[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 32, Volume 5]
[Revised as of July 1, 2005]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 32CFR701.44]

[Page 75-76]
 
                       TITLE 32--NATIONAL DEFENSE
 
                   CHAPTER VI--DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY
 
PART 701_AVAILABILITY OF DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY RECORDS AND PUBLICATION 
OF DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY DOCUMENTS AFFECTING THE PUBLIC--Table of Contents
 
                           Subpart C_FOIA Fees
 
Sec. 701.44  Restrictions.

    (a) No fees may be charged by any DON activity if the costs of 
routine collection and processing of the fee are likely to equal or 
exceed the amount of the fee. With the exception of requesters seeking 
documents for a commercial use, activities shall provide the first 2 
hours of search time, and the first 100 pages of duplication without 
charge. For example, for a request (other than one from a commercial 
requester) that involved 2 hours and 10 minutes of search time, and 
resulted in 105 pages of documents, an activity would determine the cost 
of only 10 minutes of search time, and only five pages of reproduction. 
If this processing cost was equal to, or less than, the cost to the 
activity for billing the requester and processing the fee collected, no 
charges would result.
    (b) Requesters receiving the first 2 hours of search and the first 
100 pages of duplication without charge are entitled to such only once 
per request. Consequently, if a DON activity, after completing its 
portion of a request, finds it necessary to refer the request to a 
subordinate office, another DON activity, or another Federal agency to 
action their portion of the request, the referring activity shall inform 
the recipient of the referral of the expended amount of search time and 
duplication cost to date.
    (c) The elements to be considered in determining the ``cost of 
collecting a fee'' are the administrative costs to the DON activity of 
receiving and recording a remittance, and processing the fee for deposit 
in the Department of Treasury's special account. The cost to

[[Page 76]]

the Department of Treasury to handle such remittance is negligible and 
shall not be considered in activity determinations.
    (d) For the purposes of the restrictions in this section, the word 
``pages'' refers to paper copies of a standard size, which will normally 
be ``8\1/2\x11'' or ``11x14.'' Thus, requesters would not be entitled to 
100 microfiche or 100 computer disks, for example. A microfiche 
containing the equivalent of 100 pages or 100 pages of computer printout 
however, might meet the terms of the restriction.
    (e) In the case of computer searches, the first 2 free hours will be 
determined against the salary scale of the individual operating the 
computer for the purposes of the search. As an example, when the direct 
costs of the computer central processing unit, input-output devices, and 
memory capacity equal $24.00 (2 hours of equivalent search at the 
clerical level), amounts of computer costs in excess of that amount are 
chargeable as computer search time. In the event the direct operating 
cost of the hardware configuration cannot be determined, computer search 
shall be based on the salary scale of the operator executing the 
computer search.