Introduction

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requires FOIA Reading Rooms contain four distinct categories of records. The four categories of Reading Room records are:

1. "final opinions [and] . . . orders" made in the adjudication of cases;
2. specific agency policy statements;
3. "administrative staff manuals and instructions to staff that affect a member of the public"; and
4. records disclosed in response to a FOIA request that "the agency determines have become or are likely to become the subject of subsequent requests for substantially the same records."

These records are available through this page. Please check the Library before submitting a FOIA request.

Department of Commerce Policy Statements

Department Organization Orders (DOOs) prescribe the basic management structure and organizational arrangements of the Department of Commerce. DOOs are issued for each Secretarial Officer, Departmental Office, and Operating Unit of the Department of Commerce.

Department of Commerce Administrative Staff Manuals

Department Administrative Orders (DAOs) are used to document and mandate continuing policies, standards requirements, and procedures prescribed by the Office of the Secretary for Departmentwide application or for application to two or more major program areas of the Department. The DAOs cover substantive program matters as well as administrative management, legal, or special staff functions.

Proactive Disclosures

Frequently requested records are copies of records that have been released to any person in response to a FOIA request and that have been requested, or that the Department anticipates will be requested, at least three times under the FOIA.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Calendars

• Secretary and Deputy Secretary Speeches
• Past Secretaries
• Department of Commerce Person Finder
• Department of Commerce Bank Card Listing
• Department of Commerce Agency Program Coordinators
• Reinstatement of the citizenship question on the decennial census:
  • • Materials considered by the Secretary in deciding to reinstate a question on citizenship
    • Supplemental Production - 7.3.18 Court Order - Batch 1
    • Supplemental Production - 7.3.18 Court Order - Batch 2
      • DAO checklist for documents at Bates Nos. 10357-11026 in Supplemental Production - 7.3.18 Court Order - Batch 2
      • Note on Certain Redactions in Supplemental Production - 7.3.18 Court Order -Batch 2
    • Supplemental Production - 11.25.19
• Department of Commerce Overview Briefing Book for the 2020 Presidential Transition Team
• U.S. Department of Commerce Briefing Materials -- 2024 Agency Review Team