(a) In general. The Department will charge fees for processing requests under the FOIA in accordance with the provisions of this section and with the OMB Guidelines. For purposes of assessing fees, the FOIA establishes three categories of requesters: commercial use requesters, non-commercial scientific or educational institutions or news media requesters, and all other requesters.

(b) Definitions. For purposes of this section:

Commercial use request is a request that asks for information for a use or purpose that furthers a commercial, trade, or profit interest, which can include furthering those interests through litigation. The Department's decision to place a requester in the commercial use category will be made on a case-by-case basis based on the requester's intended use of the information. The Department will notify requesters of their placement in this category.

Direct costs are those expenses the Department incurs in searching for, duplicating, and, in the case of commercial use requests, reviewing records in response to a FOIA request. For example, direct costs include the salary of the employee performing the work (i.e., the basic rate of pay for the employee, plus 16 percent of that rate to cover benefits) and the cost of operating computers and other electronic equipment, such as photocopiers and scanners. The term does not include overhead expenses such as the costs of space and of heating or lighting of a facility.

Duplication is reproducing a copy of a record, or of the information contained in it, necessary to respond to a FOIA request. Copies can take the form of paper, audiovisual materials, or electronic records, among others.

Educational institution is any school that operates a program of scholarly research. A requester in this category must show that the request is made in connection with the requester's role at the educational institution. The Department may seek verification from the requester that the request is in furtherance of scholarly research. The Department will advise requesters of their placement in this category.

Non-commercial scientific institution is an institution that is not operated on a “commercial” basis, as defined in this section, and which 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. Noncommercial scientific institution requesters will not be charged for search and review time, and the first 100 pages of the duplication will be provided free of charge. The Department will advise requesters of their placement in this category.

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, the Department shall also consider a requester's past publication record in making this determination. A representative of the news media will not be charged for search and review time, and the first 100 pages of the duplication will be provided free of charge. The Department will advise requesters of their placement in this category.

Review is the examination of a record located in response to a request 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 under § 171.14 but it does not include time spent resolving general legal or policy issues regarding the application of exemptions.

Search is the process of looking for, identifying, 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 Department will charge the following fees unless a waiver or reduction of fees has been granted under paragraph (j) of this section. Because the fee amounts provided below already account for the direct costs associated with a given fee type, the Department should not add any additional costs to charges calculated under this section.

(1) Search. (i) Requests made by educational institutions, non-commercial 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 (j) of this section. The Department may properly charge for time spent searching even if responsive records are not located, or if records are determined to be entirely exempt from disclosure.

(ii) For each hour spent by personnel searching for requested records, the fees shall be as stated at the following website: foia.state.gov/Request/Guide.aspx (section VII, “Fees”) and www.stateoig.gov/foiafees for OIG requested records.

(iii) For requests that require the retrieval of records stored by the Department at a Federal records center operated by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the Department will charge additional costs in accordance with the Transactional Billing Rate Schedule established by NARA.

(2) Review. The Department will charge review fees to requesters who make commercial use requests. Review fees will be assessed in connection with the initial review of the record, i.e., the review conducted 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 Department's re-review of the records in order to consider the use of other exemptions may be assessed as review fees. Review fees shall be charged at the same rates as those charged for a search under paragraph (c)(1)(ii) of this section.

(3) Duplication. The Department will charge duplication fees to all requesters, subject to the restrictions of paragraph (d) of this section. The Department must honor a requester's preference for receiving a record in a particular form or format where it is readily reproducible by the Department in the form or format requested. The Department charges the direct costs of producing the copy, including operator time. Where paper documents must be scanned in order to comply with a requester's preference to receive the records in an electronic format, the requester must also pay the direct costs associated with scanning those materials. Duplication fees are as stated at the following website: foia.state.gov/Request/Guide.aspx (section VII, “Fees”).

(d) Restrictions on charging fees. (1) The Department will not charge search fees for requests by educational institutions, non-commercial scientific institutions, or representatives of the news media, unless the records are sought for a commercial use.

(2) If the Department fails to comply with the FOIA's time limits in which to respond to a request, it may not charge search fees, or, in the instances of requests from requesters described in paragraph (d)(1) of this section, may not charge duplication fees, except as described in paragraphs (d)(2)(i) through (iii) of this section.

