Disaster for genealogists in USA

FR Doc E7-3162: "NARA is revising its regulations relating to reproduction of records and other materials in the custody of the Archivist of the United States.
We have determined that it is not appropriate to include in those regulations the reproduction of records of other Federal agencies stored in NARA Federal records centers that are not in our legal custody. This interim final rule will affect individuals and Federal agencies who request copies of Federal agency records in NARA Federal records centers. DATES: This interim final rule is effective May 29, 2007. Comments on this interim final rule must be received by April 27, 2007 "

from my email:-
When I read this in one of my emails I was appalled. If this proposed rule goes into effect we are all going to be unable to afford copies of our ancestors documents housed at the National Archives and Records Administration. Send this email to all people you know that are researching.

A notification to all U.S. genealogists. Two rules published in the Federal Register on Monday, 26 February 2007, relate to fees for reproductions of records at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

In the case of Civil War pension applications, the proposal is for a 338% increase!

Here is the list of proposed increases:-
Type of record, Order form, Proposed Fee

-- Passenger Arrival Lists, NATF Form 81, $25.00

-- Federal Census Requests, NATF Form 82, $25.00

-- Eastern Cherokee Applications to the Court of Claims, NATF Form 83, $25.00

-- Land Entry Records, NATF Form 84, $40.00

-- Full Pension File More Than 75 Years Old (Civil War Period), NATF Form 85 , $125.00 (a 338% increase from the present fee of $37.00!)

-- Full Pension File More Than 75 Years Old (Non-Civil War), NATF Form 85, $60.00

-- Pension Documents Packet (Selected Records), NATF Form 85, $25.00

-- Bounty Land Warrant Application Files, NATF Form 85, $25.00

-- Military Service Files More Than 75 Years Old, NATF Form 86, $25.00

Both rules are open for public comment until 27 April 2007.

There's much more information available in the Federal Register.

The link to the proposed rule, with instructions for commenting is:

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/E7-3160.htm

The link to the interim final rule is:

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/E7-3162.htm

It is a little difficult to find the public comment section for this proposal. Here is how I did it. I clicked on the above link (the first one), scrolled down to the link to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov Click on that link and it will take you to the place to make public comments. You want to search for documents open for public comment, the agency is National Archives and Records Administration (I used the first one with the asterisk next to it), the document type is all types, and you can either select exact phrase or any word search they both come up with the same results.

Once there I made comments on BOTH documents after reading comments posted by others.

SEND THIS TO ALL PEOPLE YOU KNOW THAT DO GENEALOGY RESEARCH.