98TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 774 Entitled "The Freedom of Information Reform Act". IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MARCH 11 (legislative day, MARCH 7), 1983 Mr. HATCH (for himself, Mr. THURMOND, and Mr. DECONCINI) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL Entitled "The Freedom of Information Reform Act". 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa 2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3 4 FEES AND WAIVERS SEC. 2. Paragraph (4)(A) of section 552(a) of title 5, 5 United States Code, is amended to read as follows: 6 "(4)(A)(i) In order to carry out the provisions of this 7 section, each agency shall promulgate regulations, pursuant 8 to notice and receipt of public comment, specifying the sched9 ule of fees applicable to the processing of requests under this 10 section and establishing procedures and guidelines for deter11 mining when such fees should be waived or reduced. Such 2 1 schedules shall conform to the guidelines which shall be pro2 mulgated, pursuant to notice and receipt of public comment, 3 by the Office of Management and Budget and which shall 4 provide for a uniform schedule of fees for all agencies. Such 5 regulations "(a) shall provide for the payment of all costs reasonably and directly attributable to responding to the request, which shall include reasonable standard charges for the costs of services by agency personnel in search, duplication, and other processing of the request. The term 'processing' does not include services of agency personnel in resolving issues of law and policy of general applicability which may be raised by a request, but does include services involved in examining records for possible withholding or deletions to carry out determinations of law or policy. Such regulations may also provide for standardized charges for categories of requests having similar processing costs, "(b) shall provide that no fee is to be charged by any agency with respect to any request or series of related requests whenever the costs of routine collection and processing of the fee are likely to equal or exceed the amount of the fee, and "(c) in the case of any request or series of related requests for records containing commercially valuable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 3 technological information which was generated or pro cured by the Government at substantial cost to the public, is likely to be used for a commercial purpose, and will deprive the Government of its commercial value, may provide for the charging of a fair value fee or royalties, or both, in addition to or in lieu of any processing fees otherwise chargeable, taking into account such factors as the estimated commercial value of the technological information, its costs to the Government, and any public interest in encouraging its utilization. 12 Nothing in this subparagraph shall supersede fees chargeable 13 under a statute specifically providing for setting the level of 14 fees for particular types of records. 15 “(ii) With respect to search and duplication charges, 16 documents shall be furnished without charge or at a reduced 17 charge where the agency determines that waiver or reduction 18 of the fee is in the public interest because furnishing the in19 formation can be considered as primarily benefiting the gen20 eral public and not the commercial or other private interests 21 of the requester. With respect to all other charges, docu22 ments shall be furnished without such charges where the 23 agency determines that the information is not requested for a 24 commercial use and the request is being made by or on behalf 25 of (a) an individual, or educational, or noncommercial scien 4 1 tific institution, whose purpose is scholarly or scientific re2 search; (b) a representative of the news media; or (c) a non3 profit group that intends to make the information available to 4 the general public. 5 "(iii) One-half of the fees collected under this section. 6 shall be retained by the collecting agency to offset the costs 7 of complying with this section. The remaining fees collected 8 under this section shall be remitted to the Treasury's general 9 fund as miscellaneous receipts.". 10 11 TIME LIMITS SEC. 3. Paragraph (6) of section 552(a) of title 5, United 12 States Code, is amended to read as follows: 13 "(6)(A) Except as otherwise provided in this paragraph, 14 each agency, upon any request for records made under para 15 graph (1), (2), or (3) of this subsection, shall 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 2 2 2 24 "(i) determine within ten working days after the receipt of any such request whether to comply with such request and shall immediately notify the requester of such determination and the reasons therefor, and of the right of such person to appeal to the head of the agency any adverse determination; and "(ii) make a determination with respect to any appeal within twenty working days after the receipt of such appeal. If on appeal the denial of the request for 25 records is in whole or in part upheld, the agency shall 5 1 notify the requester of the provisions for judicial review 2 3 4 of that determination under paragraph (4) of this subsection. "(B) In unusual circumstances as defined in this subpar5 agraph, the time limits prescribed in either clause (i) or clause 6 (ii) of subparagraph (A) may be extended by written notice to 7 the requester setting forth the reasons for such extension and 8 the date on which a determination is expected to be dis9 patched. No such notice shall specify a date that would result 10 in extensions of more than an aggregate of thirty working 11 days. As used in this subparagraph, 'unusual circumstances' 12 means, but only to the extent reasonably necessary to the 13 proper processing of the particular request "(i) the need to search for and collect the requested records from field facilities or other establishments that are separate from the office processing the request; "(ii) the need to search for, collect, and appropriately examine a voluminous amount of separate and distinct records which are demanded in a single re quest; "(iii) the need for consultation, which shall be conducted with all practicable speed, with another agency having a substantial interest in the determina tion of the request or among two or more components |