Reduction of Waiver Fees

Office of the Secretary of Labor

§ 70.41

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with its provisions. Pursuant to provisions of the general user-charger statute, 31 U.S.C. 9701 and Subchapter II of
title 29 U.S.C., the following charges
will be made when, upon request, such
services are nevertheless rendered by
the agency in its discretion:
(i) For certification of true copies,
$10.00 each certification.
(ii) For attestation under the seal of
the Department, $10.00 each attestation
under seal.
(2) Authority and form for attestation
under seal. Authority is hereby given to
any officer or officers of the Department of Labor designated as authentication officer or officers of the Department to sign and issue attestations
under the seal of the Department of
Labor.
(h) Transcripts. Fees for transcripts of
an agency proceeding will be assessed
in accordance with the provisions of
this Subpart.
(i) Privacy Act requesters. A request
from an individual or on behalf of an
individual for a record maintained by
that individual’s name or other unique
identifier which is contained within a
component’s system of records will be
treated under the fee provisions at 29
CFR 71.6.
§ 70.41 Reduction or waiver of fees.
(a) Requirements for waiver or reduction of fees. (1) Records responsive to a
request will be furnished without
charge or at a charge reduced below
that established under paragraph (d) of
§ 70.40 where a Disclosure Officer determines, based on all available information, that the requester has demonstrated that:
(i) 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
(ii) Disclosure of the information is
not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester.
(2) To determine whether the requirement of paragraph (a)(1)(i) of this section is met, components will consider
the following factors:
(i) The subject of the request: Whether the subject of the requested records
concerns ‘‘the operations or activities

of the government.’’ The subject of the
requested records must concern identifiable operations or activities of the
federal government, with a connection
that is direct and clear, not remote or
attenuated.
(ii) The informative value of the information to be disclosed: Whether the
disclosure is ‘‘likely to contribute’’ to
an understanding of government operations or activities. The disclosable
portions of the requested records must
be meaningfully informative about
government operations or activities in
order to be ‘‘likely to contribute’’ to an
increased public understanding of those
operations or activities. The disclosure
of information that already is in the
public domain, in either a duplicative
or a substantially identical form,
would not be as likely to contribute to
such understanding where nothing new
would be added to the public’s understanding.
(iii) The contribution to an understanding of the subject by the public
likely to result from disclosure:
Whether disclosure of the requested information will contribute to ‘‘public
understanding.’’ 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 and ability and intention
to effectively convey information to
the public will be considered. It will be
presumed that a representative of the
news media will satisfy this consideration.
(iv) The significance of the contribution to public understanding: Whether
the disclosure is likely to contribute
‘‘significantly’’
to
public
understanding of government operations or
activities. The public’s understanding
of the subject in question must be enhanced by the disclosure to a significant extent.
(3) To determine whether the requirement of paragraph (a)(1)(ii) of this section is met, components will consider
the following factors:
(i) The existence and magnitude of a
commercial interest: Whether the requester has a commercial interest that
would be furthered by the requested
disclosure. The Disclosure Officer will

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§ 70.42

29 CFR Subtitle A (7–1–09 Edition)

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consider any commercial interest of
the requester (with reference to the
definition of ‘‘commercial use request’’
in § 70.38(f)), or of any person on whose
behalf the requester may be acting,
that would be furthered by the requested disclosure. Requesters will be
given an opportunity in the administrative process to provide explanatory
information regarding this consideration.
(ii) The primary interest in disclosure: Whether any identified commercial interest of the requester is sufficiently large, in comparison with the
public interest in disclosure, that disclosure is ‘‘primarily in the commercial interest of the requester.’’ A fee
waiver or reduction is justified where
the public interest standard is satisfied
and that public interest is greater in
magnitude than that of any identified
commercial interest in disclosure. The
Disclosure Officer ordinarily will presume that where a news media requester has satisfied the public interest
standard, the public interest will be
the interest primarily served by disclosure to that 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.
(4) Where only some of the records to
be released satisfy the requirements for
a waiver of fees, a waiver will be granted only for those records.
(5) Requests for the waiver or reduction of fees should address the factors
listed in paragraph (a) of this section,
insofar as they apply to each request.
(b) Submission. Requests for waiver or
reduction of fees must be submitted
along with the request or before processing of the request has been commenced.
(c) Appeal rights. The procedures for
appeal under 70.22 and 70.23 will control.
§ 70.42 Consent to Pay Fees.
(a) The filing of a request under this
subpart will be deemed to constitute an
agreement by the requester to pay all
applicable fees charged under this part
up to and including $25.00, unless the
requester seeks a waiver of fees. When
making a request, the requester may

specify a willingness to pay a greater
or lesser amount.
(b) No request will be processed if a
disclosure officer reasonably believes
that the fees are likely to exceed the
amount to which the requester has
originally consented, absent supplemental written consent by the requester to proceed after being notified
of this determination.
(c) When the estimated costs are
likely to exceed the amount of fees to
which the requester has consented, the
requester must be notified. Such notice
may invite the requester to reformulate the request to satisfy his or her
needs at a lower cost.
§ 70.43 Payment of fees.
(a) De minimis costs. Where the cost of
collecting and processing a fee to be assessed to a requester exceeds the
amount of the fee which would otherwise be assessed, no fee need be
charged. Fees which do not exceed
$15.00 usually need not be collected.
(b) How payment will be made. Requesters will pay fees by check or
money order made payable to the
Treasury of the United States.
(c) Advance payments and billing. (1)
Prior to beginning to process a request,
the disclosure officer will make a preliminary assessment of the amount
that can properly be charged to the requester for search and review time and
copying costs. Where a disclosure officer determines or estimates that a
total fee to be charged under this section will be more than $250.00, the disclosure officer will require the requester to make an advance payment
of an amount up to the entire anticipated fee before beginning to process
the request. The disclosure officer may
waive the advance payment where the
disclosure officer receives a satisfactory assurance of full payment from a
requester who has a history of prompt
payment of an amount similar to the
one anticipated by the request.
(2) Where a requester has previously
failed to pay a properly charged FOIA
fee to any component of the Department of Labor within 30 days of the
date of billing, a disclosure officer will
require the requester to pay the full
amount due, plus any applicable interest as provided in § 70.40(f) and to make

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