(a) You may appeal a denial of your request for NEH records (except NEH OIG records) and/or FCAH records to The Deputy Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities, 400 7th Street SW., Room 4053, Washington, DC 20506. You may also send your appeal to the NEH General Counsel by facsimile at 202-606-8600, by email at gencounsel@neh.gov, or through the NEH's electronic FOIA request system, which is available on the NEH Web site at www.neh.gov. For a denial of your request for OIG records, you may appeal by facsimile at 202-606-8329, by email at oig@neh.gov or by mail to The Inspector General, National Endowment for the Humanities, 400 7th Street SW., Room 2200, Washington, DC 20506. Your appeal must be in writing and received by NEH within ninety (90) days of the date of the letter denying your request in whole or in part. Your appeal letter must clearly identify the NEH decision that you are appealing and contain the tracking number, if assigned. You should clearly mark your appeal letter and envelope “Freedom of Information Act Appeal.”

(b) Responses to appeals. The Deputy Chairman (or designee) or the Inspector General (or designee) will make a written determination on your appeal within twenty (20) days (weekends and Federal holidays excluded) after the agency receives your appeal, except as provided by 1171.7(d). If the appeal decision affirms the denial of your request, the NEH will notify you in writing of the reason(s) for the decision, including the applicable FOIA exemption(s), and inform you of the FOIA provisions for court review of the decision. If the denial of your request is reversed or modified, in whole or in part, the NEH will reprocess your request in accordance with that appeal decision and notify you of that decision in writing. A response to an appeal will advise the requester that the 2007 amendments to FOIA created the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) to offer mediation services to resolve disputes between FOIA requesters and Federal agencies as a non-exclusive alternative to litigation. A requester may contact OGIS in any of the following ways: Office of Government Information Services, National Archives and Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road—OGIS, College Park, MD 20740; https://ogis.archives.gov; email: ogis@nara.gov; telephone: 202-741-5770; facsimile: 202-741-5769; toll-free: 1-877-684-6448.

(c) When appeal is required. If you wish to seek review by a court of any denial by the NEH, you must first submit a timely administrative appeal to the NEH.

[79 FR 9415, Feb. 19, 2014, as amended at 80 FR 42066, July 16, 2015; 82 FR 46, Jan. 3, 2017]