CFR

105-60.305-10—Fee schedule.

(a) When GSA is aware that documents responsive to a request are maintained for distribution by an agency operating a statutory fee based program, GSA will inform the requester of the procedures for obtaining records from those sources.

(b) GSA will consider only the following costs in fees charged to requesters of GSA records:

(1) Review and search fees.

Manual searches by clerical staff: $13 per hour or fraction of an hour.

Manual searches and reviews by professional staff in cases in which clerical staff would be unable to locate the requested records: $29 per hour or fraction of an hour.

Computer searches: Direct cost to GSA.

Transportation or special handling of records: Direct cost to GSA.

(2) Reproduction fees.

Pages no larger than 81/2 by 14 inches, when reproduced by routine electrostatic copying: 10¢ per page.

Pages over 81/2 by 14 inches: Direct cost of reproduction to GSA.

Pages requiring reduction, enlargement, or other special services: Direct cost of reproduction to GSA.

Reproduction by other than routine electrostatic copying: Direct cost of reproduction to GSA.

(c) Any fees not provided for under paragraph (b) of this section, shall be calculated as direct costs, in accordance with § 105-60.305-1(b).

(d) GSA will assess fees based on the category of the requester as defined in § 105-60.305-1(f) -(1); i.e., commercial-use, educational and noncommercial scientific institutions, news media, and all other. The fees listed in paragraph (b) of this section apply with the following exceptions:

(1) GSA will not charge the requester if the fee is $25 or less as the cost of collection is greater than the fee.

(2) Educational and noncommercial scientific institutions and the news media will be charged for the cost of reproduction alone. These requesters are entitled to the first 100 pages (paper copies) of duplication at no cost. The following are examples of how these fees are calculated:

(i) A request that results in 150 pages of material. No fee would be assessed for duplication of 150 pages. The reason is that these requesters are entitled to the first 100 pages at no charge. The charge for the remaining 50 pages would be $5.00. This amount would not be billed under the preceding section.

(ii) A request that results in 450 pages of material. The requester in this case would be charged $35.00. The reason is that the requester is entitled to the first 100 pages at no charge. The charge for the remaining 350 pages would be $35.

(3) Noncommercial requesters who are not included under paragraph (d)(2) of this section will be entitled to the first 100 pages (page copies) of duplication at not cost and two hours of search without charge. The term search time generally refers to manual search. To apply this term to searches made by computer, GSA will determine the hourly cost of operating the central processing unit and the operator's hourly salary plus 16 percent. When the cost of search (including the operator time and the cost of operating the computer to process a request) reaches the equivalent dollar amount of two hours of the salary of the person performing a manual search, i.e., the operator, GSA will begin assessing charges for computer search.

(4) GSA will charge commercial-use requesters fees which recover the full direct costs of searching for, reviewing for release, and duplicating the records sought. Commercial-use requesters are not entitled to two hours of free search time.

(e) Determining category of requester. GSA may ask any requester to provide additional information at any time to determine what fee category he or she falls under.

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