Elimination of Special Treatment for Category of Confidential Business Information: Extension of the Comment Period

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On October 25, 1999, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a notice in the Federal Register (64 FR 57421) proposing to amend its regulations to eliminate the special treatment given to a category of confidential business information (CBI). This category of information includes comments received from businesses to substantiate their claims of confidentiality for previously submitted information (a ``substantiation''). Under EPA's current regulations (40 CFR 2.205 (c)), if a substantiation is properly marked as confidential when received by EPA (in accordance with 40 CFR 2.203(b)) and not otherwise possessed by EPA, the substantiation ``will be regarded as entitled to confidential treatment and will not be disclosed by EPA without the [submitter's] consent, unless its disclosure is duly ordered by a Federal court, notwithstanding other provisions of this subpart to the contrary.'' EPA proposes to amend its regulations to remove this provision, so that substantiations will be treated in exactly the same way as other information requested under FOIA and claimed as confidential. EPA believes that the special treatment of substantiations under 40 CFR 2.205 (c) is not necess