(i) If the Department has determined that unusual circumstances as defined by the FOIA apply and the agency provided timely written notice to the requester in accordance with the FOIA, a failure to comply with the time limit is excused for an additional 10 days.

(ii) If the Department has determined that unusual circumstances as defined by the FOIA apply, and more than 5,000 pages are necessary to respond to the request, the Department may charge search fees, or, in the case of requesters described in paragraph (d)(1) of this section, may charge duplication fees, if the following steps are taken. The Department must have provided timely written notice of unusual circumstances to the requester in accordance with the FOIA, and the Department must have discussed with the requester via written mail, email, or telephone (or made not less than three good-faith attempts to do so) how the requester could effectively limit the scope of the request in accordance with 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(6)(B)(ii). If this exception is satisfied, the Department may charge all applicable fees incurred in the processing of the request.

(iii) If a court has determined that exceptional circumstances exist as defined by the FOIA, a failure to comply with the time limits shall be excused for the length of time provided by the court order.

(3) Except for requesters seeking records for a commercial use, the Department must provide without charge:

(i) the first 100 pages of duplication (or the cost equivalent for other media); and

(ii) the first two hours of search.

(4) When, after deducting the 100 free pages (or its cost equivalent) and the first two hours of search, the total fee calculated under paragraph (c) of this section is $25.00 or less, no fee will be charged.

(5) Apart from the stated provisions regarding waiver or reduction of fees, see paragraph (j) of this section, the Department may in its sole discretion decide to not assess fees or to reduce them if it is in the best interests of the government not to do so.

(e) Notice of anticipated fees in excess of $25.00. (1) When the Department determines or estimates that the fees to be assessed in accordance with this section will exceed $25.00, the Department must notify the requester of the actual or estimated amount of the fees, including a breakdown of the fees for search, review, or duplication, unless the requester has indicated a willingness to pay fees as high as those anticipated. If only a portion of the fee can be estimated readily, the Department will advise the requester accordingly. If the request is not for commercial use, the notice will specify that the requester is entitled to the statutory entitlement of 100 pages of duplication at no charge and, if the requester is charged search fees, two hours of search time at no charge, and will advise the requester whether those entitlements have been provided.

(2) In cases in which the Department has notified the requester that the actual or estimated fees are in excess of $25.00, the request will not be considered received and further work will not be completed until the requester commits in writing to pay the actual or estimated total fee, or designates an amount of fees the requester is willing to pay, or in the case of a noncommercial use requester who has not yet been provided with the requester's statutory entitlements, designates that the requester seeks only that which can be provided by the statutory entitlements. The requester must provide the commitment or designation in writing, and must, when applicable, designate an exact dollar amount the requester is willing to pay. The Department is not required to accept payments in installments.

(3) If the requester has indicated a willingness to pay some designated amount of fees, but the Department estimates that the total fee will exceed that amount, the Department will toll the processing of the request when it notifies the requester of the estimated fees in excess of the amount the requester has indicated a willingness to pay. The Department will inquire whether the requester wishes to revise the amount of fees the requester is willing to pay or modify the request. Once the requester responds, the time to respond will resume from where it was at the date of the notification.

(4) The Department must make available its FOIA Public Liaison or other FOIA professional to assist any requester in reformulating a request to meet the requester's needs at a lower cost.

(f) Charges for other services. Although not required to provide special services, if a component chooses to do so as a matter of administrative discretion, the direct costs of providing the service shall be charged. Examples of such services include certifying that records are true copies, providing multiple copies of the same document, or sending records by means other than first class mail.

(g) Charging interest. The Department may charge interest on any unpaid bill starting on the 31st day following the date the bill was sent to the requester. Interest charges will be assessed at the rate provided in 31 U.S.C. 3717 and shall accrue from the date of the billing until payment is received by the Department. The fact that a fee has been received by the Department within the thirty-day grace period, even if not processed, shall stay the accrual of interest. The Department must follow the provisions of the Debt Collection Act of 1982 (Pub. L. 97-365, 96 Stat. 1749), as amended, and its administrative procedures, including the use of consumer reporting agencies, collection agencies, and offset.

(h) Aggregating requests. When the Department reasonably believes that a requester or a group of requesters acting in concert is attempting to divide a single request into a series of requests for the purpose of avoiding fees, the Department may aggregate those requests and charge accordingly. The Department may presume that multiple requests of this type made within a 30-day period have been made in order to avoid fees. For requests separated by a longer period, components will aggregate them only where there is a reasonable basis for determining that aggregation is warranted in view of all the circumstances involved. Multiple requests involving unrelated matters cannot be aggregated.

