45 



tion on the agency rules, opinions, orders, records, and proceedings whicli shall 

 be available to the public, and provides for judicial aid in enforcing its provisions. 

 Section 552(b) excepts from public disclosure nine categories of information, 

 including, for example, personnel files, the disclosure of which would constitute 

 a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, and inter-agency memoran- 

 dums or letters which would not be available by law to a party other than an 

 agency in litigation with the agency. We question whether there are adequate 

 grounds for substituting for this statute of general applicability to any federal 

 agency the provisions of the first sentence of section 202(c) of the bill in the 

 case of the proposed Commission. 



It may be that 5 U.S.C. 552 would not require that all reports and recom- 

 mendations which the Commission might make should be matters of public 

 record. If so, and if they should be, the first sentence of section 202(c) may be 

 amended to provide generally as follows : "The reports and recommendations 

 which the Commission makes shall be matters of public record and shall be 

 available to the public at all reasonable times." 



Section 202(d) of H.R. 10420 (page 18, line 20 et seq.) would require the 

 Secretary and other federal oflSeials to respond to any Commission recommenda- 

 tions within 90 days after receipt thereof. This might well result in requiring 

 priority in responding to Commission recommendations on comparatively minor 

 matters, over other matters that might be more important in the public interest. 

 Accordingly, it may be advisable to modify this requirement. 



The second sentence of section 203 (page 19. lines 8-13) would provide for a 

 nine-man advisory scientific Committee to be appointed by the Commission 

 Chairman "with the advice of" the specified oflScials. This might raise a question 

 as to whether all of them must concur in any such appointment. To avoid any 

 such question, we suggest that for the quoted words on page 19, line 10, there 

 be substituted such words as "after consultation with". 



We also note tliat section 203 does not specify the term of office of a 

 Committee member. We suggest that section 203 be amended to si)ecify the 

 tenure or method of removal of Committee members. 



Under the third sentence in section 203, any recommendations made by the 

 nine scientists constituting the Committee of Scientific Advisers "or any of its 

 members" which were not adopted by the Commission should be transmitted by 

 it to the appropriate federal agency and to Congress with a written explanation 

 of the Commission's reasons for not accepting such recommendations. We ques- 

 tion whether the Commission should be subject to such a requirement in the 

 case of a recommendation of any member of the Committee in which a majority 

 of its members do not concur. However, this presents a policy question as to 

 which we defer to the Department of Commerce. 



We also suggest the following specific amendments to the test: 



In Section 3(1) (page 2, line 24), after "dolphin" there should be added 

 "(family Delphinidae)" to avoid any confusion with the finfish dolphin, family 

 Coryphaenidae. 



We would amend the first line of section 101 (page 3, line 20) to add section 103 

 to the list of sections covering excepted situations. 



We recommend that Section 101(2) be redrafted to avoid the apparent am- 

 biguity as to antecedent and the uncertainty as to the scope of the words 

 "appurtenant thereto." 



In Section 103(e) the word 'with", following "which should accompany" on 

 page 8, line 9 of the bill, should be omitted. 



In Section 105(b), "remission of mitigation" on page 9, line 22, should be 

 "remission or mitigation." 



Section 106(c) should be amended by substituting "magistrates" for "com- 

 missioners" on page 10, line 17 of the bill, in accordance with Pub. L. 90-578, 

 28 U.S.C. 631-639. 



In Section 106(e), for "auhorized" on page 11, line 3, should be "authorized" 

 and "of on page 11, line 5, should be "or". 



Whether this legislation should be enacted involves considerations as to which 

 the Department of Justice defers to the Departments of State, Commerce and 

 the Interior. 



The Office of Management and Budget has advised that there is no objection 

 to the submission of this report from the standpoint of the Administration's 

 program. 



Sincerely, 



Richard G. Kleindienst, 



Deputy Attorney General. 



