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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 18 / Friday, January 29, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
g1 There are three categories of requesters: Commercial; educational institutions, noncommercial scientific
institutions, and representatives of the news media; and all other requesters,
including members of the general public.

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TABLE 1 TO PARAGRAPH g1
Requester category
Search
Review
Commercial including law firms
Educational, noncommercial scientific institutions, or news media.
All other requesters including members of the general public.

Fee
No Fee

Fee
No Fee

Fee.
Fee after first 100 pages.

Fee After First 2 Hours

No Fee

Fee after first 100 pages.

2 Fees shall be assessed as follows:
i Full fees shall apply to commercial-use requests.
ii The first 100 pages of duplication shall be free for requests from the categories of educational institutions, noncommercial scientific institutions, representatives of the news media, and all other requesters including members of the general public.
iii The first 2 hours of search time shall be free for the category of all other requesters including members of the general public.
iv The Chief FOIA Officer, or the designee of the Chief FOIA Officer, shall waive or reduce fees whenever disclosure of the requested 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 disclosure of the requested information is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester.
v In making a determination under paragraph g2iv of this section, the Chief FOIA Officer, or the designee of the Chief FOIA Officer, shall consider the following factors:
A The subject of the request:
Whether the subject of the requested records concerns the operations or activities of the Government.
B The informative value of the information to be disclosed: Whether the disclosure is likely to contribute to an understanding of Government operations or activities.
C The contribution to an understanding of the subject by the general public likely to result from disclosure: Whether disclosure of the requested information will contribute to public understanding.
D The significance of the contribution to public understanding:
Whether the disclosure is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of Government operations or activities.
E The existence and magnitude of a commercial interest: Whether the requester has a commercial interest that
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would be furthered by the requested disclosure; and, if so F The primary interest in disclosure:
Whether the magnitude of the identified commercial interest of the requester is sufficiently large, in comparison with the public interest in disclosure, that disclosure is primarily in the commercial interest of the requester.
vi Search fees shall not be charged for all requests and duplication fees shall not be charged for requests from educational institutions, noncommercial scientific institutions, and representatives of the news media, if the FOIA Office fails to comply with any time limit under 1015.5a and g3
and 1015.7b and 5 U.S.C. 552a6, other than the exceptions stated in 5
U.S.C. 552a4Aviiill. Those exceptions include:
A If the FOIA Office has determined that unusual circumstances, as defined in 1015.5b apply, and the FOIA Office provided timely written notice to the requester, as required by 1015.5c or 1015.7f, then failure to comply with the time limit in 1015.5a and g3 and 1015.7b and 5 U.S.C. 552a6 is excused for 10
additional working days; or B If the FOIA Office has determined that unusual circumstances, as defined in 1015.5b, apply and more than 5,000 pages are necessary to respond to the request, and the FOIA
Office has provided timely written notice in accordance with 1015.5c and e, and the FOIA Office has discussed with the requester via written mail, email, or telephone or has made not less than three good-faith efforts to do so, how the requester could effectively limit the scope of the request;
or C If a court has determined that exceptional circumstances exist, as defined in 5 U.S.C. 552a6C, then failure to comply with 1015.5a and g3 and 1015.7b and 5 U.S.C.
552a6 shall be excused for the length of time provided by the court order.
vii No fee will be charged when the total fee is equal to or less than $25.

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Duplication
viii Any determination made by the Chief FOIA Officer, or the designee of the Chief FOIA Officer, concerning fee reductions or fee waivers may be appealed by the requester to the General Counsel, in the manner described at 1015.7.
h Collection of fees shall be in accordance with the following:
1 Interest will be charged on amounts billed, starting on the 31st day following the day on which the requester receives the bill. Interest will be charged at the rate prescribed in 31
U.S.C. 3717.
2 Search fees may be charged, even if no responsive documents are located, or if the search leads to responsive documents that are withheld under an exemption to the Freedom of Information Act.
3 The FOIA Office may aggregate requests, for the purposes of billing, whenever it reasonably believes that a requester, or, on rare occasions, a group of requesters, is attempting to separate a request into more than one request to evade fees. The FOIA Office shall not aggregate multiple requests on unrelated subjects from one requester.
i1 For requests other than those described in paragraphs i2 and 3 of this section, the FOIA Office shall not require a requester to make advance payment i.e., payment made before the FOIA Office commences or continues work on a request. Payment owed for work already completed i.e., payment before copies are sent to a requester does not constitute an advance payment for purposes of this part.
2 When the FOIA Office determines or estimates that a total fee to be charged under this section will exceed $250, and the requester has no history of payment, the FOIA Office shall notify the requester of the actual or estimated fee, and may require the requester to make an advance payment of the entire anticipated fee before beginning to process the request. A notice under this paragraph i2 shall offer the requester an opportunity to discuss the matter with FOIA Office staff to modify the
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