private sector, foreign, state and municipal law enforcement organizations, informants and other sources.

I have described the FBI's experience with the Freedom of Information Act in testimony before Committees of Congress. Several of our Oversight Committees asked me to submit to them proposed changes in the Act. In response to those requests, I have prepared some amendments.

My proposals, which do not necessarily represent

the views of the Department of Justice or the Administration, endeavor to refine the Act, not to repeal it. As you consider them, I ask you to observe not only what they would do, but also what they would not do. They would not, for example, diminish the rights and privileges a criminal defendant or civil litigant now enjoys under the rules of civil and criminal procedure, nor would they limit or restrict in any way the power of the Department of Justice or the Congress or the Courts to oversee any activity of the FBI. What they would do, I submit, is make those adjustments to the Act suggested by reason and experience. Existing time limits for responding to requests

would be changed to establish a relationship between the amount of work required in responding to requests and the amount of time permitted to do the work. The proposals also would change the law to permit, not require, us to disclose our records to felons and citizens of foreign countries.

We

also propose deleting the requirement a record be an investigatory record before it can be protected under existing exemption (b) (7). This proposal would enable the FBI to protect such noninvestigatory records as manuals and guidelines to the extent the production of them would cause any of the harms specified in existing exemptions (b) (7) (A) through (F).

The proposals would divide all FBI records into The first category would consist of the records per

two categories.

most sensitive information the FBI possesses: taining to foreign intelligence, foreign counterintelligence, organized crime, and terrorism. The proposals would exempt them from the mandatory disclosure provisions of the Act.' Title 28, Code of Federal Regulations, Section 50.8, which provides for access to files over 15 years old of historical interest, will remain in effect.

All other FBI records would be in the second category and subject to the Act's mandatory disclosure provisions. Several proposals are designed to reestablish the essential free flow of information from the public to the FBI. We propose the statute specify that state and municipal agencies and foreign governments merit confidential source protection when they provide information on a confidential basis. To make clear we are permitted to withhold seemingly innocuous information which standing alone may not identify

a source, but which could do so when combined with other information subject to release under the Act or known to the requester, we propose we be permitted to withhold information which would tend to identify a source. This proposal would adopt the comments of several courts and make the language of the exemption conform more closely to the original intent of Congress.

To increase our ability to protect confidential sources, we are proposing a seven-year moratorium on law enforcement records pertaining to law enforcement investigations. The FBI will not use the moratorium in concert with a file destruction program to frustrate the Freedom of Information Act.

Because the proposals are permissive in nature, they would not prohibit releasing information. To insure fundamental fairness and to address matters of public interest, the FBI will draft with the Department of Justice a policy for disclosing information even though the law would permit

withholding it.

These proposals would protect legitimate law enforcement interests while carefully preserving the basic principle underlying the Freedom of Information Act. In my view they merit your consideration.

Sincerely yours,

смешали ничат

William H. Webster

Director

TIME LIMITS

Existing Law

Subsection (a) (6) (A) requires each agency upon any request for records to make the records available within

10 days.

Subsection (a) (6) (B) permits the agency in narrowly defined unusual circumstances to extend the time limits for no more than 10 additional days.

If an agency fails to comply with the time limits, subsection (a) (6) (C) enables the person who made the request to file suit in United States District Court to enjoin the agency from withholding documents. The subsection provides that if the Government can show exceptional circumstances exist and the agency is exercising due diligence, the court may allow the agency additional time.

Observations

Every working day the FBI receives approximately 60 new requests for records. Although we do not have any records pertaining to the subject matter of some requests and others require processing only a few pages, some requests encompass thousands of documents. In most instances more than ten days elapse before we can identify, locate and assemble