Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/05/10/2017-09465/revision-of-freedom-of-information-act-regulation-correction
Timestamp: 2017-09-19 14:14:41
Document Index: 149819252

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 15', '§\u200915', '§\u200915', '§\u200915', '§\u200915', '§\u200915', '§\u200915', '§\u200915', '§\u200915', '§\u200915', 'art 15', 'art 15', '§\u200915', '§\u200915', '§\u200915', '§\u200915', '§\u200915']

Federal Register :: Revision of Freedom of Information Act Regulation; Correction
A Rule by the Housing and Urban Development Department on 05/10/2017
2017-09465
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2017-09465 https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2017-09465
Helen Goff Foster, Chief Administrative Officer, Office of Administration, Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 7th Street SW., Room 6100, Washington, DC 20410-0500, telephone number 1-202-402-6838 (this is not a toll-free number). Hearing- or speech-impaired individuals may access this number via TTY by calling the toll-free Federal Relay Service at telephone number 1-800-877-8339 (this is a toll-free number).
On January 12, 2017 (82 FR 3623), HUD issued a final rule amending HUD's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regulation at 24 CFR part 15 to implement the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 (Pub. L. 114-185, approved June 30, 2016) (2016 Act). Upon review of the published rule, HUD determined that § 15.107 was not published as intended. The amendatory instruction excluded three of the nine statutory FOIA exemptions (5 U.S.C. 552(b)) and included a duplicate exemption in § 15.107(b).
HUD's January 12, 2017, final rule sought to restructure § 15.107 by adding paragraph (a) to provide that HUD shall withhold information only if it is reasonably foreseeable that disclosure would harm an interest protected by an exemption, or if disclosure is prohibited by law. HUD also sought to redesignate the undesignated introductory text as paragraph (b), redesignate paragraphs (a) through (i) as (b)(1) through (b)(9), and amend redesignated paragraph (b)(5), the deliberative process privilege, to add a sunset clause after 25 years.
As discussed above, HUD's final rule did not accurately restructure § 15.107 as intended. This final rule restates in whole § 15.107 to reflect the changes required by the 2016 Act to the deliberative process privilege exemption, and restores all other FOIA disclosure exemptions.
In addition, HUD is fixing an incorrect Web site link in § 15.101, removing two misplaced words in § 15.105, and correcting the number of days a FOIA requester has to appeal an adverse determination in § 15.109(a), consistent with the change HUD made in § 15.105(d)(2)(iv).
Accordingly, 24 CFR part 15 is corrected by making the following correcting amendments:
1. The authority for part 15 continues to read as follows:
2. In § 15.101(b)(2), remove the link “ http://www/​data/​gov and add in its place the link “http://www.data.gov.
3. In § 15.105, in paragraph (d)(2)(iv) remove the word “and” and in paragraph (d)(2)(v) remove the word “and”.
4. Revise § 15.107 to read as follows:
(a) HUD shall withhold information only if HUD reasonably foresees that disclosure would harm an interest protected by an exemption as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, or disclosure is prohibited by law. HUD will consider whether partial disclosure of information is possible whenever Start Printed Page 21695HUD determines that a full disclosure of a requested record is not possible, and will take reasonable steps necessary to segregate and release nonexempt information. Nothing in this section requires disclosure of information that is otherwise prohibited from disclosure by law, or otherwise exempted from disclosure as provided in paragraph (b)(3) of this section.
(4) Commercial or financial information. Exemption 4 (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4)) protects trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential. HUD will handle this type of information as provided by § 15.108.
5. In § 15.109(a), remove the number “30” and add in its place the number “90”.
[FR Doc. 2017-09465 Filed 5-9-17; 8:45 am]