(g) If the person making the request does not know where in DOT the record is located, he or she may make an inquiry to the Chief, FOIA Division, Office of the General Counsel (voice: 202.366.4542; facsimile: 202.366.8536).

(h) Requests for records under this part, and Freedom of Information Act inquiries generally, may be made by accessing the DOT Home Page on the Internet (www.dot.gov) and clicking on the Freedom of Information Act link (www.dot.gov/foia).

§7.16 Requests for records of concern to more than one government organization.

(a) If the release of a record covered by this subpart would be of concern to both DOT and another Federal agency, the determination as to release will be made by DOT only after consultation with the other interested agency.

(b) If the release of the record covered by this subpart would be of concern to both DOT and a State, local, or Tribal government, a territory or possession of the United States, or a foreign government, the determination as to release will be made by DOT only after consultation with the interested

government.

(c) Alternatively, DOT may refer the request (or relevant portion thereof) for decision by a Federal agency that originated or is substantially concerned with the records, but only if that agency is subject to FOIA. Such referrals will be made expeditiously and the requestor notified in writing that a referral has been made.

$7.17 Consultation with submitters of commercial and financial information.

(a) If a request is received for information that has been designated by the submitter as confidential commercial information, or which DOT has some other reason to believe may contain information of the type described in §7.13(c)(4), the submitter of such information will, except as is provided in paragraphs (c) and (d) of this section, be notified expeditiously and asked to submit any written objections to release. At the same time, the requestor will be notified that notice and an opportunity to comment are being pro

vided to the submitter. The submitter will, to the extent permitted by law, be afforded a reasonable period of time within which to provide a detailed statement of any such objections. The submitter's statement shall specify all grounds for withholding any of the information. The burden shall be on the submitter to identify all information for which exempt treatment is sought and to persuade the agency that the information should not be disclosed.

(b) The responsible DOT component will, to the extent permitted by law, consider carefully a submitter's objections and specific grounds for nondisclosure prior to determining whether to disclose business information. Whenever a decision is made to disclose such information over the objection of a submitter, the office responsible for the decision will forward to the submitter a written notice of intent to disclose that will, to the extent permitted by law, be forwarded to the submitter a reasonable number of days prior to the specified date upon which disclosure is intended. At the same time the submitter is notified, the requestor will be notified of the decision to disclose information. The written notice will include:

(1) A statement of the reasons for which the submitter's disclosure objections were not accepted;

(2) A description of the business information to be disclosed; and

(3) A specific disclosure date. (c) The notice requirements of this section will not apply if:

(1) The office responsible for the decision determines that the information should not be disclosed;

(2) The information lawfully has been published or otherwise made available to the public; or

(3) Disclosure of the information is required by law (other than 5 U.S.C. 552).

(d) The procedures established in this section will not apply in the case of:

(1) Business information submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and addressed in 49 CFR Part 512.

(2) Information contained in a document to be filed or in oral testimony that is sought to be withheld pursuant to Rule 39 of the Rules of Practice in

(a) Each officer or employee of DOT who, upon a request by a member of the public for a record under this part, makes a determination that the record is not to be disclosed, either because it is subject to an exemption or not in DOT's custody and control, will give a written statement of the reasons for that determination to the person making the request; and indicate the names and titles or positions of each person responsible for the initial determination not to comply with such request, and the availability of an appeal within DOT. The denial letter will include an estimate of the volume of records or information withheld, in number of pages or in some other reasonable form of estimation. This estimate does not need to be provided if the volume is otherwise indicated through deletions on records disclosed in part, or if providing an estimate would harm an interest protected by an applicable exemption. Records disclosed in part will be marked or annotated to show both the amount and the location of the information deleted whenever practicable.

(b) When a request for a waiver of fees pursuant to §7.44 has been denied in whole or in part, the requestor may appeal the denial.

(c) Any person to whom a record has not been made available within the time limits established by $7.31 and any person who has been given a determination pursuant to paragraph (a) of this section that a record will not be disclosed may appeal to the responsible DOT official. Any person who has not received an initial determination on his or her request within the time limits established by §7.31 can seek immediate judicial review, which may be sought without the need first to submit

an administrative appeal. Judicial review may be sought in the United States District Court for the judicial district in which the requestor resides or has his or her principal place of business, the judicial district in which the records are located, or in the District of Columbia. A determination that a record will not be disclosed and/ or that a request for a fee waiver or reduction will not be granted does not constitute final agency action for the purposes of judicial review unless:

(1) It was made by the responsible DOT official; or

(2) The applicable time limit has passed without a determination on the initial request or the appeal, as the case may be, having been made.

