Code of Federal Regulations Title 38. Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief § 38.1.555 Responsibility for responding to requests

(a) General. Except as stated in paragraphs (c) and (d) of this section, the FOIA Officer of the component that first receives a request for records is responsible for either processing the request or referring it to the designated FOIA Officer for the appropriate component. Offices that are within the component responsible for processing the FOIA request shall provide the component FOIA Officer all documents responsive to the request that are in their possession as of the date the search for responsive records begins.

(b) Authority to grant or deny requests. Each component shall designate a FOIA Officer who is responsible for making determinations pursuant to the FOIA.

(c) Consultations and referrals. When a component FOIA Officer determines that the component maintains responsive records that either originated with another component or agency, or which contain information provided by, or of substantial interest to, another component or agency, then the FOIA Officer shall either:

(d) Classified information. The FOIA Officer will refer requests for records containing classified information to the component or agency that classified the information for processing.

(e) Notice of referral. Whenever a FOIA Officer refers all or part of a request and responsibility for processing the request to another component or agency, the FOIA Officer will notify the requester in writing of the referral and provide the requester the name and contact information of the entity to which the request has been referred, after consulting with the entity to which the request is to be referred to ensure that the request is being referred to the correct entity. If only part of the request was referred, the FOIA Officer will inform the requester and identify the referred part at the time of the referral or in the final response.