(a) Right of appeal. A requester may appeal to the Assistant Secretary—Policy, Budget and Administration when—

(1) Records have been withheld,

(2) A request has been denied for failure to describe requested records or for other procedural deficiency or because requested records cannot be located,

(3) A fee waiver has been denied, or

(4) A request has not been decided within the time limits provided in § 2.17.

(b) Time for appeal. An appeal must be received no later than 20 working days after the date of the initial denial, in the case of a denial of an entire request, or 20 working days after records have been made available, in the case of a partial denial.

(c) Form of appeal. (1) An appeal shall be initiated by filing a written notice of appeal. The notice shall be accompanied by copies of the original request and the initial denial and should, in order to expedite the appellate process and give the requester an opportunity to present his or her arguments, contain a brief statement of the reasons why the requester believes the initial denial to have been in error.

(2) The appeal shall be addressed to the Freedom of Information Act Appeals Officer, Office of the Assistant Secretary—Policy, Budget and Administration, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, DC 20240.

(3) To expedite processing, both the envelope containing a notice of appeal and the face of the notice should bear the legend “FREEDOM OF INFORMATION APPEAL.”