[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 15, Volume 3]
[Revised as of January 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 15CFR2004.8]

[Page 432]
 
                  TITLE 15--COMMERCE AND FOREIGN TRADE
 
      CHAPTER XX--OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE
 
PART 2004--FREEDOM OF INFORMATION POLICIES AND PROCEDURES--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 2004.8  Time limits.

    (a) An initial response under Sec. 2004.6 shall be made within 10 
days (exempting Saturdays, Sundays, and legal public holidays) after the 
receipt of a request for a record under this part by the Freedom of 
Information Officer or his designee. An appeal under Sec. 2004.7 shall 
be decided within 20 days (excepting Saturdays, Sundays and legal public 
holidays) after the receipt of such an appeal by the Appeals Committee.
    (b) The time limits for initial decision and for an appeal decision 
begins on the date the request or appeal is actually received by STR. If 
requests or appeals not properly marked ``Freedom of Information 
Request'' or ``Freedom of Information Act Appeal'' on the request or 
appeal are inadvertently delayed in reaching the Freedom of Information 
Officer or the Appeals Committee they will not be deemed received by STR 
until actually received by the Freedom of Information Officer or Appeals 
Committee. In such event, the person making the request or appeal will 
be furnished a notice of the effective date of receipt.
    (c) In unusual circumstances as specified in this paragraph, the 
Freedom of Information Officer or his designee may extend the time 
limits in paragraph (a) of this section by written notice to the person 
requesting a record under this part, which notice shall set forth the 
reasons for such extension and the date on which a determination or 
appeal decision is expected to be dispatched. No such notice shall 
specify a date which would result in an extension of either the initial 
determination period, or the appeal period, or both, for more than 10 
working days. As used in this paragraph ``unusual circumstances'' means, 
but only to the extent reasonably necessary to the proper processing of 
the particular request:
    (1) The need to search for and collect the requested records from 
overseas posts or other establishments that are separate from the office 
processing the request;
    (2) The need to search for, collect, and appropriately examine a 
voluminous amount of separate and distinct records which are demanded in 
a single request; or
    (3) The need for consultations, which shall be conducted with all 
practicable speed, with another agency having a substantial interest in 
the determination of the request, or among two or more components of the 
agency having substantial subject matter interest therein.
    (d) Where the responsible official believes that further 
consideration of a request may result in the release of additional 
records or portions thereof, the expiration of the time period allocated 
by the Freedom of Information Officer or his designee does not require 
the termination of that consideration, and it should be continued with a 
view to maximum disclosure of requested records within a reasonable 
period of time.