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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