[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 49, Volume 1]
[Revised as of October 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 49CFR7.5]

[Page 58]
 
                        TITLE 49--TRANSPORTATION
 
          Subtitle A--Office of the Secretary of Transportation
 
PART 7_PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION--Table of Contents
 
         Subpart B_Information Required To Be Made Public by DOT
 
Sec.  7.5  Availability of opinions, orders, staff manuals, statements 
of policy, and interpretations and indices.

    (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 Sec.  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 
Federal Register or covered by subpart C of this part.