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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 109 / Wednesday, June 9, 2021 / Proposed Rules contained in it, necessary to respond to a FOIA request. Copies can take the form of paper, audiovisual materials, or electronic records, among others.
4 Educational institution is any school that operates a program of scholarly research. A requester in this fee category must show that the request is made in connection with his or her role at the educational institution.
Agencies may seek verification from the requester that the request is in furtherance of scholarly research.
5 Fee waiver is a waiver or reduction of processing fees if a requester can demonstrate that certain statutory standards are satisfied, including that the information is in the public interest and is not requested for a commercial interest.
6 Noncommercial scientific institution is an institution that is not operated on a commercial basis, as defined in paragraph b1 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. A requester in this category must show that the request is authorized by and is made under the auspices of a qualifying institution and that the records are sought to further scientific research and are not for a commercial use.
7 Representative of the news media is any person or entity that gathers information of potential interest to a segment of the public, uses its editorial skills to turn the raw materials into a distinct work, and distributes that work to an audience. 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 that broadcast news to the public at large and publishers of periodicals that disseminate news and make their products available through a variety of means to the general public, including news organizations that disseminate solely on the internet. A request for records supporting the news-dissemination function of the requester shall not be considered to be for a commercial use.
Freelance journalists who demonstrate a solid basis for expecting publication through a news media entity shall be considered as a representative of the news media. A publishing contract would provide the clearest evidence that publication is expected;
however, components shall also consider a requesters past publication record in making this determination.
8 Requester category is one of the three categories that agencies place
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requesters in for the purpose of determining whether a requester will be charged fees for search, review, and duplication. The three categories are:
Commercial requesters; non-commercial scientific or educational institutions or news media requesters; and all other requesters.
9 Review is the examination of a record located in response to a request in order to determine whether any portion of it is exempt from disclosure.
Review time includes processing any record for disclosure, such as doing all that is necessary to prepare the record for disclosure, including the process of redacting the record and marking the appropriate exemptions. Review costs are properly charged even if a record ultimately is not disclosed. Review time also includes time spent both obtaining and considering any formal objection to disclosure made by a confidential commercial information submitter, but it does not include time spent resolving general legal or policy issues regarding the application of exemptions.
10 Search is the process of looking for and retrieving records or information responsive to a request. Search time includes page-by-page or line-by-line identification of information within records and the reasonable efforts expended to locate and retrieve information from electronic records.
c Charging fees. In responding to FOIA requests, the components FOIA
office shall charge the following fees unless a waiver or reduction of fees has been granted under paragraph k of this section.
1 Search. Requests made by educational institutions, noncommercial scientific institutions, or representatives of the news media are not subject to search fees. Search fees shall be charged for all other requesters, subject to the restrictions of paragraph d of this section. The components FOIA office may properly charge for time spent searching even if they do not locate any responsive records or if they determine that the records are entirely exempt from disclosure.
2 Duplication. Duplication fees shall be charged to all requesters, subject to the restrictions of paragraph d of this section. The components FOIA office shall honor a requesters preference for receiving a record in a particular form or format where it is readily reproducible by the components FOIA
office in the form or format requested.
Where photocopies are supplied, the components FOIA office shall provide one copy per request at a cost of ten cents per page. For copies of records produced on tapes, disks, or other media, the direct costs of producing the
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copy, including operator time shall be charged. Where paper documents must be scanned in order to comply with a requesters preference to receive the records in an electronic format, the requester shall pay the direct costs associated with scanning those materials. For other forms of duplication, the components FOIA
office shall charge the direct costs.
3 Review. Review fees shall be charged to requesters who make commercial use requests. Review fees shall be assessed in connection with the initial review of the record, i.e., the review conducted by the components FOIA office to determine whether an exemption applies to a particular record or portion of a record. No charge will be made for review at the administrative appeal stage of exemptions applied at the initial review stage. However, if a particular exemption is deemed to no longer apply, any costs associated with the components FOIA office re-review of the records in order to consider the use of other exemptions may be assessed as review fees.
d Restrictions on charging fees. 1
No search fees will be charged for requests by educational institutions, noncommercial scientific institutions, or representatives of the news media, unless the records are sought for commercial use.
2 When the components FOIA
office determines that unusual circumstances apply to the processing of a request, and the components FOIA
office has provided timely written notice to the requester, the delay is excused for an additional 10 days. If the components FOIA office fails to comply with the extended time limit, it may not charge search fees or for requesters with preferred fee status, may not charge duplication fees except as provided in d2i and ii of this section.
i Exception: If unusual circumstances apply and more than 5000 pages are necessary to respond to the request, the components FOIA
office may charge search fees or, for requesters in preferred fee status, may charge duplication fees if timely written notice has been made to the requester and the components FOIA
office has discussed with the requester via written mail, electronic mail, or telephone or made not less than 3 goodfaith attempts to do so how the requester could effectively limit the scope of the request.
ii Court Determination that exceptional circumstances exist: If a court determines that exceptional circumstances exist, the components FOIA offices failure to comply with a
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