[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 5, Volume 3]
[Revised as of January 1, 2007]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 5CFR2604.504]

[Page 464-465]
 
                    TITLE 5--ADMINISTRATIVE PERSONNEL
 
                CHAPTER XVI--OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS
 
PART 2604_FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT RULES AND SCHEDULE OF FEES FOR THE 
 
                       Subpart E_Schedule of Fees
 
Sec.  2604.504  Miscellaneous fee provisions.

    (a) Notice of anticipated fees in excess of $25.00. Where the Office 
determines or estimates that the fees to be assessed under this section 
may amount to more than $25.00, the Office shall notify the requester as 
soon as practicable of the actual or estimated amount of fees, unless 
the requester has indicated in advance his willingness to pay fees as 
high as those anticipated. Where a requester has been notified that the 
actual or estimated fees may exceed $25.00, the request will be deemed 
not to have been received until the requester has agreed to pay the 
anticipated total fee. A notice to the requester pursuant to this 
paragraph will include the opportunity to confer with Office personnel 
in order to reformulate the request to meet the requester's needs at a 
lower cost.
    (b) Aggregating requests. A requester may not file multiple 
requests, each seeking portions of a document or documents in order to 
avoid the payment of fees. Where there is reason to believe that a 
requester or group of requesters acting in concert, is attempting to 
divide a request into a series of requests for the purpose of evading 
the assessment of fees, the Office may aggregate the requests and charge 
accordingly. The Office will presume that multiple requests of this type 
made within a 30-day period have been made in order to evade fees. 
Multiple requests regarding unrelated matters will not be aggregated.
    (c) Advance payments. An advance payment before work is commenced or 
continued will not be required unless:
    (1) The Office estimates or determines that the total fee to be 
assessed under this section is likely to exceed $250.00. When a 
determination is made that the allowable charges are likely to exceed 
$250.00, the requester will be notified of the likely cost and will be 
required to provide satisfactory assurance of full payment where the 
requester has a history of prompt payment of FOIA fees, or will be 
required to submit an advance payment of an amount up to the full 
estimated charges in the case of requesters with no history of payment; 
or
    (2) A requester has previously failed to pay a fee charged in a 
timely fashion (i.e., within 30 days of the date of the billing). In 
such cases the requester may be required to pay the full amount owed 
plus any applicable interest as

[[Page 465]]

provided by paragraph (e) of this section, and to make an advance 
payment of the full amount of the estimated fee before the Office begins 
to process a new request.
    (3) When the Office requests an advance payment of fees, the 
administrative time limits described in subsection (a)(6) of the FOIA 
will begin to run only after the Office has received the advance 
payment.
    (d) Billing and payment. Normally the Office will require a 
requester to pay all fees before furnishing the requested records. 
However, the Office may send a bill along with, or following the 
furnishing of records, in cases where the requester has a history of 
prompt payment.
    (e) Interest charges. Interest charges on an unpaid bill may be 
assessed starting on the 31st day following the day on which the billing 
was sent. Interest shall be at the rate prescribed in 31 U.S.C. 3717 and 
shall accrue from the date of billing. To collect unpaid bills, the 
Office will follow the provisions of the Debt Collection Act of 1982, as 
amended (96 Stat. 1749 et seq.) including the use of consumer reporting 
agencies, collection agencies, and offset.