Agencies can by regulation shift time from the appeal to the initial reply period. but would have to do this across the board. not selectively as to types of documents. Where there are specific types of documents in large quantities. subject to numerous requests. spread geographically. then the bill provides for a certification procedure allowing the agency 30 days for the initial response time. This is to be considered an exceptional procedure. and I believe that our use in the Senate report of the Immigration and Naturalization Service example best illustrates the committees intention with regard to this section. INS processes an average of 90.000 formal requests for records each year. seeking access to 1 or more of the 12 million individual files dispersed and frequently transferred between 57 widely scattered service offices and 10 Federal records centers. Few other agencies will be able to rival this example. but then few other agencies should be allowed to take advantage of this special certification process.
Keywords matched
Naturalization Immigration