Office of the General Counsel (OGC)

The Office of the General Counsel (OGC) is an independent legal agency that provides legal advice and services to the Secretary of Agriculture and to all other officials and agencies of the Department with respect to all USDA programs and activities. The USDA has realigned some of its FOIA functions by creating a stand-alone office titled “Office of Information Affairs” (OIA) under the Office of the General Counsel (OGC).  As part of the realignment, the OGC-OIA has assumed the FOIA functions for all of USDA’s staff offices, as well as the Research, Education, and Economics (REE) and Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs (TFAA) mission areas.  FOIA requests submitted to the following USDA components will be processed by the OGC-OIA:  Departmental Administration (DA), Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), National Finance Center (NFC), Office of Budget & Program Analysis (OBPA), Office of Hearing and Appeals (OHA), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (OASCR), Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO), Office of the Secretary (OSEC), and Research, Education, and Economics (REE). FOIA Reference Guide FOIA Regulations