Environmental Protection Information Center Forest Issues Group v. United States Forest Service

I. Introduction

Environmental Protection Information Center and Forest Issues Group appeal the order of the district court granting summary judgment to the United States Forest Service on their claim that the Forest Service ■wrongfully denied them waivers of fees under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552 , for procurement of Geospatial Information Systems data records. The district court held that 7 U.S.C. § 1387 , which allows the Secretary of Agriculture to set fees for GIS data, satisfies an exception to FOIA as “a statute specifically providing for setting the level of fees for particular types of records,” 5 U.S.C. § 552 (a)(4)(A)(vi). We REVERSE, concluding that the Office of Management and Budget, the agency responsible for promulgating FOIA guidelines, has clarified that only statutes setting mandatory fees, rather than statutes setting discretionary ones, meet the FOIA exception.

II. Procedural and Factual Background

Between July 1, 2002 and December 4, 2102, Appellants sent four letters to the I orest Service requesting information aoout timber sales. In each letter, Appellants asserted they were eligible for a waiver of normal FOIA fees under §…