Pursuant to the direction of Pub. L. 105-277, OMB hereby proposes to amend Section ___.36(c) of OMB Circular A-110 to read as follows:
(c) The Federal Government has the right to (1) obtain, reproduce, publish or otherwise use the data first produced under an award, and (2) authorize others to receive, reproduce, publish or otherwise use such data for Federal purposes. In addition, in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for data relating to published research findings produced under an award that were used by the Federal Government in developing policy or rules, the Federal awarding agency shall, within a reasonable time, obtain the requested data so that they can be made available to the public through the procedures established under the FOIA. If the Federal awarding agency obtains the data solely in response to a FOIA request, the agency may charge the requester a reasonable fee equaling the full incremental cost of obtaining the data. This fee should reflect the costs incurred by the agency, the recipient, and applicable subrecipients. This fee is in addition to any fees the agency may assess under the FOIA (5 U.S.C. 552(a)(4)(A)).
64 Fed. Reg. 5694-85 (Feb. 4, 1999) (emphasis added). The italicized material above represents new language that OMB proposes to add to the Circular. Significantly, the original (non-italicized) language reserving to the federal government the right to "obtain, reproduce, publish or otherwise use" award data, is not affected by the proposal.
