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April 01, 2006
NHTSA ‘EARLY WARNING’ INFO SECRECY RULE DISALLOWED
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has struck down a Department of Transportation rule that exempted from public disclosure information submitted to the
government by the auto industry about potential safety problems, according to a Public Citizen statement. The action came in a case brought by Public Citizen against DOT. It said that. “The Transportation Recall Enhancement Accountability and Documentation (TREAD) Act of 2000, passed in the wake of the Firestone tire debacle, requires manufacturers of motor vehicles, tires and vehicle parts to provide the Transportation Department with detailed ‘early warning’ data about possible safety problems. At industry's urging, however, the Transportation Department issued a rule that categorically exempted broad swaths of that data from public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), ostensibly to protect against disclosure of commercially sensitive information.”
Public Citizen asserted in the court suit that the department “had failed to give fair warning that it was considering a categorical exemption rule when it issued the notice of proposed rulemaking that later led to the rule, that the exemptions violated FOIA, that the department had failed to support its view that the exemptions were needed to protect confidential business information.
Industry groups intervened in the lawsuit to bolster the government's effort to keep their data under wraps. Meanwhile, the government has refused to provide public access to any of the information.
In its opinion, the court struck down the rule on the ground that it was not a "logical outgrowth" of the agency's rulemaking notice, but represented a "surprise switcheroo" from what the department had originally proposed, which was not to exempt the information categorically. But it held that the agency does have authority to issue categorical rules if it gives proper notice and the rules do not improperly expand FOIA's exemptions.
Posted by MVHAP at April 1, 2006 04:46 PM