39 C.F.R. PART 3004—FREEDOM OF INFORMATION RULES
Title 39 - Postal Service
Authority: 39 U.S.C. 3603; 5 U.S.C. 552, 552a.
Source: 64 FR 58337, Oct. 29, 1999, unless otherwise noted.
(a) This part is published pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552, to describe the procedures by which a person can request copies of Commission records. It also describes how a submitter of trade secrets or confidential business information can identify information that the submitter believes to be exempt from disclosure under 5 U.S.C. 552(b). (b) An individual seeking access to a record about himself or herself that is subject to the Privacy Act of 1974 should also consult the Commission's Privacy Act rules in part 3003 for the procedures that apply to requests for records under that Act. Requests for first-party access can be made under both the FOIA and the Privacy Act of 1974. (c) Information required to be published or made available pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(1) and (a)(2) may be found in part 3002, elsewhere in this chapter, in the (d) Section 3001.42(b) of this chapter identifies records that the Commission has determined to be public. (a) The Commission maintains a public reading room at its offices at 1333 H Street NW., Washington, DC 20268. The reading room is open from 8:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. during business days. (b) The records available for public inspection and copying in the reading room include: final opinions, statements of policy, administrative staff manuals and instructions that affect a member of the public, copies of selected records released under the FOIA, and indexes required to be maintained under the FOIA, and records described in 39 CFR 3001.42(b) relating to any matter or proceeding before the Commission. (c) The Commission's electronic reading room is maintained at its website at www.prc.gov. Commission decisions, orders, rules of practice, and other directives affecting the public are available from the electronic reading room. To the extent practicable, other documents available in the reading room are also posted and available on the website. (a) A request for records must be in writing and must reasonably describe the records sought. A request should be addressed or delivered to the Secretary of the Commission at the offices of the Commission at 1333 H Street NW., Washington, DC 20268. A request should be clearly identified as “Freedom of Information Act Request” both in the text of the request and on the envelope. A requester should include a daytime telephone number. (b) A request for expedited processing may be made in cases in which the requester demonstrates a compelling need as defined in 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(6)(E)(v). The Commission may otherwise grant requests for expedited processing at its discretion. A request for expedited processing should be clearly identified as “Expedited Freedom of Information Act Request” both in the text of the request and on the envelope. (c) A demonstration of compelling need by a requester seeking expedited processing must be made by a statement certified by the requester to be true and correct to the best of the requester's knowledge and belief. At its discretion, the Commission may waive the requirement for certification. (d) A request for expedited processing may be made at the time of an initial request (or appeal) or at a later time. (a) Within 20 days (excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal public holidays) after receipt of a request for a Commission record, the Secretary of the Commission will: (1) Determine to comply with the request and immediately notify the requester of the determination and of any fees that must be paid; or (2) Deny the request in writing. The denial letter will explain the reason for the denial, including each exemption used as a basis for withholding of the records sought. The denial letter will include an estimate of the volume of requested matter that was denied. If disclosure of a record has been partially denied, the amount of information deleted will be indicated on the released portion if technically feasible. If revealing the amount or location of a denied record will harm an interest protected by an exemption, then the description of the amount or location of deleted information may be withheld. The denial letter will inform the requestor that he/she may, within one year, appeal the denial to the Commission. (b) A denial is any form of adverse determination, including: a determination to withhold any requested record in whole or in part; a determination that a requested record does not exist or cannot be located; a determination that a record is not readily reproducible in the form or format sought by the requester; a determination that what has been requested is not a record subject to the FOIA; an adverse decision on any disputed fee matter, including a denial of a requested fee waiver; and a denial of a request for expedited treatment. (c) Within ten days after the receipt of a request for expedited processing, the Secretary will: (1) Grant the request for expedited processing and process the request for records as soon as practicable; or (2) Deny a request for expedited processing in writing. Any request for records that has been denied expedited processing will be processed in the same manner as a request that did not seek expedited processing. The denial letter will inform the requestor that he/she may, within five days, appeal the denial to the Commission. (d) If warranted by the unusual circumstances specified in 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(6)(B)(iii), the Secretary may extend the time for a response for up to ten working days. The Secretary will notify the requester of any extension, and the reason for the extension, in writing. The Secretary will also provide the requester with an opportunity to limit the scope of the request or to arrange an alternative time frame for processing the request or a modified request. (a) A requester who seeks to appeal any denial