39 C.F.R. § 3004.6 Fees.
Title 39 - Postal Service
(a) Definitions pertaining to fees: (1) Direct costs means expenditures the Commission actually incurs in searching for, duplicating, and, where applicable, reviewing documents to respond to a request. They include (without limitation) the salary of the employee performing work (the basic pay rate of such employee plus 16 percent to cover benefits) and the cost of operating required machinery. (2) Search includes all time spent looking for material responsive to a request, including identification of pages or lines within documents. The term covers both manual and computerized searching. (3) Duplication means making copies of documents necessary to respond to a request. Such copies may be paper, microform, audiovisual, or machine-readable. (4) Review means examining documents located in response to a commercial-use request to determine whether any portion is exempt from mandatory disclosure, and processing or preparing documents for release, but not determination of general legal or policy issues regarding application of exemptions. (5) Commercial use request means a request from or on behalf of one seeking information for a use or purpose that furthers the commercial, trade, or profit interests of the requester or person on whose behalf the request is made. In determining the applicability of this term, the use to which a requester will put the document is considered first; where reasonable doubt exists as to the use, the Commission may seek clarification before assigning the request to a category. (6) Educational institution means a preschool, a public or private elementary or secondary school, an institution of graduate or undergraduate higher education, an institution of professional education, and an institution of vocational education, which operates a program or programs of scholarly research. (7) Noncommercial scientific institution means an institution, not operated on a commercial basis (as referenced above), which is operated solely for the purpose of conducting scientific research whose results are not intended to promote any particular product or industry. (8) Representative of the news media means any person actively gathering news for an entity organized and operated to publish or broadcast news to the public. News means information about current events or that would be of current interest to the public. Freelance journalists will be regarded as working for a news medium if they demonstrate (for example, by a publication contract or a past record of publication) a solid basis for expecting publication through such organization even though not actually employed by it. (b) Except in the case of commercial-use requesters, the first 100 pages of duplication and the first two hours of search time are provided without charge. A page for these purposes is a letter- or legal-size sheet, or the equivalent amount of information in a medium other than paper copy. Search time for these purposes refers to manual searching; if the search is performed by computer, the amount not charged for will be the search cost equivalent to two hours' salary of the person performing the search. No requester will be charged a fee when the Commission determines that the cost of collecting the fee would equal or exceed the fee itself. In determining whether cost of collection would equal or exceed the fee, the allowance for two hours' search or 100 pages of duplication will be made before comparing the remaining fee and the cost of collection. (c) Fees will be charged in accordance with the following provisions: (1) The level of fee charged depends on the category of requester: (i) A request appearing to be for commercial use will be charged the full direct costs of searching for, reviewing, and duplicating the records sought. (ii) A request from an educational or noncommercial scientific institution will be charged for the cost of duplication only (excluding charges for the first 100 pages). To be eligible for this category, a requester must show that the request is made under the auspices of a qualifying institution and that the records are not sought for commercial use but are in furtherance of scholarly (in the case of educational institutions) or scientific (in the case of noncommercial scientific institutions) research. (iii) A request from a representative of the news media will be charged the cost of duplication only (excluding charges for the first 100 pages). (iv) A request from any other requester will be charged the full direct cost of searching for and duplicating records responsive to the request, except that the first 100 pages of duplication and the first two hours of search will be furnished without charge. (v) A request from a record subject for records about himself or herself filed in a Commission Privacy Act system of records will be charged fees as provided under the Commission's Privacy Act regulations in part 3003 of this chapter. (2) Fees will be calculated as follows: (i) Manual search: At the salary rate (basic pay plus 16 percent) of the employee(s) making the search. Search time may be charged for even if the Commission fails to locate records or if records located are exempt from disclosure. (ii) Computer search: At the actual direct cost of providing the search, including computer search time directly attributable to searching for records responsive to the request, runs, and operator salary apportionable to the search. (iii) Review (commercial-use requests): At the salary rate (basic pay plus 16 percent) of the employee(s) conducting the review. Charges are imposed only for the review necessary at the initial administrative level to determine the applicability of any exemption, and not for review at the administrative appeal level of an exemption already applied. (iv) Duplication: At 15 cents per page for paper copy, which the Commission has found to be the reasonable direct cost thereof. For copies of records prepared by computer (such as tapes or printouts), the actual cost of production, including operator time, will be charged. (v) Additional services: Postage, insurance, and other additional services that may be arranged for by the requester will be charged at actual cost. (d) Interest at the rate prescribed in 31 U.S.C. 3717 will be charged on unpaid fee bills, starting on the 31st day after the bill was sent. Receipt of a fee by the Commission, whether processed or not, will stay the accrual of interest. (e) Advance payment may be required only when the allowable fees are likely to exceed $250, in which case advance payment in part or in full may be required of requesters with no history of prompt payment, and satisfactory assurance of payment from requesters with such history; or when the requester has previously failed to pay a fee timely (within 30 days of the billing date), in which case the Commission may require full payment of the amount owed, plus applicable interest, or a demonstration that the fee has in fact been paid, together with full advance payment of the estimated fee. When advance payment is required, the administrative time limits prescribed in subsection (a)(6) of the FOIA begin only after such payment has been received. (f) Records will be provided without charge or at a reduced charge if disclosure of the information is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government and is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester.
Title 39: Postal Service
PART 3004—FREEDOM OF INFORMATION RULES
§ 3004.6 Fees.
