49 CFR § 10.61 - General exemptions.
(a) The Assistant Secretary for Administration, with regard to the Investigations Division; and the Federal Aviation Administrator, with regard to the FAA's Investigative Record System (DOT/FAA 815) may exempt from any part of the Act and this part except subsections (b), (c)(1) and (2), (e)(4)(A) through (F), (e)(6), (7), (9), (10), and (11), and (i) of the Act, and implementing §§ 10.35, 10.23(a) and (b), 10.21(d)(1) through (6), 10.81, 10.83, and 10.85 of this chapter, any systems of records, or portions thereof, which they maintain which consist wholly of;
(1) Information compiled for the purpose of identifying individual criminal offenders and alleged offenders and consisting only of identifying data and notations of arrests, the nature and disposition of criminal charges, sentencing, confinement, release, and parole and probation status;
(2) Information compiled for the purpose of a criminal investigation, including reports of informants and investigators, and associated with an identifiable individual; or
(3) Reports identifiable to an individual compiled at any stage of the process of enforcement of the criminal laws from arrest or indictment through release from supervision.
(b) The requirements (including general notice) of sections 553(b)(1), (2) and (3), and (c) and (e) of title 5, United States Code, will be met by publication in appendix A to this part, which must, at a minimum, specify:
(1) The name of the system; and
(2) The specific provisions of the Act from which the system is to be exempted and the reasons therefor.
(c) Any decision to exempt a system of records under this section is subject to concurrence by the General Counsel.
(d) Any person may petition the Secretary in accordance with the provisions of part 5 of this title, to institute a rulemaking proceeding for the amendment or repeal of any exemptions established under this section.