APPENDIX B TO SUBPART C-INTERNAL REV ENUE SERVICE APPENDIX C TO SUBPART C-UNITED STATES CUSTOMS SERVICE APPENDIX D TO SUBPART C-UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE APPENDIX E TO SUBPART C-BUREAU OF ALCO HOL, TOBACCO AND FIREARMS APPENDIX F TO SUBPART C-BUREAU OF EN GRAVING AND PRINTING APPENDIX G TO SUBPART C-FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SERVICE APPENDIX H TO SUBPART C-UNITED STATES MINT APPENDIX I TO SUBPART C-BUREAU OF THE PUBLIC DEBT APPENDIX J TO SUBPART C-OFFICE OF THE AUTHORITY: 5 U.S.C. 301 and 31 U.S.C. 321. Subpart A also issued under 5 U.S.C. 552, as amended. Subpart C also issued under 5 U.S.C. 552a. SOURCE: 52 FR 26305, July 14, 1987, unless otherwise noted. Subpart A-Freedom of Information Act SOURCE: 65 FR 40504, June 30, 2000, unless otherwise noted. §1.1 General. (a) Purpose and scope. (1) This subpart contains the regulations of the Department of the Treasury implementing the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552, as amended by the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 1996. The regulations set forth procedures for requesting access to records maintained by the Department of the Treasury. These regulations apply to all bureaus of the Department of the Treasury. Any reference in this subpart to the Department or its officials, employees, or records shall be deemed to refer also to the bureaus or their officials, employees, or records. Persons interested in the records of a particular bureau should also consult the appendix to this subpart that pertains to that bureau. The head of each bureau is hereby authorized to substitute the officials designated and change the addresses specified in the appendix to this subpart applicable to the bureau. The bu reaus of the Department of the Treasury for the purposes of this subpart are: (i) The Departmental Offices, which include the offices of: (A) The Secretary of the Treasury, including immediate staff; (B) The Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, including immediate staff; (C) The Chief of Staff, including immediate staff; (D) The Executive Secretary and all offices reporting to such official, including immediate staff; (E) The Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs and all offices reporting to such official, including immediate staff; (F) The Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance and all offices reporting to such official, including immediate staff; (G) The Under Secretary for Enforcement and all offices reporting to such official, including immediate staff; (H) The Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Institutions and all offices reporting to such official, including immediate staff; (I) The Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and all offices reporting to such official, including immediate staff; (J) The Fiscal Assistant Secretary and all offices reporting to such official, including immediate staff; (K) The General Counsel and all offices reporting to such official, including immediate staff; except legal counsel to the components listed in paragraphs (a)(1)(i)(L), and (a)(1)(i)(S), and (a)((1)(ii) through (xii) of this section; (L) The Inspector General and all offices reporting to such official, including immediate staff; (M) The Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs and all offices reporting to such official, including immediate staff; (N) The Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Legislative Affairs and Public Liaison and all offices reporting to such official, including immediate staff; (0) The Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Management and Chief Financial Officer and all offices reporting to such official, including immediate staff; (P) The Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Public Affairs and all offices reporting to such official, including immediate staff; (Q) The Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy and all offices reporting to such official, including immediate staff; (R) The Treasurer of the United States, including immediate staff; (S) The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and all offices reporting to such official, including immediate staff. (ii) The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. (iii) The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. (iv) The United States Customs Service. (v) The Bureau of Engraving and Printing. (vi) The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. (vii) The Financial Service. Management (viii) The Internal Revenue Service. (ix) The United States Mint. (x) The Bureau of the Public Debt. (xi) The United States Secret Service. (xii) The Office of Thrift Supervision. (2) For purposes of this subpart, the office of the legal counsel for the components listed in paragraphs (a)(1)(ii) through (xii) of this section are to be considered a part of their respective bureaus. Any office which is now in existence or may hereafter be established, which is not specifically listed or known to be a component of any of those listed in paragraphs (a)(1)(i) through (xii) of this section, shall be deemed a part of the Departmental Offices for the purpose of making requests for records under this subpart. (b) Definitions. As used in this subpart, the following terms shall have the following meanings: (1) Agency has the meaning given in 5 U.S.C. 551(1) and 5 U.S.C. 552(f). (2) Appeal means a request for a review of an agency's determination with regard to a fee waiver, category of requester, expedited processing, or denial in whole or in part of a request for access to a record or records. (3) Bureau means an entity of the Department of the Treasury that is au thorized to act independently in disclosure matters. (4) Business information means trade secrets or other commercial or financial information. (5) Business submitter means any entity which provides business information to the Department of the Treasury or its bureaus and which has a proprietary interest in the information. ≤(6) Computer software means tools by which records are created, stored, and retrieved. Normally, computer software, including source code, object code, and listings of source and object codes, regardless of medium, are not agency records. However, when data are embedded within the software and cannot be extracted without the software, the software may have to be treated as an agency record. Proprietary (or copyrighted) software is not an agency record. (7) Confidential commercial information means records provided to the government by a submitter that arguably contain material exempt from release under Exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4), because disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause substantial competitive harm. (8) Duplication refers to the process of making a copy of a record in order to respond to a FOIA request. Such copies can take the form of paper copy, microform, audio-visual materials, or machine readable documentation (e.g., magnetic tape or disk), among others. (9) Electronic records means those records and information which are created, stored, and retrievable by electronic means. This ordinarily does not include computer software, which is a tool by which to create, store, or retrieve electronic records. (10) Request means any request for records made pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(3). (11) Requester means any person who makes a request for access to records. (12) Responsible official means a disclosure officer or the head of the organizational unit having immediate custody of the records requested, or an official designated by the head of the organizational unit. (13) Review, for fee purposes, refers to the process of examining records located in response to a commercial use request to determine whether any portion of any record located is permitted to be withheld. It also includes processing any records for disclosure; e.g., doing all that is necessary to excise them and otherwise prepare them for release. (14) Search includes all time spent looking for material that is responsive to a request, including page-by-page or line-by-line identification of material within records. Searches may be done manually or by automated means. §1.2 Information made available. (a) General. The FOIA (5 U.S.C. 552) provides for access to information and records developed or maintained by Federal agencies. The provisions of section 552 are intended to assure the right of the public to information. Generally, this section divides agency information into three major categories and provides methods by which each category of information is to be made available to the public. The three major categories of information are as follows: (1) Information required to be published in the FEDERAL REGISTER (see §1.3); (2) Information required to be made available for public inspection and copying or, in the alternative, to be published and offered for sale (see §1.4); and (3) Information required to be made available to any member of the public upon specific request (see §1.5). (b) Subject only to the exemptions and exclusions set forth in 5 U.S.C. 552(b) and (c), any person shall be afforded access to information or records in the possession of any bureau of the Department of the Treasury, subject to the regulations in this subpart and any regulations of a bureau implementing or supplementing them. (c) Exemptions. (1) The disclosure requirements of 5 U.S.C. 552(a) do not apply to certain matters which are exempt under 5 U.S.C. 552(b); nor do the disclosure requirements apply to certain matters which are excluded under 5 U.S.C. 552(c). (2) Even though an exemption described in 5 U.S.C. 552(b) may be applicable to the information or records requested, a Treasury bureau may, if not precluded by law, elect under the circumstances of that request not to apply the exemption. The fact that the exemption is not applied by a bureau in response to a particular request shall have no precedential significance in processing other requests, but is merely an indication that, in the processing of the particular request, the bureau finds no necessity for applying the exemption. §1.3 Publication in the Federal Reg ister. (a) Requirement. Subject to the application of the exemptions and exclusions in 5 U.S.C. 552(b) and (c) and subject to the limitations provided in 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(1), each Treasury bureau shall, in conformance with 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(1), separately state, publish and maintain current in the FEDERAL REGISTER for the guidance of the public the following information with respect to that bureau: (1) Descriptions of its central and field organization and the established places at which, the persons from whom, and the methods whereby, the public may obtain information, make submittals or requests, or obtain decisions; (2) Statements of the general course and method by which its functions are channeled and determined, including the nature and requirements of all formal and informal procedures available; (3) Rules of procedure, descriptions of forms available or the places at which forms may be obtained, and instructions as to the scope and contents of all papers, reports, or examinations; (4) Substantive rules of general applicability adopted as authorized by law, and statements of general policy or interpretations of general applicability formulated and adopted by the bureau; and (5) Each amendment, revision, or repeal of matters referred to in paragraphs (a)(1) through (4) of this section. (b) The United States Government Manual. The functions of each bureau are summarized in the description of the Department and its bureaus in the United States Government Manual, which is issued annually by the Office of the Federal Register. $ 1.4 Public inspection and copying. (a) In general. Subject to the application of the exemptions and exclusions described in 5 U.S.C. 552(b) and (c), each Treasury bureau shall, in conformance with 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(2), make available for public inspection and copying, or, in the alternative, promptly publish and offer for sale the following information with respect to the bureau: (1) Final opinions, including concurring and dissenting opinions, and orders, made in the adjudication of cases; (2) Those statements of policy and interpretations which have been adopted by the bureau but are not published in the FEDERAL REGISTER; (3) Its administrative staff manuals and instructions to staff that affect a member of the public; (4) Copies of all records, regardless of form or format, which have been released to any person under 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(3), and which the bureau determines have become or are likely to become the subject of subsequent requests for substantially the same records because they are clearly of interest to the public at large. The determination that records have become or may become the subject of subsequent requests shall be made by the Responsible Official (as defined at §1.1(b)(12)). (5) A general index of the records referred to in paragraph (a)(4) of this section. (b) Information made available by computer telecommunications. For records required to be made