(i) Advance payments. (1) For requests other than those described in paragraphs (i)(2) or (i)(3) of this section, the Department cannot require a requester to make an advance payment before work is commenced or continued on a request. Payment owed for work already completed (i.e., payment before copies are sent to the requester) is not advance payment.

(2) When the Department estimates or determines that a total fee to be charged under this section will exceed $250, it may require that the requester make an advance payment up to the amount of the entire anticipated fee before beginning to process the request. The Department may elect to process the request prior to collecting fees when it receives a satisfactory assurance of full payment from a requester with a history of prompt payment.

(3) Where a requester has previously failed to pay FOIA fees to any component within 30 calendar days of the date of its billing, the Department may require the requester to pay the full amount due, plus any applicable interest on that prior request, and to make an advance payment of the full amount of any anticipated fee before the Department begins to process a new request or continues to process a pending request or any appeal from that requester. Where the Department has a reasonable basis to believe that a requester has misrepresented the requester's identity in order to avoid paying outstanding fees, it may require that the requester provide proof of identity. Additionally, if a requester has failed to pay FOIA fees to another U.S. Government agency in a FOIA case, the Department may require proof that such fee has been paid before processing a new or pending request from that requester.

(4) In cases in which the Department requires advance payment, the request will not be considered received and further work will not be completed until the required payment is received. If the requester does not pay the advance payment within 30 calendar days after the date of the Department's fee determination, the request will be closed.

(j) Requirements for waiver or reduction of fees. (1) Requesters may seek a waiver of fees by submitting a written application demonstrating how 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 is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester.

(2) The Department must furnish records responsive to a request without charge or at a reduced rate when it determines, based on all available information, that the factors described in paragraphs (j)(2)(i) through (iii) of this section are satisfied:

(i) Disclosure of the requested information would shed light on the operations or activities of the government. The subject of the request must concern identifiable operations or activities of the Federal Government with a connection that is direct and clear, not remote or attenuated.

(ii) Disclosure of the requested information is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of those operations or activities. This factor is satisfied when the following criteria are met:

(A) Disclosure of the requested records must be meaningfully informative about government operations or activities. The disclosure of information that already is in the public domain, in either the same or a substantially identical form, would not be meaningfully informative if nothing new would be added to the public's understanding.

(B) The disclosure must contribute to the understanding of a reasonably broad audience of persons interested in the subject, as opposed to the individual understanding of the requester. A requester's expertise in the subject area as well as the requester's ability and intention to effectively convey information to the public shall be considered. The Department will presume that a representative of the news media satisfies this consideration.

(iii) The disclosure must not be primarily in the commercial interest of the requester. To determine whether disclosure of the information is primarily in the commercial interest of the requester, the Department will consider the following factors:

(A) The Department must identify whether the requester has any commercial interest that would be furthered by the requested disclosure. A commercial interest includes any commercial, trade, or profit interest. Requesters must be given an opportunity to provide explanatory information regarding this consideration.

(B) If there is an identified commercial interest, the Department must determine whether that is the primary interest furthered by the request. A waiver or reduction of fees is justified when the requirement of paragraphs (j)(2)(i) and (ii) of this section are satisfied and any commercial interest is not the primary interest furthered by the request. The Department ordinarily will presume that when a news media requester has satisfied the requirements of paragraphs (j)(2)(i) and (ii) of this section, the request is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester. Disclosure to data brokers or others who merely compile and market government information for direct economic return will not be presumed to primarily serve the public interest.

(3) Where only some of the records to be released satisfy the requirements for a waiver or reduction of fees, a waiver or reduction must be granted for those records.

(4) Requests for a waiver or reduction of fees should be made when the request is first submitted to the Department and should address the criteria referenced above. A requester may submit a fee waiver request at a later time so long as the underlying record request is pending or on administrative appeal. When a requester who has committed to pay fees subsequently asks for a waiver of those fees and that waiver is denied, the requester must pay any costs incurred up to the date the fee waiver request was received.

[88 FR 71740, Oct. 18, 2023; 88 FR 73755, Oct. 27, 2023]