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 complete copy of the Federal Register notice is available from the
NARA Web site at
http://www.nara.gov/nara/fees-pro.html.
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:
1. 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 From 86 to
request Military Service Records (more than 75 years old).
2. 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.
3. 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, plus 10% as authorized by law, 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 fgs-access(a)fgs.org, 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. A copy of
this message will also be available on the Records Preservation and
Access page of the FGS Web site <
http://www.fgs.org/fgs-recordsnews.htm>
and on the NGS Web site <
http://www.ngsgenealogy.org>