[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 40, Volume 21]
[Revised as of July 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 40CFR155.30]

[Page 53-54]
 
                   TITLE 40--PROTECTION OF ENVIRONMENT
 
         CHAPTER I--ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED)
 
PART 155--REGISTRATION STANDARDS--Table of Contents
 
        Subpart B--Docketing and Public Participation Procedures
 
Sec. 155.30  Meetings and communications.

    EPA personnel may, upon their own initiative or upon request of any 
interested person or party, meet or communicate with persons or parties 
outside of government concerning a Registration Standard under 
development. Such meetings or communications will conform to the 
following policies and procedures:
    (a) Purpose. Meetings and communications may be for the purpose of 
receiving and considering information, exchanging views, exploring 
factual and substantive positions, discussing regulatory options or for 
any other purpose deemed appropriate by the Agency in its deliberations 
concerning development of a Registration Standard. The Agency will not 
commit to take any particular action concerning a Registration Standard 
under development during discussions with any person or party outside of 
government. The Agency will make its final administrative decision on a 
wholly independent basis, and in accordance with law.
    (b) Meetings with persons or parties outside of government. Requests 
by responsible persons or parties outside of government to meet with 
Agency personnel concerning a Registration Standard under development 
should be directed in writing to the Registration Division. Reasonable 
requests will ordinarily be granted on a timely basis. EPA will decide 
the time and place of such meetings, and the Agency personnel who will 
attend. EPA may decline to meet with persons or parties who assert 
unreasonable claims of confidential business information for the purpose 
of circumventing the docketing procedures in Sec. 155.32. EPA may also 
decline to meet if the number or frequency of meetings would delay 
unduly the issuance of the Registration Standard. Further, no person or 
party outside government will be accorded special or preferential access 
to Agency pesticide decisionmaking or to the Agency's decisional 
process.
    (c) Information submitted to the Agency concerning a Registration 
Standard under development. (1) Information, comments, data, or other 
written material submitted to the Agency at any time concerning a 
Registration Standard under development may be claimed by the submitter 
to be confidential business information. The burden of identifying 
claimed confidential business information rests with the submitter, or, 
in meetings, with the participants from outside of government who wish 
to assert a claim of confidentiality.

[[Page 54]]

    (2) To assert a claim of confidentiality for all or any part of a 
written submission concerning a Registration Standard under development, 
the submitter must furnish three copies of the material. Two copies must 
be complete, with claimed confidential business information clearly 
marked in the text. Items in the document that are claimed confidential 
should be numbered consecutively throughout the document. The third copy 
must have the claimed confidential business information excised from the 
text without closing up or paraphrasing the remaining text. The 
deletions should be consecutively numbered to correspond to the 
numbering of the complete copies. Each copy must be marked on the cover 
as to whether it contains claimed confidential business information.
    (3) Any written material received by the Agency that is not marked 
as confidential will be deemed to be nonconfidential, and may be made 
available through the public docket or otherwise disclosed without prior 
notice to the submitter.
    (d) Memorandum of meeting. For each meeting with a person or party 
outside of government, the Agency will prepare, based on notes taken at 
the meeting, a memorandum of the meeting. The memorandum will be 
prepared within 10 working days of the meeting and will include all of 
the following information:
    (1) The date and time of the meeting.
    (2) The name of the person who requested the meeting.
    (3) The names and affiliations of the participants.
    (4) The subject matter of the meeting.
    (5) A full and accurate description of all significant positions 
taken, facts presented, and arguments made by each participant (except 
that any discussion of claimed confidential business information will be 
identified in meeting notes, and referenced in the memorandum).
    (6) Identification of all documents, proposals, or other materials 
(other than information claimed to be confidential business information) 
distributed or exchanged at the meeting.
    (7) The name of the person who prepared the memorandum.

[50 FR 49001, Nov. 27, 1985, as amended at 58 FR 34203, June 23, 1993]