(a) Requests for APHIS records or information other than material published or made available under the preceding sections, shall be made in writing in accordance with 7 CFR 1.3(a) and submitted to the APHIS Freedom of Information Act Coordinator at the following address:

The request shall identify each record with reasonable specificity as prescribed in §1.3(b) of this title. The APHIS FOIA Coordinator is hereby delegated authority to make determinations with respect to such requests in accordance with 7 CFR.

(b) The FOIA Coordinator or his designee is authorized to receive requests and to exercise the authority under §1.4(c) of this title to:

(1) Make determinations to grant or deny requests,

(2) Extend the administrative deadline,

(3) Make discretionary releases of exempt records, and

(4) Make determinations regarding charges pursuant to the fee schedule.

(c) In exercising his authority under §1.4(c) of this title to grant and deny requests, the Coordinator will comply with subsection (b) of the Freedom of Information Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. 552(b)), which requires that any reasonably segregable portion of a document shall be provided to a person requesting such document after deletion of any portions which are exempt under the Act. Therefore, unless the disclosable and non-disclosable portions are so inextricably linked that it is not reasonably possible to separate them, the document will be released with the non-disclosable portions deleted, except that the Coordinator may exercise discretion as limited by §1.11 of this title, to release the entire document, or to make only a minimum number of deletions, e.g., the names of individuals.

[40 FR 43223, Sept. 19, 1975, as amended at 44 FR 53490, Sept. 14, 1979; 51 FR 30837, Aug. 29, 1986; 59 FR 67611, Dec. 30, 1994]