Commerce and foreign trade. Part4:Disclosure of government information. SubpartA:Freedom of information act. Section4.5:Responsibility for responding to requests.
(a) In general. Except as stated in paragraph (b) of this section, the proper component of the Department to respond to a request for records is the component that first receives the request and has responsive records (or in the instance of where no records exist,the component that first receives the request and is likely to have responsive records), or the component to which the Departmental FOIA Officer or component FOIA Officer assigns lead responsibility for responding to the request. Where a component’s FOIA office determines that a request was misdirected within the Department, the receiving component’s FOIA office shall route the request to the FOIA office of the proper component(s).Records responsive to a request shall include those records within the Department’s possession and control as of the date the Department begins its search for them.