FOIA b(3) Exemptions

National Transportation Safety Board FOIA Exemptions

1.6
Use Rate 		6.0
Total claims 		366
Denials
The National Transportation Safety Board used b(3) exemptions to withhold information from FOIA requesters 366 times in 2008-2009.

Category

  • All
  • Transportation
Statute Description Claims
49 USC 1114(c) Any portion of cockpit voice recording (CVR), or the portions of a transcript of a CVR that the Board did not find relevant to an investigation. 3.0
49 USC 1114(f) Any information relating to Board participation in foreign aircraft accidents, where the country conducting the investigation has not issued its report or 2 years have no elapsed from the date of the accident. 2.0
49 USC 1136(d) Passenger lists 1.0

About This Project

This project uses data compiled by the Sunshine in Government initiative, a coalition of journalism and transparency groups. SGI compiled data from federal agency annual FOIA reports to track how often b(3) exemptions were used. SGI also standardized the exemptions since some agencies used slightly different citations of the same laws. In some cases, agencies listed general laws without specifying a section under which information was withheld. This project does not include information from agencies that use no b(3) exemptions in 2008 or 2009. ProPublica compiled information about FOIA denials.

FOIA Resources