1973, or any ACTION policy, regulation or instruction;

(3) Failure, refusal or inability to perform prescribed project duties as outlined in the project proposal and directed by the sponsoring organization to which the volunteer is assigned;

(4) Involvement in activities which substantially interfere with the volunteer's performance of his/her duties on the project;

(5) Intentional false statement, omission, fraud, or deception in obtaining selection as a volunteer;

(6) Any conduct on the part of the volunteer which substantially diminishes his/her effectiveness as a volunteer;

(7) Inability to perform the project duties because of serious illness, medical disability, or pregnancy, as determined by the attending physician, in accordance with ACTION policy;

(8) Lack of a viable job for which the volunteer is qualified if the initial job assignment ends or is terminated prior to completion of a period of service;

(9) Unsatisfactory job performance. Procedures for the suspension and termination of volunteers are contained in Part 1210.

(b) Suspension. Volunteers may be suspended for up to 30 days to enable ACTION to determine whether termination proceedings should be started against the volunteer. Suspension is not warranted if sufficient evidence exists to start termination proceedings.

(c) Termination of or refusal to renew ACTION/sponsoring organization agreement. If the Memorandum of Agreement between ACTION and a sponsoring organization is terminated or not renewed, a volunteer who is removed from the project and whose removal was not caused by conduct which would otherwise be grounds for termination is entitled to the following administrative considerations:

(1) Reassignment to another project where possible.

(2) If reassignment is not possible at the time of project close-out, and if the volunteer wishes to resume service (provided that his/her job performance has been satisfactory), he/she may, at the discretion of the Regional

Director, receive special consideration for reinstatement as soon as an appropriate slot is open.

If a volunteer wishes, he/she may terminate without prejudice in the event that a Memorandum of Agreement between ACTION and the sponsor is terminated.

(d) Deselection of a provisional volunteer. The Regional Director may deselect a provisional volunteer on the grounds listed in paragraph (a) of this section or for a failure to meet training or selection standards during preservice orientation. Procedures for such deselection are contained in Part 1210.

[40 FR 10670, Mar. 7, 1975; 46 FR 6951, Jan. 22, 1981]

Subpart F-Special Conditions Affecting Volunteer Service

§ 1213.6-1 Sponsor's employment of volunteer.

ACV volunteers make a commitment to one full year of ACTION service. Similarly, ACTION asks that the sponsor on his part must honor the spirit of that commitment and refrain from offering fully paid employment to volunteers during their first year of service. Volunteers may not perform services or duties or engage in activities for which the sponsor receives or requests any compensation. Volunteers may not receive any other compensation, directly or indirectly, from a sponsor while serving as a volunteer. § 1213.6-2 Nondisplacement of employees and impairment of contracts of service. An ACV volunteer's assignment is limited to activities that would not otherwise be performed by employed workers and which will not supplant the hiring of or result in the displacement of employed workers, or impair existing contracts for service. (Part 1216 implements this provision.)

§ 1213.6-3 Nonappropriate assignments. (a) An assignment is not appropriate for a volunteer if:

(1) The service, duty, or activity is principally administrative or clerical,

or

(2) The volunteer is not directly in contact with groups or individuals who are to be served by the project or is not performing services, duties, or engaged in activities which are authorized under section 122(a) of the Act.

§ 1213.6-4 Political activities and limitation of unlawful activities.

(a) ACV volunteers are covered by the Hatch Act to the same extent as Federal employees. This Act prohibits volunteers from engaging in partisan political activities of any sort at any and all times during their terms of service, including periods of official leave.

(b) Section 403 of Pub. L. 93-113 requires that a sponsor's project be operated in such a manner as to avoid involvement of ACV volunteers in any partisan or nonpartisan political activity in an election for public or party office, voter transportation during elections, and voter registration drives.

(c) While engaged in carrying out their duties volunteers may, as a part of the project, participate in lawful and nonpolitical demonstrations and protest activities which are approved by the sponsor as a part of its project activity and which are not in violation of any ACTION policies.

(a) On a quarterly basis and two months prior to the termination of a volunteer's year of service, and at any other time which circumstances may dictate, ACTION may inspect that portion of a project with which the volunteer is involved. The purpose of the inspection will be to independently observe and judge the extent to which the volunteer's work has contributed to the objectives of the program described in the project proposal.