available for public inspection and copying pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(2) (paragraphs (a)(1) through (4) of this section) which are created on or after November 1, 1996, as soon as practicable but no later than one year after such records are created, each bureau shall make such records available on the Internet. (c) Deletion of identifying details. To prevent a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, or pursuant to an exemption in 5 U.S.C. 552(b), a Treasury bureau may delete information contained in any matter described in paragraphs (a)(1) through (4) of this section before making such matters available for inspection or publishing it. The justification for the deletion shall be explained fully in writing, and the extent of such deletion shall be indicated on the portion of the record which is made available or published, unless including that indication would harm an interest protected by the exemption in 5 U.S.C. 552(b) under which the deletion is made. If technically feasible, the extent of the deletion shall be indicated at the place in the record where the deletion was made. (d) Public reading rooms. Each bureau of the Department of the Treasury shall make available for public inspection and copying, in a reading room or otherwise, the material described in paragraphs (a)(1) through (5) of this section. Fees for duplication shall be charged in accordance with §1.7. See the appendices to this subpart for the location of established bureau reading rooms. (e) Indexes. (1) Each bureau of the Department of the Treasury shall maintain and make available for public inspection and copying current indexes identifying any material described in paragraphs (a)(1) through (3) of this section. In addition, each bureau shall promptly publish, quarterly or more frequently, and distribute (by sale or otherwise) copies of each index or supplement unless the head of each bureau (or a delegate) determines by order published in the FEDERAL REGISTER that the publication would be unnecessary and impractical, in which case the bureau shall nonetheless provide copies of the index on request at a cost not to exceed the direct cost of duplication. (2) Each bureau shall make the index referred to in paragraph (a)(5) of this section available on the Internet by December 31, 1999. with the rules and procedures of this subpart and the applicable bureau's appendix to this subpart. Any request or appeal from the initial denial of a request that does not comply with the requirements in this subpart will not be considered subject to the time constraints of paragraphs (h), (i), and (j) of this section, unless and until the request is amended to comply. Bureaus shall promptly advise the requester in what respect the request or appeal is deficient so that it may be amended and resubmitted for consideration in accordance with this subpart. If a requester does not respond within 30 days to a communication from a bureau to amend the request in order for it to be in conformance with this subpart, the request file will be considered closed. When the request conforms with the requirements of this subpart, bureaus shall make every reasonable effort to comply with the request within the time constraints. If the description of the record requested is of a type that is not maintained by the bureau, the requester shall be so advised and the request shall be returned to the requester. (2) This subpart applies only to records in the possession or control of the bureau at the time of the request. Records considered to be responsive to the request are those in existence on or before the date of receipt of the request by the appropriate bureau official. Requests for the continuing production of records created after the date of the appropriate bureau official's receipt of the request shall not be honored. Bureaus shall provide the responsive record or records in the form or format requested if the record or records are readily reproducible by the bureau in that form or format. Bureaus shall make reasonable efforts to maintain their records in forms or formats that are reproducible for the purpose of disclosure. For purposes of this section, readily reproducible means, with respect to electronic format, a record or records that can be downloaded or transferred intact to a floppy disk, compact disk (CD), tape, or other electronic medium using equipment currently in use by the office or offices processing the request. Even though some records may initially be readily reproducible, the need to segregate exempt from nonexempt records may cause the releasable material to not be readily reproducible. (3) Requests for information classified pursuant to Executive Order 12958, "Classified National Security Information," require the responsible bureau to review the information to determine whether it continues to warrant classification. Information which no longer warrants classification under the Executive Order's criteria shall be declassified and made available to the requester, unless the information is otherwise exempt from disclosure. (4) When a bureau receives five or more requests for substantially the same records, it shall place those requests in front of an existing request backlog that the responsible official may have. Upon completion of processing, the released records shall be made available in the bureau's public reading room, and if created on or after November 1, 1996, shall be made available in the electronic reading room of the bureau's web site. (b) Form of request. In order to be subject to the provisions of this section, the following must be satisfied. (1) The request for records shall be made in writing, signed by the person making the request, and state that it is made pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552, or this subpart. (2) The request shall indicate whether the requester is a commercial user, an educational institution, non-commercial scientific institution, representative of the news media, or "other" requester, subject to the fee provisions described in §1.7. In order for the Department to determine the proper category for fee purposes as defined in this section, a request for records shall also state how the records released will be used. This information shall not be used to determine the releasibility of any record or records. A determination of the proper category of requester shall be based upon a review of the requester's submission and the bureau's own records. Where a bureau has reasonable cause to doubt the use to which a requester will put the records sought, or where that use is not clear from the request itself, bureaus |