[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: 5CFR1820.6]

[Page 305-306]
 
                    TITLE 5--ADMINISTRATIVE PERSONNEL
 
                 CHAPTER VIII--OFFICE OF SPECIAL COUNSEL
 
PART 1820_PUBLIC INFORMATION--Table of Contents
 
Sec.  1820.6  Fees to be charged.

    (a) Requests for records are subject to the following fees:
    (1) Commercial use requesters. For search, review, and copying: 
Photocopies per page, $0.25. Manual record search, $2.50 per quarter 
hour if conducted by a clerical employee; $5.00 per quarter hour if 
conducted by a professional or managerial employee. Search fees may be 
assessed even if the records in question are not located or if the 
records located are determined to be exempt from disclosure.
    (2) Educational and noncommercial scientific institution requesters, 
news media requesters. For copying only: Photocopies per page, $0.25, 
excluding the first 100 pages.
    (3) All other requesters. For search and copying only: Photocopies 
per page (excluding the first 100 pages), $0.25. Manual record search 
(excluding the first two hours), $2.50 per quarter hour if conducted by 
a clerical employee; $5.00

[[Page 306]]

per quarter hour if conducted by a professional or managerial employee.
    (b) Method of search. (1) Any ``search'', which includes all time 
spent looking for material that is responsive to a request, will be done 
in the most efficient and least expensive manner in order to minimize 
costs for both the agency and the requester.
    (2) For researches made by computer, costs will be assessed when the 
hourly cost of operating the central processing unit and the operator's 
hourly salary plus 16 percent equals the equivalent dollar amount of two 
hours of salary of the person performing the search.
    (c) Review charges. Only commercial use requesters will be charged 
for time spent reviewing records to determine whether they are exempt 
from mandatory disclosure. These charges will be assessed only for 
initial review (i.e., the review undertaken when first analyzing the 
applicability of a specific exemption to a particular record or portion 
of record), and not for review at the administrative appeal level of an 
exemption already applied. However, charges will be assessed for a 
second review of records or portions of records withheld in full under 
an exemption which is subsequently determined not to apply in order to 
determine the applicability of other exemptions not previously 
considered. Review charges shall not include costs incurred in resolving 
issues of law or policy that may be raised in the course of processing a 
request.
    (d) Copying. A ``page'' of copying refers to a paper copy of 
standard size, normally 8\1/2\x11 or 
11xx14. However, copies may also take the form of microform, 
audio-visual materials, or machine readable documentation (e.g., 
magnetic tape or disk), among others.
    (e) Nonassessment of fees. No fees will be assessed to any 
requester, including commercial use requesters, if the cost of routine 
collection and processing of the fee would be equal to or greater than 
the fee itself. To make this determination, the OSC will consider the 
administrative costs of receiving and recording a requester's remittance 
and processing the fee for deposit.
    (f) Other charges. Complying with requests for special services, 
such as certification of records as true copies and sending records by 
special methods (e.g., express mail) is entirely at the discretion of 
the Office. Since neither the Freedom of Information Act nor its fee 
structure covers these kinds of services, the OSC will assess fees to 
recover the full costs of providing these services should the Office 
elect to provide them.
    (g) Aggregating requests. If the Office of Special Counsel 
reasonably believes that a requester or a group of requesters acting in 
concert is filing a series of requests for the purpose of evading the 
assessment of fees, the OSC may aggregate the requests and assess fees 
accordingly. One element to be considered in determining reasonable 
belief is the time period within which the requests are filed. Multiple 
requests of this type filed within a 30-day period may be presumed to 
have been made to avoid fees. In no case will the Office aggregate 
requests on unrelated subjects from one requester.
    (h) Advance notice of fees. If it is likely that fees will exceed 
$25, the requester will first be notified of the estimated amount, 
unless the requester has indicated in advance his willingness to pay 
fees as high as those anticipated. The notice will offer the requester 
the opportunity to confer with personnel of the Office of the Special 
Counsel with the object of reformulating the request to meet his or her 
needs at a lower cost.