Hello All, Below is an email of which is great concern to fellow genealogists - if not objected to, NARA will increase the cost of military pensions to $40 per request - the current fee is $10. The deadline to submit comments is June 25th. PLEASE READ below. Jeanette ----- Original Message ----- > > Public comment is invited and should be directed to > NARA Regulation Comment Desk > 8601 Adelphi Road > College Park, MD 20740-6001 > Fax: 301 713-7270 > > http://www.fgs.org/fgs-recordsnews.htm > NARA Requests Input for Proposed Reproduction Fee Schedule > By Jack Brissee, Chair > Records Preservation and Access Committee (RP&AC) > Released: 25 April 2000 > The NARA proposal to revamp the system and fees for providing copies of > Military Service Records, Bounty-Land Warrant Applications Files, and Pension > Application Files has been published in the 25 April 2000 issue of the > Federal Register. Public comment is invited and should be directed to > > NARA Regulation Comment Desk > 8601 Adelphi Road > College Park, MD 20740-6001 > Fax: 301 713-7270 > > The comment period closes on 26 June 2000. NARA prefers that you use either > the postal address or fax number to submit our comments rather than e-mail. A > copy of this message is located at the FGS Web site http://www.fgs.org and a > complete copy of the Federal Register notice is available from the NARA Web > site at http://www.nara.gov/nara/fees-pro.html or at the FGS Web site pages > for Records Preservation & Access, Current Issues, Item 4 at > http://www.fgs.org/fgs-recordsnews.htm. > > The proposed Reproduction Fee Schedule covers a number of items, but the > Military Service Records, and the Pension and Bounty-Land Warrants are of the > greatest concern to genealogists. NARA proposes three major changes: > > The NATF Form 80 would be discontinued, to be replaced by two new forms: NATF > Form 85 to request both Bounty-Land Warrant application files and Pension > files (more than 75 years old), and NATF Form 86 to request Military Service > Records (more than 75 years old). > > For all three types of files, NARA would no longer send a selection of pages, > but would send the complete file. This would eliminate the two-step process > currently used and should be beneficial to most genealogists. > > The fees for all three types of files would be raised. For Military Service > Records the new fee would be $17.00, regardless of the number of pages > included in the file. For Bounty-land Warrants the fee would be $17.25, again > without regard to the number of pages. For Pension Files the fee would be > $40.00, regardless of the number of pages. > > Finally, the proposal would go into effect on 1 September 2000, if approved. > > Many genealogists may consider the proposed fees to be excessive. NARA > specifically invites comment on the proposed fee schedule. The FGS/NGS > Records Preservation and Access Committee urges everyone who wants to comment > to carefully read the full proposal before submitting comments. The proposed > fees are intended to cover the actual cost of locating, copying and mailing > the records and are based on the average size of the files. NARA states that > the average for Military Service Records and Bounty-land Applications is > somewhere under 20 pages, while the average for full Pension Files is 105 > pages. > > The FGS/NGS Records Preservation and Access Committee will be looking at the > NARA proposal carefully, and will submit comments as appropriate. Individuals > who would like to provide input to the Committee's evaluation are welcome to > do so but are also encouraged to comment direct to NARA at the address given > above. Comments for Committee consideration should be E-mailed to: > [email protected], or mailed to Federation of Genealogical Societies, > Attention: RPAC, PO Box 200940, Austin, TX 78720-0940. In order for the > Records Preservation and Access Committee to adequately evaluate such input > it must be received by 26 May 2000. The deadline for comment to NARA, > however, is still 26 June 2000. > > Posting of this message to other mail lists is encouraged. > ========================== > End of copied page - Judy >