49 CFR Part 7 - PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION

This final rule updates the Department of Transportation's regulations prescribing procedures for the public availability of information to conform these procedures with amendments to the Freedom of Information Act enacted by the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016. This rule also removes a reference to the Surface Transportation Board, as it has been made a separate agency, outside of the Department, under the Surface Transportation Board Reauthorization Act of 2015. Finally, this rule makes a technical amendment to the Department's submitter notice process to include a reference to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's updated procedures related to the submission of confidential business information.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is revising its regulations implementing the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) following a period of public comment on its proposed rule. The purposes for the revision are to update the regulations to be consistent with amendments to FOIA that were signed into law on December 31, 2007, and October 28, 2009, to revise DOT's fee schedule and other charges, and to make provisions clearer and easier to locate.