§ 402.70 Fees associated with processing FOIA requests.

(a) Charging authorities—(1) Section 1106(c). Section 1106(c) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1306(c)) allows the agency to charge for FOIA requests that are not directly related to SSA's administration of the Social Security Act. See § 402.80 for information on the agency's authorization under section 1106(c) to charge requesters. Requesters may request a fee waiver, as described in § 402.85.

(2) FOIA fee categories. The FOIA establishes three fee categories of requesters, i.e., commercial use, non-commercial scientific or educational institutions and representatives of the news media; and other requesters. The category of the requester determines the fees that may be charged; see § 402.75 for the FOIA fee schedule. Requesters may request a fee waiver, as described in § 402.85.

(b) Hourly rate when charging under section 1106(c) and the FOIA fee categories. (1) When we search for and review records, we charge an hourly rate, based in 15-minute increments, depending on the grade(s) of the employee(s) and/or contractors performing the search and review. The hourly rate is the same when charging under the FOIA fee provisions or section 1106(c) of the Social Security Act. SSA uses the current General Schedule (GS) salary table for the locality pay area of Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA. We use the following criteria to compute our hourly rates for search or review:

(i) When performed by employees at grade GS-1 through GS-8, SSA will charge an hourly rate based on the salary of a GS-5, step 7, employee;

(ii) When performed by a GS-9 through GS-14, SSA will charge an hourly rate based on the salary of a GS-12, step 4, employee; and

(iii) When performed by a GS-15 or above, SSA will charge an hourly rate based on the salary of a GS-15, step 7, employee.

(2) When work is performed by a contractor, we will charge an hourly rate based on the GS equivalent of the contractor's hourly pay rate. We compute the hourly rate by taking the current hourly rate for the specified grade and adding 16 percent of that rate to cover benefits and rounding to the nearest whole dollar. These rates are adjusted as Federal salaries change. Federal salary rates are available from the Office of Personnel Management. When a search and review involves employees at more than one of these GS levels, we will charge the rate appropriate for each. We may charge a fee for search time even if we are unable to locate any responsive records or the records are exempt from disclosure.