The system manager shall provide a copy of a record to a requestor at a fee prescribed in § 6.85 unless the fee is waived under § 6.82.

A reasonable number of additional copies shall be provided for the applicable fee to a requestor who indicates that he has no access to commercial reproduction services.

The system manager shall make one copy of a record, up to 300 pages, available without charge to a requestor who is an employee of FEMA. The system manager may waive the fee requirement for any other requestor if the cost of collecting the fee is an unduly large part of, or greater than, the fee, or when furnishing the record without charge conforms to generally established business custom or is in the public interest.

(a) When FEMA estimates or determines that allowable charges that a requester may be required to pay are likely to exceed $250.00, FEMA may require a requester to make an advance payment of the entire fee before continuing to process the request.

(b) When 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), FEMA may require the requester to pay the full amount owed plus any applicable interest as provided in § 6.85(d), and to make an advance payment of the full amount of the estimated fee before the agency begins to process a new request or a pending request from that requester.

(c) When FEMA acts under § 5.44 (a) or (b), the administrative time limits prescribed in subsection (a)(6) of the FOIA (i.e., 10 working days from the receipt of initial requests and 20 working days from receipt of appeals from initial denial, plus permissible extensions of these time limits) will begin only after FEMA has received fee payments described under § 5.44 (a) or (b).

Payment shall be by check or money order payable to The Federal Emergency Management Agency and shall be addressed to the system manager.

(a) Duplication costs. (1) For copies of documents reproduced on a standard office copying machine in sizes up to 8 1/2 × 14 inches, the charge will be $.15 per page.

(2) The fee for reproducing copies of records over 8 1/2 × 14 inches or whose physical characteristics do not permit reproduction by routine electrostatic copying shall be the direct cost of reproducing the records through Government or commercial sources. If FEMA estimates that the allowable duplication charges are likely to exceed $25, it shall notify the requester of the estimated amount of fees, unless the requester has indicated in advance his/her willingness to pay fees as high as those anticipated. Such a notice shall offer a requester the opportunity to confer with agency personnel with the objective of reformulating the request to meet his/her needs at a lower cost.

(3) For other methods of reproduction or duplication, FEMA shall charge the actual direct costs of producing the document(s). If FEMA estimates that the allowable duplication charges are likely to exceed $25, it shall notify the requester of the estimated amount of fees, unless the requester has indicated in advance his/her willingness to pay fees as high as those anticipated. Such a notice shall offer a requester the opportunity to confer with agency personnel with the objective of reformulating the request to meet his/her needs at a lower cost.

(b) Interest may be charge to those requesters who fail to pay fees charged. FEMA may begin assessing interest charges on the amount billed starting on the 31st day following the day on which the billing was sent. Interest will be at the rate prescribed in section 3717 of title 31 U.S.C.