10 U.S.C. § 130b — Personnel in overseas, sensitive, or routinely deployable units: nondisclosure of personally identifying information

(a) Exemption From Disclosure. The Secretary of Defense — and, for the Coast Guard when it isn't operating as part of the Navy, the Secretary of Homeland Security — can withhold from public disclosure, despite the usual Freedom of Information Act rule in section 552 of title 5, personally identifying information about (1) any armed forces member assigned to an overseas unit, a sensitive unit, or a routinely deployable unit; and (2) any Defense Department or Coast Guard employee whose duty station is with one of those units. (b) Exceptions. (1) This authority is subject to whatever exceptions the President directs. (2) It never lets an official withhold information from Congress. (c) Definitions. (1) "Personally identifying information" means a person's name, rank, duty address, official title, and information about their pay. (2) "Unit" means a military organization the armed forces designate as a unit. (3) "Overseas unit" means a unit located outside the United States and its territories. (4) "Sensitive unit" means a unit mainly involved in training for, or carrying out, special activities or classified missions — including (A) units that collect, handle, dispose of, or store classified information and materials; (B) units that train special operations forces, security group weapons stations, or communications stations; and (C) any other unit the Secretary of Defense (or, for the Coast Guard, the Secretary of Homeland Security) designates as sensitive. (5) "Routinely deployable unit" means a unit that normally deploys from its home base on a regular or rotating schedule to meet peacetime needs or scheduled training that routinely takes it outside the United States and its territories — this also includes a unit put on alert for deployment abroad during an actual contingency or crisis operation.