(b) The sponsor is expected to cooperate fully with ACTION representatives, and ACTION will in turn review results of the evaluation with the sponsor.

§ 1213.6-8 Limitation on labor and antilabor activities.

Volunteers may not engage in any activities, services, or duties which assist any labor or anti-labor organizing activity, or related activity.

§ 1213.6-9 Loans and debts.

(a) ACVS have the same legal and financial responsibilities as do all other persons. Volunteers are encouraged to pay all legal debts promptly to avoid creating a situation which would impair the volunteer's ability to function. In cases of continued financial irresponsibility by a volunteer to the extent of embarrassment or adverse reflection upon the sponsor organization's project or ACTION, administrative or disciplinary action may be taken by the Regional Office, up to and including termination, where appropriate.

(b) Volunteers are not authorized to obtain extension of credit by representing themselves as a Federal Government employee.

Subpart G-Miscellaneous

§ 1213.7-1 Student loan deferrals.

(a) The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, exempts full-time

domestic volunteers from repayment of National Defense Education Act loans for a period of service not to exceed three years. Volunteers wishing to defer repayment of NDEA loans must obtain the necessary forms from their universities. Regional Offices are authorized to certify these forms, but if the university or volunteer should submit the form to Headquarters for certification, it will be sent to the appropriate Regional Office for completion.

(b) If the volunteer is still in service at the time of ACTION's certification, his anticipated termination date will be furnished to the lender.

(c) Repayment of other college loans may also be deferred. These repayments, however, are deferred at the discretion of the lender. If the lender is willing to defer payment, volunteers must obtain the necessary forms from the lender and forward them to the Regional Office for certification. If forms are not available from the lender, a letter to the university or lender may be prepared certifying the dates of the volunteer's service.

§ 1213.7-2 Death benefits.

In case of the death of a volunteer away from his home of record, certain costs associated with transportation of the body are reimbursable either under the Federal Employees Compensation Act or ACTION policy. Volunteers whose death results from personal injury or illness sustained in the performance of his project duties are eligible for reimbursement of certain funeral expenses. Monthly benefits for eligible dependents of deceased volunteers may be available under the Federal Employees Compensation Act. In certain other unusual circumstances, payment of certain funeral expenses for volunteers not meeting the above requirements may be authorized.

§ 1213.7-3 Firearms.

ACTION volunteers may not normally possess, use, or carry firearms. If a volunteer wishes to keep firearms for hunting, approval must be obtained from the sponsor, State Program Director and the ACTION Regional Director in the region where the volunteer is assigned. The volun

and available to any officially designated library or the agency.

(c) "Identifiable" means, in the context of a request for a record, one which is reasonably described in a manner sufficient to permit the location of the material requested.

(d) “Unit" means an office of the Agency headed by a senior official who shall be responsible for making initial determinations of availability of documents or records requested hereunder. The head of any such Unit may delegate his responsibility hereunder to his Deputy or some other official during any absence of such official. At present, the units of the Agency for the purposes hereof consist of, the Office of the Director; the Office of Domestic and Anti-Poverty Operations; the Office of International Operations; the Office of Policy and Planning; the Office of Administration and Finance; the Office of General Counsel; the Office of Congressional Affairs; the Office of Minority Affairs; the Office of Recruitment and Communications, the ten domestic regional offices, and the three regional offices in the Office of International Operations.

§ 1215.3 Records generally available.

The agency will make promptly available to any member of the public the following documents:

(a) All final opinions and orders made in the adjudication of cases;

(b) Statements of policy and interpretation adopted by the office which have not been published in the FEDERAL REGISTER;

(c) Administrative staff manuals and instructions to the staff which affect a member of the public;

(d) A current index, which shall be updated at least quarterly covering so much of the foregoing materials as may have been issued, adopted or promulgated after July 4, 1967 is maintained by the Agency and copies of same or any portion thereof shall be furnished upon request at a cost not to exceed the cost of duplication. The Agency deems further publication of such index in the FEDERAL REGISTER both unnecessary and impractical.

(e) To the extent necessary to prevent a clearly unwarranted invasion of

personal privacy, the Agency may delete identifying details from materials furnished under this section.

