39 C.F.R. § 3001.42 Public information and requests.
Title 39 - Postal Service
This section prescribes the rules governing: Publication of recommended decisions, advisory opinions, and public reports; and records of the Commission. (a) Notice and publication. Service of intermediate and recommended decisions, advisory opinions and public reports upon parties to the proceedings is provided for in §§3001.12(c) and 3001.39(d). Descriptions of the Commission's organization, its methods of operation, statements of policy and interpretations, procedural and substantive rules, and amendments thereto will be filed with and published in the (b) Public records. Except as provided in §3001.31a of this chapter, the public records of the Commission include: (1) All submittals and filings as follows: (i) Requests of the Postal Service for recommended decisions or advisory opinions, public reports, complaints (both formal and informal), and other papers seeking Commission action; (ii) Financial, statistical and other reports to the Commission, and other filings and submittals to the Commission in compliance with the requirements of any statute, Executive order, or Commission rule, regulation, or order; (iii) All answers, replies, responses, objections, protests, motions, stipulations, exceptions, other pleadings, notices, depositions, certificates, proofs of service, transcripts, and briefs in any matter or proceeding; (iv) All exhibits, attachments and appendices to, amendments and corrections of, supplements to, or transmittals or withdrawals of, any of the foregoing; (v) Any Commission correspondence relating to any of the foregoing. (2) All other parts of the formal record in any matter or proceeding set for formal or statutory hearing and any Commission correspondence related thereto. “Formal record” includes in addition to all the filings and submittals, any notice or Commission order initiating the matter or proceeding, and, if a hearing is held, the following: the designation of the presiding officer, transcript of hearings, all exhibits received in evidence, offers of proof, motions, stipulations, proofs of service, referrals to the Commission, and determination made by the Commission thereon, certifications to the Commission, and anything else upon which action of the presiding officer or the Commission may be based; it does not include any unaccepted offer of settlement made by a party in the course of a proceeding and not formally submitted to the Commission. (3) Any proposed testimony or exhibit filed with the Commission but not yet offered or received in evidence. (4) All presiding officer actions and all presiding officer correspondence and memoranda to or from others except within his own office. (5) All Commission orders, notices, findings, determinations, and other actions in any matter or proceeding and all Commission minutes which have been approved. (6) All Commission correspondence relating to any furnishing of data or information by the Postal Service. (7) Commission correspondence with respect to the furnishing of data, information, comments, or recommendations to or by another branch, department, or agency of the Government where furnished to satisfy a specific requirement of a statute or where made public by that branch, department or agency. (8) Commission correspondence and reports on legislative matters under consideration by the Office of Management and Budget or Congress but only if and after made public or released for publication by that Office or the Commission or Member of Congress involved. (9) Commission correspondence on the interpretation or applicability of any statute, rule, regulation, recommended decision, advisory opinion, or public report issued or administered by the Commission and letters of opinion on that subject signed by the General Counsel and sent to others than the Commission, a Commissioner, or any of the staff. (10) Copies of all filings by the Commission, and all orders, judgments, decrees, and mandates directed to the Commission in Court proceedings involving Commission action and all correspondence with the courts or clerks of court. (11) The Commission's administrative and operating manuals as issued. (12) All other records of the Commission except for those that are: (i)(a) Specifically authorized under criteria established by an Executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy and (b) are in fact properly classified pursuant to such Executive order; (ii) Related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of the Commission; (iii) Specifically exempted from disclosure by statute; (iv) Trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential; (v) Interagency or intra-agency memoranda or letters which would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the Commission; (vi) Personnel and medical files and similar files, the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. (vii) Investigatory records compiled for law enforcement purposes, to the extent specified in 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(7). (13) The following are examples of information which is not part of the public records of the Commission: (i) Written communications between or among the Commission, members of the Commission, the Secretary, and expressly designated members of the staff while particularly assigned, in accordance with all applicable legal requirements, to aid the Commission in the drafting of any recommended decision, advisory opinion or public report and findings, with or without opinion, or report in any matter or proceeding; (ii) Unaccepted offers of settlement in any matter or proceeding unless or until made public by act of the offeror. (c) Procedure in event of subpoena. If an officer or employee of the Commission is served with a subpoena duces tecum, material which is not part of the public files and records of the Commission shall be produced only as authorized by the Commission. Service of such a subpoena shall immediately be reported to the Commission with a statement of all relevant facts. The Commission will thereupon enter such order or give such instructions as it deems advisable. (84 Stat. 759–761, 764; 39 U.S.C. 3603, 3622–3624, 3661, 3662) [38 FR 4329, Feb. 13, 1973, as amended at 40 FR 6972, Feb. 18, 1975; 42 FR 25729, May 19, 1977; 44 FR 33881, June 13, 1979; 52 FR 13443, 13444, Apr. 23, 1987; 58 FR 38976, July 21, 1993; 64 FR 58337, Oct. 29, 1999; 67 FR 67563, Nov. 6, 2002]
Title 39: Postal Service
PART 3001—RULES OF PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE
Subpart A—Rules of General Applicability
§ 3001.42 Public information and requests.
