In response to a recent ruling by the U.S. District Court for Idaho, the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) will be making the names and addresses of grazing permit holders and lessees available to the public via a publicly accessible website. Personal phone numbers and financial information will not be included. This change is derived from an attempt to balance two Federal laws including The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) of 1966 and The Privacy Act of 1974.
In the December 29, 2010 release published by BLM in the Federal Register, the statement regarding this change was addressed in a System of Records Notice (“Notice”). A System of Records Notice provides interested parties forty (40) days to comment on the proposed change. If you wish to provide comments to BLM, they must be submitted by February 7, 2011 to the BLM Privacy Office at 1849 C Street N.W., Room 725 LS, Washington D.C. 20240 or by email to privacy@blm.gov. The change will take affect as outlined above unless submitted comments require a contrary determination. It is important to note that all comments submitted, along with personal identifying information (including name, address, email, etc…), may be made available to the public at any time.
Public Land Council (“PLC”) has suggested that people affected by this notice should consider obtaining a P.O. Box to provide to their local BLM office to prevent the release of their physical address to the public. Interested parties have up to sixty (60) days from the date the BLM Notice was published to provide an alternate address to the their local BLM office. Upon such a change, all official mail from BLM will be forwarded to the updated address.
A copy of the Notice is available for review at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/browse.html. For additional information from BLM, you may contact Robert Roudabush, Division Chief, Rangeland Resources, Bureau of Land Management by phone at (202) 912-7222 or by email at Rob-Roudabush@blm.gov.
If you would like further information or assistance from our office in preparing comments for BLM’s review, please contact us at (503) 281-4100.