(d) Each appeal must be made in writing within thirty days from the date of receipt of the original denial and should include the DOT file or reference number assigned to the request and all information and arguments relied upon by the person making the request. (Appeals may be submitted via facsimile and conventional mail, but not via electronic mail.) Such letter should indicate that it is an appeal from a denial of a request made under FOIA. The envelope in which a mailed appeal is sent should be prominently marked: "FOIA Appeal." If these requirements are not met, the twentyday limit described in §7.32 will not begin to run until the appeal has been identified, or would have been identified with the exercise of due diligence, by a DOT employee as an appeal under FOIA, and has been received by the appropriate office.

(e) Whenever the responsible DOT official determines it necessary, he/she may require the requestor to furnish additional information, or proof of factual allegations, and may order other proceedings appropriate in the circumstances; in any case in which a request or order is made, DOT's time for responding ceases to count while the requestor responds to the request or order. The decision of the responsible DOT official as to the availability of the record or the appropriateness of a fee waiver or reduction constitutes final agency action for the purpose of judicial review.

(f) The decision of the responsible DOT official not to disclose a record under this part or not to grant a request for a fee waiver or reduction is considered to be a denial by the Secretary for the purpose of 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(4)(B).

(g) Any final determination by the head of an DOT component not to disclose a record under this part, or not to grant a request for a fee waiver or reduction, is subject to concurrence by a representative of the General Counsel.

(h) Upon a determination that an appeal will be denied, the requestor will be informed in writing of the reasons for the denial of the request and the names and titles or positions of each person responsible for the determination, and that judicial review of the determination is available in the United States District Court for the judicial district in which the requestor resides or has his or her principal place of business, the judicial district in which the requested records are located, or the District of Columbia.

Subpart E-Time Limits

§7.31 Initial determinations.

An initial determination whether to release a record requested pursuant to subpart C of this part will be made within twenty Federal working days after the request is received by the appropriate office in accordance with §7.14, except that this time limit may be extended by up to ten Federal working days in accordance with §7.33. The person making the request will be notified immediately of such determination. If the determination is to grant the request, the desired record will be made available as promptly as possible. If the determination is to deny the request, the person making the request will be notified in writing, at the same time he or she is notified of such determination, of the reason for the determination, the right of such person to appeal the determination, and the name and title of each person responsible for the initial determination to deny the request.

(a) In general. Components ordinarily will respond to requests according to their order of receipt.

(b) Multitrack processing. (1) A component may use two or more processing tracks by distinguishing between simple and more complex requests based on the amount of work and/or time needed to process the request, or on the number of pages involved.

(2) A component using multitrack processing may provide requesters in its slower track(s) with an opportunity to limit the scope of their requests in order to qualify for faster processing within the specified limits of the component's faster track(s). A component doing so will contact the requestor either by telephone, letter, facsimile, or electronic mail, whichever is most efficient in each case.

(c) Expedited processing. (1) Requests and appeals will be taken out of order and given expedited treatment whenever a compelling need is demonstrated and it is determined that the compelling need involves:

(i) Circumstances in which the lack of expedited treatment could reasonably be expected to pose an imminent threat to the life or physical safety of an individual;

(ii) Requests made by a person primarily engaged in disseminating information, with an urgency to inform the public of actual or alleged Federal Government activity.

(2) A request for expedited processing may be made at the time of the initial request for records or at any later time. For a prompt determination, a request for expedited processing must be received by the proper component. Requests must be submitted to the component that maintains the records requested.

(3) A requestor who seeks expedited processing must submit a statement, certified to be true and correct to the best of that person's knowledge and belief, explaining in detail the basis for requesting expedited processing. For example, a requestor within the category in paragraph (c)(1)(ii) of this section, if not a full-time member of the news media, must establish that he or she is a person whose main professional activity or occupation is information dissemination, though it need not be his or her sole occupation. A requestor within the the category in paragraph

(c)(1)(ii) of this section also must establish a particular urgency to inform the public about the government activity involved in the request, beyond the public's right to know about government activity generally. The formality of certification may be waived as a matter of discretion.

(4) Within ten calendar days of receipt of a request for expedited processing, the proper component will decide whether to grant it and will notify the requestor of the decision. If a request for expedited treatment is granted, the request will be given priority and will be processed as soon as practicable. If a request for expedited processing is denied, any appeal of that decision will be acted on expeditiously.

$7.32 Final determinations.

(a) A determination with respect to any appeal made pursuant to §7.21 will be made within twenty Federal working days after receipt of such appeal except that this time limit may be extended by up to ten Federal working days in accordance with §7.33. The person making the request will be notified immediately of such determination pursuant to §7.21.

(b) In general. Components ordinarily will respond to appeals according to their order of receipt.

