5.24—Responding to your request.
(a) Retrieving records.
The Department is required to furnish copies of records only when they are in our possession or we can retrieve them from storage. If we have stored the records you want in the National Archives or another storage center, we will retrieve and review them for possible disclosure. However, the Federal Government destroys many old records, so sometimes it is impossible to fill requests. Various laws, regulations, and manuals give the time periods for keeping records before they may be destroyed. For example, there is information about retention of records in the Records Disposal Act of 1944, 44 U.S.C. 3301 through 3314; the Federal Property Management Regulations, 41 CFR 101-11.4; the General Records Schedules of the National Archives and Records Administration; and in the HHS Handbook: Files Maintenance and Records Disposition.
(b) Furnishing records.
The requirement is that we furnish copies only of records that we have or can retrieve. We are not compelled to create new records. For example, we are not required to write a new program so that a computer will print information in the format you prefer. However, if the requested information is maintained in computerized form, but we can, with minimal computer instructions, produce the information on paper, we will do this if it is the only way to respond to a request. Nor are we required to perform research for you. On the other hand, we may decide to conserve government resources and at the same time supply the records you need by consolidating information from various records rather than copying them all. Moreover, we are required to furnish only one copy of a record and usually impose that limit. If information exists in different forms, we will provide the record in the form that best conserves government resources. For example, if it requires less time and expense to provide a computer record as a paper printout rather than in an electronic medium, we will provide the printout.