[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 29, Volume 1]
[Revised as of July 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 29CFR70.20]

[Page 431-432]
 
                             TITLE 29--LABOR
 
PART 70--PRODUCTION OR DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION OR MATERIALS--Table of 
Contents
 
  Subpart B--Procedures for Disclosure of Records Under the Freedom of 
                             Information Act
 
Sec. 70.20  Responses by components to requests.

    (a) In general. (1) Except as otherwise provided in this section, 
when a request for a record is received, the component having custody of 
the requested record shall ordinarily be responsible for responding to 
the request.
    (2) However, when another component or agency is better able to 
determine the disclosability of a record, that component or agency shall 
be responsible for responding to the request.
    (3) The time for responding to a request begins to run when it is 
received by the department or component responsible for making the 
determination on disclosure.

[[Page 432]]

    (b) Authority to grant or deny requests. The disclosure officer, or 
his or her designee, is authorized to grant or deny any request for a 
record in his or her custody.
    (c) Determination that request has been received by the proper 
component. (1) When a component receives a request for a record, the 
component shall promptly determine whether another component or another 
agency of the Government is better able to determine whether the record 
is exempt to any extent from mandatory disclosure under the FOIA.
    (2) If the receiving component determines that it is the component 
and agency better able to determine whether or not to disclose the 
record requested, that component shall respond to the request.
    (3) If the receiving component believes that another component or 
agency is better able to determine whether the requested record is 
exempt from mandatory disclosure under the FOIA, the receiving component 
shall refer the request to the component or agency that it believes 
should handle the request.
    (4) If the receiving component determines that it is the component 
and agency better able to determine whether part of the requested 
records is exempt from disclosure, and another component or agency has 
primary responsibility with respect to other parts of the requested 
record, the receiving component shall either:
    (i) Respond to the request after consulting with the appropriate 
component or agency concerning the records for which that component or 
agency has primary responsibility, or
    (ii) Respond to the part of the request for which it has primary 
responsibility and refer the other portion or portions of the request to 
the appropriate component or agency.
    (d) Notice of referral. Whenever a component refers all or any part 
of the responsibility for responding to a request to another component 
or to another agency, it shall notify the requester of the referral and 
inform the requester of the name and address of each component or agency 
to which the request has been referred and the portions of the request 
so referred.
    (e) Processing of requests that are not properly addressed. (1) A 
request that is not properly addressed as specified in Sec. 70.7(a) of 
this subpart shall be forwarded to the appropriate component, if known, 
or to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and 
Management (OASAM), which shall make reasonable efforts to determine the 
appropriate component and, if able to do so, shall forward the request 
to the appropriate component or components for processing. A request not 
addressed to the appropriate component will be deemed not to have been 
received by the Department of Labor until OASAM has forwarded the 
request to the appropriate component and that component has received the 
request, or until the request would have been so forwarded and received 
with the exercise of reasonable diligence by Department personnel.
    (2) A component receiving an improperly addressed request forwarded 
by OASAM shall notify the requester of the date on which it received the 
request.
    (f) Date for determining responsive records. In determining records 
responsive to a request, a component will include only those records 
existing as of the date of its receipt of the request as that date is 
determined in accordance with paragraph (c).