Today I submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the Public Comments submitted to the NIH/ODP in response to the ME/CFS P2P Draft Executive Summary Report. It is my understanding that approximately 90 (ninety) Public Comments were received.
The FOIA request that I have submitted states that I will accept redacted copies of these documents should the NIH find there is information in the Public Comments that they believe falls within an exclusion or exemption to disclosure under FOIA law. The request was made in this manner to allow for an expedited processing of the request by not requiring notification of any claim of exclusions and exemptions, prior to sending out these documents. If I receive any redacted documents, a determination can be made if additional FOIA requests will be needed in order to trigger a formal appeals process to challenge any exemption or exclusion claimed for the information that was redacted. While an exact time frame for when a response to my FOIA request will be completed could not be provided, the NIH FOIA Coordinator assigned to handle this request believes that her staff will be able to provide this information within the next 3 (three) weeks.
I have also asked that copies of the Public Comments be provided to me in electronic form. Once these documents are received they will be posted online. If MEAdvocacy.org is able to host/store the documents on their website, this is where the documents will be made available for public viewing. I will post again in this thread when I can confirm receipt and viewing location of these documents.
Please feel free to re-post this information on other sites.
The FOIA request that I have submitted states that I will accept redacted copies of these documents should the NIH find there is information in the Public Comments that they believe falls within an exclusion or exemption to disclosure under FOIA law. The request was made in this manner to allow for an expedited processing of the request by not requiring notification of any claim of exclusions and exemptions, prior to sending out these documents. If I receive any redacted documents, a determination can be made if additional FOIA requests will be needed in order to trigger a formal appeals process to challenge any exemption or exclusion claimed for the information that was redacted. While an exact time frame for when a response to my FOIA request will be completed could not be provided, the NIH FOIA Coordinator assigned to handle this request believes that her staff will be able to provide this information within the next 3 (three) weeks.
I have also asked that copies of the Public Comments be provided to me in electronic form. Once these documents are received they will be posted online. If MEAdvocacy.org is able to host/store the documents on their website, this is where the documents will be made available for public viewing. I will post again in this thread when I can confirm receipt and viewing location of these documents.
Please feel free to re-post this information on other sites.
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