US CPSC's e-FOIA PAL Home Page

Welcome to the e-FOIA Public Access Link (PAL).  This link to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's (CPSC's)  online portal allows you to create, submit and check the status of a FOIA request.  The electronic Freedom of Information Act (e-FOIA) Amendments of 1996, the Open Government Act, President Obama's Executive Order on Transparency and the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 require all federal agencies to use electronic information technology to foster public availability of all FOIA documents.  The CPSC has implemented PAL in response to these requirements and initiatives.

PAL will allow you to:

• Submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request online;  
• Check the status of an existing request;
• E-Mail the Government Information Specialist assigned to your request;   
• Upload documentation, such as a Request Description, Fee Waiver Request, or a Request for Expedited Processing; 
• Download the material deemed responsive to your request along with agency correspondence for your request; and
• Submit an appeal.  

You will be able to conduct the majority, if not all, of your Freedom of Information business with the CPSC's FOI staff via PAL.    You must register an account with PAL to use the portal.  We suggest that you use your e-mail address as the User ID.   

Currently, our version of PAL is compatible with the Internet Explorer (versions 8 to 11), Safari (version 5.1.1 or later), and Mozilla Firefox (version 7.0.1 or later) & Edge Web browsers. 

NOTE:  We have upgraded PAL to the latest version of the application (CPSC - 10/13/2022).  If you experience issues with submitting a FOIA request via the PAL, please e-mail your FOIA request to CPSCFOIARequests@cpsc.gov (for the submission of new FOIA requests, please use cpsc-foia@cpsc.gov for all other communications).

Warning:  When submitting Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests or transmitting any electronic records on the CPSC websites, please take caution and refrain from transmitting any sensitive data. Sensitive data refers to privileged or proprietary information that only authorized individuals are allowed to access. The most common type of sensitive data is personally identifiable information (PII). PII is any information about an individual maintained by an agency, including (1) any information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual‘s identity, such as name, social security number, date and place of birth, mother‘s maiden name, or biometric records; and (2) any other information that is linked or linkable to an individual, such as medical, educational, financial, and employment information.