[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 45, Volume 1]
[Revised as of October 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 45CFR5.44]

[Page 25]
 
                        TITLE 45--PUBLIC WELFARE
 
                           AND HUMAN SERVICES
 
PART 5--FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REGULATIONS--Table of Contents
 
                             Subpart D--Fees
 
Sec. 5.44  Procedures for assessing and collecting fees.

    (a) Agreement to pay. We generally assume that when you request 
records you are willing to pay the fees we charge for services 
associated with your request. You may specify a limit on the amount you 
are willing to spend. We will notify you if it appears that the fees 
will exceed the limit and ask whether you nevertheless want us to 
proceed with the search.
    (b) Advance payment. If you have failed to pay previous bills in a 
timely fashion, or if our initial review of your request indicates that 
we will charge you fees exceeding $250, we will require you to pay your 
past due fees and/or the estimated fees, or a deposit, before we start 
searching for the records you want. If so, we will let you know promptly 
upon receiving your request. In such cases, the administrative time 
limits prescribed in Sec. 5.35 of the part (i.e., ten working days from 
receipt of initial requests and 20 working days from receipt of appeals 
from initial denials, plus permissible extensions of these time limits) 
will begin only after we come to an agreement with you over payment of 
fees, or decide that fee waiver or reduction is appropriate.
    (c) Billing and payment. We will normally require you to pay all 
fees before we furnish the records to you. We may, at our discretion, 
send you a bill along with or following the furnishing of the records. 
For example, we may do this if you have a history of prompt payment. We 
may also, at our discretion, aggregate the charges for certain time 
periods in order to avoid sending numerous small bills to frequent 
requesters, or to businesses or agents representing requesters. For 
example, we might send a bill to such a requester once a month. Fees 
should be paid in accordance with the instructions furnished by the 
person who responds to your requests.