(a) CEQ's Chief FOIA Officer or the Chief FOIA Officer's designee will make an initial determination of how CEQ will respond to your request within 20 working days from the date that CEQ received your request, except as provided in this section.

(b) If CEQ is unable to make a determination within the 20-day period because of “unusual circumstances,” we may extend the period of time in which we will respond to your request.

(1) “Unusual circumstances” exist when, in order to properly process your request, CEQ must search for, collect, and appropriately examine a voluminous amount of separate and distinct records, CEQ must consult with another agency or another component of the Executive Office of the President, or CEQ must search at separate facilities.

(2) In determining whether “unusual circumstances” are present, CEQ may aggregate and treat multiple requests on clearly related matters from you (or from other persons acting in concert with you) as a single request.

(3) Before the conclusion of the 20-day period, CEQ will notify you of the “unusual circumstances” that apply and the date by which we estimate we will complete processing your request.

(4) When the extension will exceed 10 working days, CEQ will provide you the opportunity to modify the request or arrange an alternative time period for processing the original or modified request.

(c) If CEQ reasonably requires additional information from you to clarify your request or to resolve fee-related matters, we may toll (i.e., pause) the 20-day period, or any extension of that period, from the date we request information from you until the date you respond. We will only toll the response period one time for the purpose of clarifying your request, but we may toll the response period more than once to resolve fee-related matters.