Every entry in the Defense records system exists because some decision needed a documented basis, and DD Form 2086-1 is one of those instruments: DD Form 2086-1, Record of Freedom of Information Processing Cost for Technical Data, July 1997, created to Freedom of Information (FOI) Processing Cost for Technical Data. The reason it carries a DD number rather than a service designation is structural — the Department maintains a single body of forms for matters that arise identically in every service, so that a record created in one component remains intelligible in another.
This is why the arrangement matters to you rather than only to the archivists. not stated governs the form throughout the Department, with not stated as the responsible office, so the record you create is legible outside your own component. Joint assignments, agency details and cross-service transactions all depend on that: the paperwork does not have to be reconstructed each time it crosses a boundary.
Current edition: not stated, status not stated. Understand why that date is worth attention here. When the Department reissues a form, the replacement takes effect across every component simultaneously, so an older copy is not merely locally out of date — it is out of date in every office that might receive it.
The form is laid out top to bottom in a sequence that reflects how the record will be read, not merely how it was drawn. Identification comes first because everything below it is understood in relation to a named person, unit or transaction; substantive entries follow; certification closes the document because certification attests to what precedes it. Filling out of order tends to produce internal inconsistencies — an entry that made sense before the header was settled and does not afterward.
Check the edition date before you type anything, against not stated. Old blanks accumulate in shared drives for years, and the cost of one is not obvious until a reviewer cannot find a field. Because DD forms are revised centrally and replaced across the Department in a single action, there is no component still tolerating the old layout as a local practice.
For an ambiguous field, read the form's own instruction, then not stated, which controls.
Download the form
Formats available: PDF, across 2 pages and about 80 fields. That several formats coexist is a consequence of scale — the Department cannot standardize the software on every desk that needs this form, so it standardizes the document instead.
Two states of the same page circulate, and the reason is worth knowing. In the fillable pdf, the boxes are real fields holding real data; in the printable pdf, the boxes are drawings. Where a record will cross components — as Department records regularly do — the typed version is the safer artifact. Each scan, each forwarding, each reproduction costs handwriting a little legibility, and the office that finally files the record is rarely the office that received it first.
All of it downloads without charge. Where care is needed is in the reader you choose. A fillable pdf depends on field properties that desktop applications honour and browser previews frequently ignore, so work locally rather than inside a browser window.
What the form asks for
- 1. Request number. First two digits are calendar year followed by a dash, then component's request number.
- 2. Type of request. Press space bar to mark X in first box if initial, second box if appeal.
- 3. Date completed (four digit year, two digit month, two digit day).
- Enter total clerical hours (E-9/G S -8 and below) to nearest 15 minutes. Enter total search time (time expended in locating material from files).
- Cost. (Total hours of search time multiplied by clerical hourly rate of $13.25.). Chargeable to all requesters.
- Total hours of Review/excising (time expended determining whether document must retain classification or whether some information could be excised, permitting declassification).
- Cost. (Total hours multiplied by clerical hourly rate of $13.25). Chargeable to all requesters.
- Total hours of Correspondence and forms preparation (preparation of all correspondence and forms needed to respond to the request).
- Cost. Total hours multiplied by clerical hourly rate of $13.25.
- Total hours spent on Other activity, such as duplicating, hand carrying, restoring files, et cetera).
- Cost. Total hours multiplied by clerical hourly rate of $13.25.
- Enter total hours of time at Minimum charge.
- Cost. Minimum charge hours multiplied by clerical hourly rate of $8.30.
- Enter total professional hours, to nearest 15 minutes. O-1, O-6/G S -9, G S -15. Search time.
- Cost. Total search hours multiplied by actual professional hourly rate. Chargeable to all requesters.
- Total Review/excising hours.
- Cost. Review/excising hours multiplied by actual professional hourly rate. Chargeable to all requesters.
- Total hours of Coordination/approval/denial. Time spent coordinating with other interested agencies and obtaining approval or denial.
- Cost. Total coordination hours multiplied by actual professional hourly rate.
- Total hours of Other activity.
- Cost. Total hours of Other activity multiplied by actual professional hourly rate.
- Total hours of Minimum charge time.
- Cost. Total minimum charge multiplied by one half professional hourly rate.
- Executive Hours (O-7, G M - 1 - 6, or E S 1 and above), to the nearest 15 minutes. Total hours of search time.
The completed form goes to the office named in not stated or in local implementing procedure, and it is worth keeping a copy before it goes. On a Department form the destination is frequently outside your own chain — another service, a defense agency, a joint staff — and recovering a document that has crossed an organizational boundary is a slower business than retrieving one from a file down the hall.
Cross-referenced documents are found by series and number, with nothing further required. That the DD sequence is unified across the Department means a cited number identifies one form and no other, which is the practical payoff of centralizing the numbering in the first place.
Procedures that touch both Department and service processes will cite forms from both sequences, and the coincidence of numbers between them is exactly that — coincidence. An Army proponent maintains the DA series for the Army; not stated or another Department office maintains the DD series for the whole Department. Two independent registries, two independent numbering runs, no correspondence at any value.
Understanding why editions change explains why checking them is not optional. Revision follows directive reissue, changes in what data is required, and amendments to mandatory notice text — decisions made at Department level and communicated through publication rather than notification. The file you saved does not update itself, so the edition date at download is what you rely on.
The role of this page is narrow and worth stating plainly. It makes a published Defense form available and explains its structure. It does not advise, does not interpret policy for your circumstances, and cannot indicate how any office will treat a completed copy — those judgments rest with the authorities that own the process. Direct such questions to not stated, to the administrative office that services you, or to the authority named in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 2086-1?
- DD Form 2086-1, Record of Freedom of Information Processing Cost for Technical Data, July 1997
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?