49 C.F.R. § 7.5 Availability of opinions, orders, staff manuals, statements of policy, and interpretations and indices.
Title 49 - Transportation
(a) This section implements 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(2). It prescribes the rules governing the availability for public inspection and copying of the following reading room materials: (1) Any final opinion (including a concurring or dissenting opinion) or order made in the adjudication of a case. (2) Any policy or interpretation that has been adopted under DOT authority, including any policy or interpretation concerning a particular factual situation, if that policy or interpretation can reasonably be expected to have precedential value in any case involving a member of the public in a similar situation. (3) Any administrative staff manual or instruction to staff that affects any member of the public, including the prescribing of any standard, procedure, or policy that, when implemented, requires or limits any action of any member of the public or prescribes the manner of performance of any activity by any member of the public. However, this does not include staff manuals or instructions to staff concerning internal operating rules, practices, guidelines, and procedures for DOT inspectors, investigators, law enforcement officers, examiners, auditors, and negotiators and other information developed predominantly for internal use, the release of which could significantly risk circumvention of agency regulations or statutes. (4) Copies of all records, regardless of form or format, that have been released to any person under subpart C of this part and which, because of the nature of their subject matter, a DOT component determines have become or are likely to become the subject of subsequent requests for substantially the same records. (5) A general index of the records listed in this paragraph. (b) Any material listed in paragraph (a) of this section that is not made available for public inspection and copying, or that is not indexed as required by §7.7, may not be cited, relied on, or used as precedent by DOT to affect any member of the public adversely unless the person to whose detriment it is relied on, used, or cited has had actual timely notice of the material. (c) This section does not apply to material that is published in the
Title 49: Transportation
PART 7—PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION
Subpart B—Information Required To Be Made Public by DOT
§ 7.5 Availability of opinions, orders, staff manuals, statements of policy, and interpretations and indices.
