex requests routinely run longer. When “unusual circumstances” push a request past 20 days, the Army is supposed to notify you and offer the option to narrow the request so it can move faster.³ If the Army misses the deadline entirely and you hear nothing, you can treat the silence as a denial and file an administrative appeal or go straight to federal court. In practice, most people get faster results by first calling the FOIA Public Liaison to find out what is holding things up.

What You Will Pay

Fees depend on your requester category. Duplication is $0.15 per page for standard office copies. Search time is billed by who does the searching: clerical staff at $20 per hour, professional-grade personnel at $44 per hour, and executive-level staff at $75 per hour.⁵

Commercial requesters pay all search, review, and duplication costs with no free allowance.
Educational and scientific institutions pay duplication only, with the first 100 pages free.
News media pay duplication only, with the first 100 pages free.
Everyone else gets the first two hours of search time and first 100 pages of duplication free, then pays for search and duplication but not review.⁵

For most general-public requests involving a modest number of records, the free allowances cover the whole cost.

Fee Waivers and Expedited Processing

You can ask the Army to waive fees if the disclosure is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of government operations and is not primarily for your commercial benefit. The Army weighs the subject’s connection to government activity, the informative value of the specific records, whether disclosure will meaningfully increase public understanding, how significant that contribution would be, and your ability to disseminate the information broadly. Put the waiver argument in the original request rather than waiting; adding it later delays processing.

Expedited processing moves a request to the front of the line, but the bar is high. You must show a “compelling need,” meaning either that a delay could pose an imminent threat to someone’s life or physical safety, or that the information is urgently needed by a person whose primary activity is public news dissemination.⁴ A certified statement explaining the basis for urgency is required. A general assertion that you need the records quickly will not qualify.

Why the Army Might Withhold Records

FOIA is a disclosure statute; release is the default. AR 25-55 incorporates the nine statutory exemptions from 5 USC 552, which are the Army’s only legal basis for withholding. The ones that most often come up in Army requests are classified national security information (Exemption 1), records tied to internal personnel rules (Exemption 2), material another statute specifically bars from release (Exemption 3), trade secrets and confidential commercial data (Exemption 4), internal deliberative communications (Exemption 5), personnel and medical files whose release would be a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy (Exemption 6), and law enforcement investigative records (Exemption 7).²

A denial rarely means you get nothing. Federal law requires the Army to release any reasonably segregable portion of a record after redacting the exempt material, tell you which exemption justifies each redaction, and mark the deletion at the point in the record where it occurs when technically feasible.¹ So a 50-page report with two pages of classified content should come back with 48 usable pages and the sensitive portions blacked out.

In rare cases the Army will issue a “Glomar” response, refusing to confirm or deny whether responsive records exist at all. This happens when the mere acknowledgment would itself reveal protected information.⁶ Glomar responses are appealable like any other denial.

If You Want Your Own Military Service Records

Do not file a FOIA request for these. Veterans requesting their own service records, and next-of-kin seeking records of a deceased family member, go through the National Personnel Records Center using either the eVetRecs online system or Standard Form 180.⁷ You will need the veteran’s full name as used in service, service number, Social Security number, branch and dates of service, and date and place of birth. Next-of-kin (the unremarried surviving spouse, parent, child, or sibling) must also provide proof of death such as a death certificate or published obituary.⁸

How to Appeal a Denial

If the Army denies your request in whole or in part, withholds records you believe should be released, misses the statutory deadline, or charges fees you think are improper, you can file an administrative appeal. The appeal must be in writing, and it must be postmarked or transmitted within 90 calendar days of the denial.⁴

Include the FOIA tracking number, identify the determination you are challenging, and mark both the letter and its envelope (or the subject line of an email) with “Freedom of Information Act Appeal.”⁴ No special form or legal language is required; a straightforward letter explaining why the denial was wrong is enough. The denial letter should tell you where to send the appeal. If it doesn’t, contact the FOIA Requester Service Center that processed your original request.

The Army then has another 20 working days to decide the appeal.¹ If the appeal is denied, or the Army again fails to respond in time, you can challenge the decision in federal district court.

Getting Unstuck Without a Formal Appeal

Two resources can resolve problems short of an appeal. FOIA Public Liaisons work within each Army component and exist to help requesters running into delays or confusion about status. They can explain where your request sits, help you reformulate it to reduce costs, and push things along when they have stalled.⁴

The Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), housed within the National Archives, is the federal FOIA ombudsman. OGIS offers free, voluntary, and confidential mediation between requesters and agencies at any stage, and you do not have to wait for a denial to use it. Reach OGIS at 1-877-684-6448 or ogis@nara.gov.⁹ Using OGIS does not waive your right to appeal or sue.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 552 – Public Information; Agency Rules, Opinions, Orders, Records, and Proceedings
2
Department of the Army. Army Regulation 25-55 – Department of the Army Freedom of Information Act Program
3
FOIA.gov. Department of the Army
4
eCFR. 32 CFR Part 286 – DoD Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Program
5
Federal Register. 32 CFR Part 518 – The Freedom of Information Act Program
6
U.S. Army. Army Regulation 25-55 – The Department of the Army Freedom of Information Act Program
7
National Archives. Access to Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF) – Veterans and Next-of-Kin
8
National Archives. Request Military Service Records
9
National Archives. Mediation Program