Letter from William Thomas 8/4/94

William Thomas
2817 11th Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20001


REPLY TO: 6270-1-1
August 4, 1994

Lamar Beasley
Deputy Chief for Administration
14th & Independence Avenue NW
Box 96090
Washington, D.C. 20090-6090

Dear Mr. Beasley,

On July 30, 1994, I received your initial reply (dated July 22nd) to my May 22nd Freedom of Information Act request for a "log" of the public comment received by the Forest Service in response to proposed amendments to 36 C.F.R. 251 & 261 ("law enforcement regulations"), published in the Federal Register on February 16, 1994.

You state, "(W)e have conducted a careful search of our records and determined that there is no document that is responsive to your request."

As you can see from the enclosed NFS press release, however, Chief Thomas said that the agency received, "thousands of comments from citizens who objected to several provisions of the first proposal" of the law enforcement regulations.

Because the Administrative Procedures Act requires that the agency compile a log of public comment received in response to proposed rulemakings, it is curious that your exhaustive and reasonable search did not uncover a "document that is responsive to (my) request."

I think that it is premature for me to appeal the decision stated in your letter dated July 22nd.

Instead, I will amend my request for a list of the names and addresses of all individuals and organizations who submitted public comment in response to the regulations referred to in the enclosed NFS press release.

I would very much appreciate a timely response to this request.

Sincerely,


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