must file an appeal in writing with the Commission. The Commission may review any decision of the Secretary on its own initiative. The Commission will grant or deny the appeal in writing, within 20 days (excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal public holidays) of the date the appeal is received. If on appeal the denial of the request for records is upheld, the Commission will notify the person making such request of the provisions for judicial review of that determination pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552(c). The Commission will expeditiously consider an appeal of a denial of expedited processing. (b) If warranted by the unusual circumstances specified in 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(6)(B)(iii), the Commission may extend the time for a response to an appeal for up to ten working days. The Commission will notify the requester of any extension, and the reason for the extension, in writing. The Commission will also provide the requester with an opportunity to limit the scope of the request or to arrange an alternative time frame for processing the request or a modified request. (a) Definitions pertaining to fees: (1) Direct costs means expenditures the Commission actually incurs in searching for, duplicating, and, where applicable, reviewing documents to respond to a request. They include (without limitation) the salary of the employee performing work (the basic pay rate of such employee plus 16 percent to cover benefits) and the cost of operating required machinery. (2) Search includes all time spent looking for material responsive to a request, including identification of pages or lines within documents. The term covers both manual and computerized searching. (3) Duplication means making copies of documents necessary to respond to a request. Such copies may be paper, microform, audiovisual, or machine-readable. (4) Review means examining documents located in response to a commercial-use request to determine whether any portion is exempt from mandatory disclosure, and processing or preparing documents for release, but not determination of general legal or policy issues regarding application of exemptions. (5) Commercial use request means a request from or on behalf of one seeking information for a use or purpose that furthers the commercial, trade, or profit interests of the requester or person on whose behalf the request is made. In determining the applicability of this term, the use to which a requester will put the document is considered first; where reasonable doubt exists as to the use, the Commission may seek clarification before assigning the request to a category. (6) Educational institution means a preschool, a public or private elementary or secondary school, an institution of graduate or undergraduate higher education, an institution of professional education, and an institution of vocational education, which operates a program or programs of scholarly research. (7) Noncommercial scientific institution means an institution, not operated on a commercial basis (as referenced above), which is operated solely for the purpose of conducting scientific research whose results are not intended to promote any particular product or industry. (8) Representative of the news media means any person actively gathering news for an entity organized and operated to publish or broadcast news to the public. News means information about current events or that would be of current interest to the public. Freelance journalists will be regarded as working for a news medium if they demonstrate (for example, by a publication contract or a past record of publication) a solid basis for expecting publication through such organization even though not actually employed by it. (b) Except in the case of commercial-use requesters, the first 100 pages of duplication and the first two hours of search time are provided without charge. A page for these purposes is a letter- or legal-size sheet, or the equivalent amount of information in a medium other than paper copy. Search time for these purposes refers to manual searching; if the search is performed by computer, the amount not charged for will be the search cost equivalent to two hours' salary of the person performing the search. No requester will be charged a fee when the Commission determines that the cost of collecting the fee would equal or exceed the fee itself. In determining whether cost of collection would equal or exceed the fee, the allowance for two hours' search or 100 pages of duplication will be made before comparing the remaining fee and the cost of collection. (c) Fees will be charged in accordance with the following provisions: (1) The level of fee charged depends on the category of requester: (i) A request appearing to be for commercial use will be charged the full direct costs of searching for, reviewing, and duplicating the records sought. (ii) A request from an educational or noncommercial scientific institution will be charged for the cost of duplication only (excluding charges for the first 100 pages). To be eligible for this category, a requester must show that the request is made under the auspices of a qualifying institution and that the records are not sought for commercial use but are in furtherance of scholarly (in the case of educational institutions) or scientific (in the case of noncommercial scientific institutions) research. (iii) A request from a representative of the news media will be charged the cost of duplication only (excluding charges for the first 100 pages). (iv) A request from any other requester will be charged the full direct cost of searching for and duplicating records responsive to the request, except that the first 100 pages of duplication and the first two hours of search will be furnished without charge. (v) A request from a record subject for records about himself or herself filed in a Commission Privacy Act system of records will be charged fees as provided under the Commission's Privacy Act regulations in part 3003 of this chapter. (2) Fees will be calculated as follows: (i) Manual search: At the salary rate (basic pay plus 16 percent) of the employee(s) making the search. Search time may be charged for even if the Commission fails to locate records or if records located are exempt from disclosure. (ii) Computer search: At the actual direct cost of providing the search, including computer search time directly attributable to searching for records responsive to the request, runs, and operator salary apportionable to the search. (iii) Review (commercial-use requests): At the salary rate (basic pay plus 16 percent) of the employee(s) conducting the review. Charges are imposed only for the review necessary at the initial administrative level to determine the applicability of any exemption, and not for review at the administrative appeal level of an exemption already applied. (iv) Duplication: At 15 cents per page for paper copy, which the Commission has found to be the reasonable direct cost thereof. For copies of records prepared by computer (such as tapes or printouts), the actual cost of production, including operator time, will be charged. (v) Additional services: Postage, insurance, and other additional services that may be arranged for by the requester will be charged at actual cost. (d) Interest at the rate prescribed in 31 U.S.C. 3717 will be charged on unpaid fee bills, starting on the 31st day after the bill was sent. Receipt of a fee by the Commission, whether processed or not, will stay the accrual of interest. (e) Advance payment may be required only when the allowable fees are likely to exceed $250, in which case advance payment in part or in full may be required of requesters with no history of prompt payment, and satisfactory assurance of payment from requesters with such history; or when the requester has previously failed to pay a fee timely (within 30 days of the billing date), in which case the Commission may require full payment of the amount owed, plus applicable interest, or a demonstration that the fee has in fact been paid, together with full advance payment of the estimated fee. When advance payment is required, the administrative time limits prescribed in subsection (a)(6) of the FOIA begin only after such payment has been received. (f) Records will be provided without charge or at a reduced charge if disclosure of the information is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government and is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester. Should the Secretary or the Commission reasonably believe that a requester or a group of requesters acting in concert, have attempted to evade fees or to seek a procedural advantage over other requesters by breaking down a request into a series of requests, the Commission may aggregate the separate requests and treat them as a single request. Multiple requests involving unrelated subjects will not be aggregated. (a) Any person who submits to the Commission a trade secret or commercial or financial information that the submitter reasonably believes to be exempt from disclosure under 5 U.S.C. 552(b) must designate the exempt information by appropriate markings at the time of submission or at a reasonable time after submission. The submission should be accompanied by a brief written statement explaining why the information is exempt. Any designation will expire ten years after the date of the submission unless the submitter requests, and provides justification for, a longer period. (b) Before disclosing, in response to a FOIA request, any information properly designated under this part, the Commission will provide the submitter with written notice that a request seeks disclosure of the information. The Commission may also provide notice when it has reason to believe that business information possibly exempt from disclosure may fall within the scope of any FOIA request. The requester will be provided a copy of any notice sent to the submitter. (c) A submitter has seven days to submit written objections to the disclosure specifying all grounds for withholding the information under the FOIA. If the submitter fails to respond to the notice, the submitter will be considered to have no objection to the disclosure of the information. (d) If, after considering the submitter's objections to disclosure, the Commission decides to disclose the information, it will give the submitter written notice of the decision and a brief explanation of the reasons for not sustaining the submitter's objections. The actual disclosure will not be made before five days after the submitter has received the notice. (e) A submitter may not receive notice if the Commission determines that the information should not be disclosed; if the information has been lawfully published or officially made available to the public; or if a statute (other than the FOIA) or a regulation requires disclosure. (f) Protection of information made available pursuant to proceedings subject to the rules in 39 CFR part 3001, including information provided pursuant to that subpart requiring the filing of periodic reports, is provided upon request to the Commission as described in §3001.31a.
Title 39: Postal Service
PART 3004—FREEDOM OF INFORMATION RULES
Section Contents
§ 3004.1 Purpose.
§ 3004.2 Reading room.
§ 3004.3 Requests for records and for expedited processing.
§ 3004.4 Response to requests.
§ 3004.5 Appeals.
§ 3004.6 Fees.
§ 3004.7 Aggregation of requests.
§ 3004.8 Submission of business information.
§ 3004.1 Purpose.
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§ 3004.2 Reading room.
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§ 3004.3 Requests for records and for expedited processing.
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§ 3004.4 Response to requests.
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§ 3004.5 Appeals.
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§ 3004.6 Fees.
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§ 3004.7 Aggregation of requests.
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§ 3004.8 Submission of business information.
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