15 U.S.C. § 7306: Disclosure of information

Summary

Records, information, or investigation files that a Team gets or creates must be made available to the public on request and for a reasonable fee, unless the law says not to. They do not have to release material that is exempt under 5 U.S.C. 552(b) or other federal laws, and NIST or a Team can keep information private until the report required by section 7307 is issued. If someone voluntarily gives safety-related information that is not directly about the building failure being investigated, the Team, NIST, and any agency that gets it must keep it private if the Director finds that releasing it would stop people from sharing that kind of information. The Director can also block release of any information if sharing it might harm public safety.

Title 15, §7306

Commerce and Trade, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)General rule

Except as otherwise provided in this section, a copy of a record, information, or investigation submitted or received by a Team shall be made available to the public on request and at reasonable cost.

(b)Exceptions

Subsection (a) does not require the release of— (1)

(2)information described in subsection (a) by the National Institute of Standards and Technology or by a Team until the report required by section 7307 of this title is issued.

(c)Protection of voluntary submission of information

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a Team, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and any agency receiving information from a Team or the National Institute of Standards and Technology, shall not disclose voluntarily provided safety-related information if that information is not directly related to the building failure being investigated and the Director finds that the disclosure of the information would inhibit the voluntary provision of that type of information.

(d)Public safety information

A Team and the National Institute of Standards and Technology shall not publicly release any information it receives in the course of an investigation under this chapter if the Director finds that the disclosure of that information might jeopardize public safety.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

This chapter, referred to in subsec. (d), was in the original “this Act”, meaning Pub. L. 107–231, Oct. 1, 2002, 116 Stat. 1471, known as the National

Construction

Safety Team Act, which is classified principally to this chapter. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see

Short Title

note set out under section 7301 of this title and Tables.

§7306 Disclosure of Information