§130b — Title 10 Armed Forces | U.S. Code

Summary

Gives the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security for the Coast Guard when it is not part of the Navy, the power to keep certain personal information about some service members and related employees secret from the public, even if the information might otherwise be released under public records law. It covers members assigned to overseas, sensitive, or routinely deployable units and Department of Defense or Coast Guard employees who work with those units. The President can order exceptions, but nothing here lets officials hide information from Congress. Defined terms (short): “personally identifying information” means name, rank, duty address, official title, and pay details; “unit” means a military group; “overseas unit” is a unit located outside the U.S. and its territories; “sensitive unit” is a unit that does special or classified missions or handles classified material; “routinely deployable unit” is a unit that normally leaves its home station periodically for operations or training outside the U.S. and its territories.

Title 10, §130b

Armed Forces — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Secretary of Defense and, with respect to the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Navy, the Secretary of Homeland Security may, notwithstanding section 552 of title 5, authorize to be withheld from disclosure to the public personally identifying information regarding—

(1)any member of the armed forces assigned to an overseas unit, a sensitive unit, or a routinely deployable unit; and

(2)any employee of the Department of Defense or of the Coast Guard whose duty station is with any such unit.

(b)(1)The authority in subsection (a) is subject to such exceptions as the President may direct.

(2)Subsection (a) does not authorize any official to withhold, or to authorize the withholding of, information from Congress.

(c)In this section:

(1)The term “personally identifying information”, with respect to any person, means the person’s name, rank, duty address, and official title and information regarding the person’s pay.

(2)The term “unit” means a military organization of the armed forces designated as a unit by competent authority.

(3)The term “overseas unit” means a unit that is located outside the United States and its territories.

(4)The term “sensitive unit” means a unit that is primarily involved in training for the conduct of, or conducting, special activities or classified missions, including—

(A)a unit involved in collecting, handling, disposing, or storing of classified information and materials;

(B)a unit engaged in training—

(i)special operations units;

(ii)security group commands weapons stations; or

(iii)communications stations; and

(C)any other unit that is designated as a sensitive unit by the Secretary of Defense or, in the case of the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Navy, by the Secretary of Homeland Security.

(5)The term “routinely deployable unit” means a unit that normally deploys from its permanent home station on a periodic or rotating basis to meet peacetime operational requirements that, or to participate in scheduled training exercises that, routinely require deployments outside the United States and its territories. Such term includes a unit that is alerted for deployment outside the United States and its territories during an actual execution of a contingency plan or in support of a crisis operation.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2002—Subsecs. (a), (c)(4)(C). Pub. L. 107–296 substituted “of Homeland Security” for “of Transportation”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 2002 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 107–296 effective on the date of transfer of the Coast Guard to the Department of Homeland Security, see section 1704(g) of Pub. L. 107–296, set out as a note under section 101 of this title.

§130b Personnel in Overseas, Sensitive, or Routinely Deployable Units: Nondisclosure of Personally Identifying Information