[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 5, Volume 3]
[Revised as of January 1, 2007]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 5CFR1303.30]

[Page 114-115]
 
                    TITLE 5--ADMINISTRATIVE PERSONNEL
 
              CHAPTER III--OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
 
PART 1303_PUBLIC INFORMATION PROVISIONS OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES ACT--
 
Sec.  1303.30  Definitions.

    For the purpose of these regulations:
    (a) All the terms defined in the Freedom of Information Act apply.
    (b) A statute specifically providing for setting the level of fees 
for particular types of records (5 U.S.C. 552(a)(4)(A)(vi)) means any 
statute that specifically requires a government agency, such as the 
Government Printing Office (GPO) or the National Technical Information 
Service (NTIS), to set the level of fees for particular types of 
records, in order to:
    (1) Serve both the general public and private sector organizations 
by conveniently making available government information;
    (2) Ensure that groups and individuals pay the cost of publications 
and other services that are for their special use so that these costs 
are not borne by the general taxpaying public;
    (3) Operate an information dissemination activity on a self-
sustaining basis to the maximum extent possible; or
    (4) Return revenue to the Treasury for defraying, wholly or in part, 
appropriated funds used to pay the cost of disseminating government 
information.

Statutes, such as the User Fee Statute, which only provide a general 
discussion of fees without explicitly requiring that an agency set and 
collect fees for particular documents do not supersede the Freedom of 
Information Act under section (a)(4)(A)(vi) of that statute.
    (c) The term direct costs means those expenditures that OMB actually 
incurs in searching for and duplicating (and in the case of commercial 
requesters, reviewing) documents to respond to a FOIA request. Direct 
costs include, for example, the salary of the employee performing work 
(the basic rate of pay for the employee plus 16 percent of that rate to 
cover benefits) and the cost of operating duplicating machinery. Not 
included in direct costs are overhead expenses such as costs of space, 
and heating or lighting the facility in which the records are stored.
    (d) The term search means the process of looking for and retrieving 
records or information responsive to a request. It includes page-by-page 
or line-by-line identification of information within records and also 
includes reasonable efforts to locate and retrieve information from 
records maintained in electronic form or format. OMB employees should 
ensure that searching for material is done in the most efficient and 
least expensive manner so as to minimize costs for both the agency and 
the requester. For example, employees should not engage in line-by-line 
search when merely duplicating an entire document would prove the less 
expensive and quicker method of complying with a request. Search should 
be distinguished, moreover, from review of material in order to 
determine whether the material is exempt from disclosure (see paragraph 
(f) of this section).
    (e) The term duplication means the making of a copy of a document, 
or of the information contained in it, necessary to respond to a FOIA 
request. Such copies can take the form of paper, microform, audio-visual 
materials, or electronic records (e.g., magnetic tape or disk), among 
others. The requester's specified preference of form or format of 
disclosure will be honored if the record is readily reproducible in that 
format.
    (f) The term review refers to the process of examining documents 
located in response to a request that is for a commercial use (see 
paragraph (g) of this section) to determine whether any portion of any 
document located is permitted to be withheld. It also includes 
processing any documents for disclosure, e.g., doing all that is 
necessary to excise them and otherwise prepare them for release. Review 
does not include time spent resolving general legal or policy issues 
regarding the application of exemptions.

[[Page 115]]

    (g) The term `commercial use' request refers to a request from or on 
behalf of one who seeks information for a use or purpose that furthers 
the commercial, trade, or profit interests of the requester or the 
person on whose behalf the request is made. In determining whether a 
requester properly belongs in this category, OMB must determine the use 
to which a requester will put the documents requested. Moreover, where 
an OMB employee has reasonable cause to doubt the use to which a 
requester will put the records sought, or where that use is not clear 
from the request itself, the employee should seek additional 
clarification before assigning the request to a specific category.
    (h) The term educational institution refers to a preschool, a public 
or private elementary or secondary school, an institution of graduate 
higher education, an institution of undergraduate higher education, an 
institution of professional education, or an institution of vocational 
education, that operates a program or programs of scholarly research.
    (i) The term non-commercial scientific institution refers to an 
institution that is not operated on a commercial basis (as that term is 
referenced in paragraph (g) of this section), and that is operated 
solely for the purpose of conducting scientific research the results of 
which are not intended to promote any particular product or industry.
    (j) The term representative of the news media refers to any peson 
actively gathering news for an entity that is organized and operated to 
publish or broadcast news to the public. The term news means information 
that is about current events or that would be of current interest to the 
public. Examples of news media entities include television or radio 
stations broadcasting to the public at large, and publishers of 
periodicals (but only in those instances when they can qualify as 
disseminators of news) who make their products available for purchase or 
subscription by the general public. These examples are not intended to 
be all-inclusive. Moreover, as traditional methods of news delivery 
evolve (e.g., electronic dissemination of newspapers through 
telecommunications services), such alternative media would be included 
in this category. In the case of freelance journalists, they may be 
regarded as working for a news organization if they can demonstrate a 
solid basis for expecting publication through that organization, even 
though not actually employed by it. A publication contract would be the 
clearest proof, but OMB may also look to the past publication record of 
a requester in making this determination.

[52 FR 49153, Dec. 30, 1987, as amended at 63 FR 20515, Apr. 27, 1998]