(f) Brochures, flyers and other similar material shall be furnished to the extent that same are available copies of any such brochures and flyers which are out of print shall be furnished upon request at the cost of duplication, provided, however, that in the event no copy exists, the Agency shall not be responsible for reprinting the same.

(g) The Agency will not be required to create or compile selected items from its file and records or to provide a requester with statistical or other data unless such data has been compiled by the Agency and is available in the form of a record in which event such record shall be made available as provided in this part.

§ 1215.4 Availability of records.

All records of ACTION, in addition to those ordinarily maintained and disseminated under § 1215.3 hereof requested under 5 U.S.C. 522(a)(3) and reasonably described in any request therefor shall be made promptly available upon request of any member of the public for inspection or copying upon compliance with procedures established in this part except to the extent that a determination is made, in accord with the procedures set forth herein, that a record is exempt from disclosure, and should be withheld in the public interest. All publications and other documents heretofore provided by ACTION in the normal course of business will continue to be made available upon request to the appropriate unit of the agency. No charge will be made for such documents unless necessary by reason of the fact that such document is no longer in print in which case the charge shall not exceed the cost of duplication as set forth herein.

§ 1215.5 Records which may be exempt from disclosure.

The following categories are examples of records maintained by ACTION which, under the provisions of 5 U.S.C. 552(b) may be exempted from disclosure:

(a) Records required to be withheld under criteria established by an Executive Order in the interest of national defense or foreign policy and which are in fact properly classified pursuant to any such Executive Order. Included in this category are records required by Executive Order No. 11652, as amended, to be classified in the interest of national defense or foreign policy.

(b) Records related solely to internal personnel rules and practices. Included in this category are internal rules and regulations relating to personnel management and operations which cannot be disclosed to the public without substantial prejudice to the effective performance of a significant function of the Agency.

(c) Records specifically exempted from disclosure by statute.

(d) Information of a commercial or financial nature including trade secrets given in confidence. Included in this category are records containing commercial or financial information obtained from any person and customarily regarded as privileged and confidential by the person from whom they were obtained.

(e) Interagency or intra-agency memoranda or letters which would not ordinarily be available by law to a party in litigation with the Agency. Included in this category are memoranda, letters, interagency and intraagency communications and internal drafts, opinions and interpretations prepared by staff or consultants and records of deliberations of staff, ordinarily used in arriving at policy determinations and decisions.

(f) Personnel, medical and similar files. Included in this category are personnel and medical information files of staff, volunteer applicants, former volunteers, and volunteers, lists of names and home addresses, and other files or material containing private or personal information, the public disclosure of which would violate a pledge of confidentiality and amount to a clearly unwarranted invasion of the privacy of any person to whom the information pertains.

(g) Investigatory files. Included in this category are files compiled for the enforcement of all laws, or prepared in

connection with government litigation and ajudicative proceedings, provided however, that such records shall be made available to the extent that their production will not (1) interfere with enforcement proceedings; (2) deprive a person of a right to a fair trial or an impartial adjudication; (3) constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy; (4) disclose the identity of a confidential source, and in the case of a record compiled by a criminal law enforcement authority in the course of a criminal investigation, or by an agency conducting a lawful security intelligence investigation, confidential information furnished by a confidential source; (5) disclose investigative techniques and procedures; or (6) endanger the life or physical safety of law enforcement personnel.

(h) In the event any document or record requested hereunder shall contain material which is exempt from disclosure under this section, any reasonably segregable portion of such record shall, notwithstanding such fact, and to the extent feasible, be provided to any person requesting same, after deletion of the portions which are exempt under this section.

(i) Documents or records determined to be exempt from disclosure hereunder may nonetheless be provided upon request in the event it is determined that the provision of such document would not violate the public interest or the right of any person to whom such information might pertain, and that disclosure is not prohibited by law or Executive Order.

§ 1215.6 Manner of requesting records— Appeals.

(a) Requests under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552) for access to ACTION records may be filed in person or by mail with the Director of Administrative Services of the aforesaid at ACTION headquarters, 806 Connecticut Avenue NW., Washington, D.C. 20525. Requests for records of a domestic regional or state office may be filed in person or by mail with the records officer of the respective Domestic Regional Office. All requests and the envelope in which they are sent must be plainly marked