CBP Final Rule Aligns FOIA Regulations with DHS
CBP issued a final rule (here) that brings most of the agency's Freedom of Information Act regulations in line with the Department of Homeland Security, which CBP is a part of. "With the exception of a regulation pertaining to the treatment of confidential commercial information, CBP will apply the DHS FOIA and Privacy Act regulations for purposes of administering the FOIA," it said. The DHS FOIA regulations "reflect many Congressional amendments to the FOIA, for which conforming changes had not been made in the CBP FOIA regulations," it said. Although CBP generally already follows the DHS FOIA regulations, CBP hopes the regulatory changes will resolve confusion for public making FOIA requests, it said.
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CBP will maintain its FOIA regulations related to business information, it said. While the DHS rules require that submissions of business information be identified as confidential in order to be withheld from disclosure, CBP's regulations don't have that requirement, it said. "CBP believes that this regulation should be retained in order to assure the public that CBP’s established policy governing the treatment of confidential commercial information subject to FOIA requests will not change as a result of the amendments in this document," it said.