You may be able to get records released to you sooner by agreeing to accept "clearly releasable" information or by qualifying for expedited processing.
Clearly Releasable Information
When contract documentation is requested, NRL is required under Executive Order 12600 to allow the contractor to review the responsive records for any proprietary or sensitive commercial information before we make our release determination. Contractors are normally afforded at least 15 days to complete this process, though it could take longer. After the contractor's review and our review of the records at NRL, we may not be able to provide a final response within 20 days.
Under the law, some information in contracts is almost always exempt from release. This information includes unit prices, the names of key personnel, and in some cases the names and contact information of certain other individuals. We will normally redact this information but will consider the rest of the information in our non-classified contracts to be "clearly releasable". This clearly releasable information usually includes the Statement of Work, which for most of our contracts contains no proprietary information.
If you agree to receive only clearly releasable information, you still retain your appeal rights in case you don't agree with any redactions we make. If you don't agree with the redactions, simply provide us a follow-on request for the redacted information. We will then expedite a response to that follow-on request through our Initial Denial Authority that gives you all your appeal rights under the law.
Expediting Process
In limited circumstances, you may qualify for expedited processing. If interested, please provide a clear explanation of how at least one of the following statements applies:
- Lack of expedited treatment could lead to an imminent threat to the life or physical safety of an individual;
- Lack of expedited treatment could lead to a loss of substantial due process rights and how the requested information is not otherwise available (thus if an attorney could get this information for you through the discovery process, expedited processing would not be available for you) or;
- It is urgent to inform the public about an actual or alleged federal government activity, and the requestor is a person primarily engaged in disseminating information to the public.