Fees

Freedom of Information Act

We will furnish, without charge, reasonable quantities of material that we have available for free distribution to the public. Under the FOIA, we are permitted to charge certain fees for processing FOIA requests. Fees may vary depending on the requester's category. Commercial requesters may be charged fees for searching, reviewing, and duplicating records. Noncommercial requesters, such as educational or scientific institutions and the news media, are only charged for the duplicating expenses, after the first 100 pages of copies. All other requesters who do not fall within either of these two categories are not charged for the review of the records, only for the search and duplication of the records. No charge is assessed for the first two hours of search time or for the first 100 pages of copies.

Fees $10.00 or less
If the total fee for searching, reviewing, and duplicating is $10.00 or less no fee is assessed.

Fees $25.00 or more
If you do not include an acceptable agreement to pay the fees at the time of your request, we will promptly notify you if the estimated cost for processing your request is expected to exceed $25.00. Once you provide us with an agreement to pay all fees, we will release the records.

Fees over $250.00
If the estimated fees exceed $250.00, we may require you to pay the fees in advance.

Fee Waivers
We may waive fees, if the disclosure of the requested information contributes significantly to the public's understanding of the operation or activities of the government and is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester.

Helpful Reference Materials

• U.S. Postal Service Freedom of Information Act Regulations (39 C.F.R. § 265)
• U.S. Postal Service Privacy Act Regulations (39 C.F.R. § 266)
• U.S. Department of Justice FOIA and Privacy Act Web Pages
  (Includes the text of the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act as well as several useful guides)