(c) Multitrack processing. (1) A component may use two or more processing tracks by distinguishing between simple and more complex appeals based on the amount of work and/or time needed to process the appeal, or on the number of pages involved.

(2) A component using multitrack processing may provide persons making appeals in its slower track(s) with an opportunity to limit the scope of their appeals in order to qualify for faster processing within the specified limits of the component's faster track(s). A component doing so will contact the person making the appeal either by telephone, letter, facsimile, or electronic mail, whichever is most efficient in each case.

(d) Expedited processing. (1) An appeal will be taken out of order and given expedited treatment whenever a compelling need is demonstrated and it is determined that the compelling need involves:

(i) Circumstances in which the lack of expedited treatment could reasonably be expected to pose an imminent threat to the life or physical safety of an individual;

(ii) A request made by a person primarily engaged in disseminating information, with an urgency to inform the public of actual or alleged Federal Government activity.

(2) A request for expedited processing may be made at the time of the appeal or at any later time. For a prompt determination, a request for expedited processing must be received by the proper component, which is the component that is processing the appeal for the records requested.

(3) A requestor who seeks expedited processing must submit a statement, certified to be true and correct to the best of that person's knowledge and belief, explaining in detail the basis for requesting expedited processing. For example, a requestor within the category in §7.31(c)(1)(ii), if not a full-time member of the news media, must establish that he or she is a person whose main professional activity or occupation is information dissemination, though it need not be his or her sole occupation. A requestor within the category in §7.31(c)(1)(ii) also must establish a particular urgency to inform the public about the government activity involved in the request, beyond the public's right to know about government activity generally. The formality of certification may be waived as a matter of discretion. A person who was granted expedited processing under §7.31 need merely certify that the same circumstances apply.

(4) Within ten calendar days of receipt of a request for expedited processing, the proper component will decide whether to grant it and will notify the requestor of the decision. If a request for expedited treatment is granted, the appeal will be given priority and will be processed as soon as practicable. If a request for expedited processing of an appeal is denied, no further administrative recourse is available.

prescribed in §7.31 and §7.32 may be extended by written notice to the person making the request setting forth the reasons for such extension and the date on which a determination is expected to be dispatched. Such notice may not specify a date that would result in a cumulative extension of more than 10 Federal working days without providing the requestor an opportunity to modify the request as noted in this section. As used in this paragraph, "unusual circumstances" means, but only to the extent reasonably necessary to the proper processing of the particular request:

(1) The need to search for and collect the requested records from field facilities or other establishments that are separate from the office processing the request.

(2) The need to search for, collect, and appropriately examine a voluminous amount of separate and distinct records that are demanded in a single request; or

(3) The need for consultation, which will be conducted with all practicable speed, with any other agency or DOT component having a substantial interest in the determination of the request or among two or more components of the agency having substantial subjectmatter interest therein.

(b) Where the extension is for more than 10 working days, the DOT component will provide the requestor with an opportunity either to modify the request so that it may be processed within the time limits or to arrange an alternative time period with the component for processing the request or a modified request.

(c) Where a component reasonably believes that multiple requests submitted by a requestor, or by a group of requesters acting in concert, constitute a single request that would otherwise involve unusual circumstances, and the requests involve clearly related matters, they may be aggregated for the purposes of fees and processing activities. Multiple requests involving unrelated matters will not be aggregated.

Subpart F-Fees

$7.41 General.

(a) This subpart prescribes fees for services performed for the public under subparts B and C of this part by DOT.

(b) All terms defined by FOIA apply to this subpart, and the term "hourly rate" means the actual hourly base pay for a civilian employee or, for members of the Coast Guard, the equivalent hourly pay rate computed using a 40hour week and the member's normal basic pay and allowances.

(c) This subpart applies to all employees of DOT, including those of nonappropriated fund activities of the Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration.

(d) This subpart does not apply to any special study, special statistical compilation, table, or other record requested under 49 U.S.C. 329(c). The fee for the performance of such a service is the actual cost of the work involved in compiling the record. All such fees received by DOT in payment of the cost of such work are deposited in a separate account administered under the direction of the Secretary, and may be used for the ordinary expenses incidental to providing the information.

(e) This subpart does not apply to requests from record subjects for records about themselves in DOT systems of records, which are determined in accordance with the Privacy Act, as implemented by DOT regulations (49 CFR part 10).

$7.42 Payment of fees.

(a) The fees prescribed in this subpart may be paid by check, draft, or money order, payable to the DOT component where fees were incurred, for deposit in the General Fund of the Treasury of the United States, e.g. DOT/FAA.

(b) Charges may be assessed by DOT for time spent searching for requested records even if the search fails to locate records or the records located are determined to be exempt from disclosure. In addition, if records are requested for commercial use, DOT may assess a fee for time spent reviewing