1250.54—General information on fees for NARA operational records.
(a)
NARA is able to make most of its records available for examination at the NARA facility where the records are located. Whenever this is possible, you may review the records in a NARA research room at that facility.
(b)
If you want NARA to supply you with copies, we will normally require you to pay all applicable fees in accordance with § 1250.52 before we provide you with the copies.
(c)
NARA may charge search fees even if the records are not releasable or even if we do not find any responsive records during our search.
(d)
If you are entitled to receive 100 free pages, but the records cannot be copied onto standard size (8.5″ by 11″) photocopy paper, we will copy them on larger paper and will reduce your copy fee by the normal charge for 100 standard size photocopies. If the records are not on textual media (e.g., photographs or electronic files) we will provide the equivalent of 100 pages of standard size paper copies for free.
(f)
If estimated search or review fees exceed $50, we will contact you. If you have specified a different limit that you are willing to spend, we will contact you only if we estimate the fees will exceed that amount.
(g)
If you have failed to pay FOIA fees in the past, we will require you to pay your past-due bill before we begin processing your request. If we estimate that your fees may be greater than $250, we may require payment or a deposit before we begin processing your request.
(h)
If we determine that you (acting either alone or with others) are breaking down a single request into a series of requests in order to avoid or reduce fees, we may aggregate all these requests in calculating the fees.