Your FOIA Fee Category
As a requester, you fall into one of the following fee categories:
- Commercial use - The requester
or a representative seeks the records to further
the commercial interests of the requester. The
requester must pay for all search time, review
time, and the cost of duplication.
- News media - The requester
is actively gathering news for an entity that is
organized and operated to publish or broadcast
news to the public. The requester pays for the
cost of duplication after the first 100 pages.
- Representatives of scientific
or educational organizations - The requester represents a school
or educational institution operating a program
of scholarly research, or a noncommercial scientific
organization operating solely for the purpose of
conducting scientific research and not intended
to promote a particular product or industry. The
requester pays for the cost of duplication after
the first 100 pages.
- All others - The requester is an individual seeking information for personal, not-for-profit, use and
does not fall into any of the three categories
above. The requester pays for search time after the
first two hours and the cost of duplication after
the first 100 pages.
- Fee Waiver - If you want to ask for a fee waiver in your request, you must address all 6 criteria below:
- 1. Describe how the subject matter of the requested records concerns the operations or activities of the government.
- 2. Describe how the disclosure is likely to contribute to an understanding of Federal government operations or activities.
- 3. Describe how disclosure of the requested information will contribute to the understanding of the public at large, as opposed to the individual understanding of the requester or a narrow segment of interested persons.
- 4. Describe how the contribution to the public understanding of Federal government operations or activities will be significant.
- 5. Describe how the requester has a commercial interest that would be furthered by the requested disclosure.
- 6. Describe how the magnitude of any identified commercial interest to the requester is sufficiently large in comparison with the public interest in disclosure that disclosure is primarily in the commercial interest of the requester.
