49 C.F.R. § 7.32 Final determinations.
Title 49 - Transportation
(a) A determination with respect to any appeal made pursuant to §7.21 will be made within twenty Federal working days after receipt of such appeal except that this time limit may be extended by up to ten Federal working days in accordance with §7.33. The person making the request will be notified immediately of such determination pursuant to §7.21. (b) In general. Components ordinarily will respond to appeals according to their order of receipt. (c) Multitrack processing. (1) A component may use two or more processing tracks by distinguishing between simple and more complex appeals based on the amount of work and/or time needed to process the appeal, or on the number of pages involved. (2) A component using multitrack processing may provide persons making appeals in its slower track(s) with an opportunity to limit the scope of their appeals in order to qualify for faster processing within the specified limits of the component's faster track(s). A component doing so will contact the person making the appeal either by telephone, letter, facsimile, or electronic mail, whichever is most efficient in each case. (d) Expedited processing. (1) An appeal will be taken out of order and given expedited treatment whenever a compelling need is demonstrated and it is determined that the compelling need involves: (i) Circumstances in which the lack of expedited treatment could reasonably be expected to pose an imminent threat to the life or physical safety of an individual; (ii) A request made by a person primarily engaged in disseminating information, with an urgency to inform the public of actual or alleged Federal Government activity. (2) A request for expedited processing may be made at the time of the appeal or at any later time. For a prompt determination, a request for expedited processing must be received by the proper component, which is the component that is processing the appeal for the records requested. (3) A requestor who seeks expedited processing must submit a statement, certified to be true and correct to the best of that person's knowledge and belief, explaining in detail the basis for requesting expedited processing. For example, a requestor within the category in §7.31(c)(1)(ii), if not a full-time member of the news media, must establish that he or she is a person whose main professional activity or occupation is information dissemination, though it need not be his or her sole occupation. A requestor within the category in §7.31(c)(1)(ii) also must establish a particular urgency to inform the public about the government activity involved in the request, beyond the public's right to know about government activity generally. The formality of certification may be waived as a matter of discretion. A person who was granted expedited processing under §7.31 need merely certify that the same circumstances apply. (4) Within ten calendar days of receipt of a request for expedited processing, the proper component will decide whether to grant it and will notify the requestor of the decision. If a request for expedited treatment is granted, the appeal will be given priority and will be processed as soon as practicable. If a request for expedited processing of an appeal is denied, no further administrative recourse is available.
Title 49: Transportation
PART 7—PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION
Subpart E—Time Limits
§ 7.32 Final determinations.
