An Act to Strengthen the Freedom of Access Act by Categorizing
Maine Legislature, Session 132, LD 1788
Committee: Judiciary
Sponsors: HENDERSON
Amends: 1 MRSA §402, 1 MRSA §408-A

Legislative Document
No. 1788
H.P. 1199
House of Representatives, April 24, 2025
An Act to Strengthen the Freedom of Access Act by Categorizing 
Commercial Requesters
Reference to the Committee on Judiciary suggested and ordered printed.
ROBERT B. HUNT
Clerk
Presented by Representative HENDERSON of Rumford.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  1 MRSA §402, sub-§1-B is enacted to read:
1-B.  Commercial request.  "Commercial request" means a request of a public record 
pursuant to this chapter that asks for information for a use or purpose that furthers a 
commercial, trade or profit interest, which can include furthering those interests through 
litigation.  An agency or official's decision to place a requester in the commercial request 
category is made on a case-by-case basis based on the requester's intended use.
Sec. 2.  1 MRSA §402, sub-§1-C is enacted to read:
1-C.  Educational institution.  "Educational institution" means a school that operates 
a program of scholarly research.
Sec. 3.  1 MRSA §402, sub-§2-A is enacted to read:
2-A.  Noncommercial request.  "Noncommercial request" means a request of a public 
record pursuant to this chapter made by an educational institution, noncommercial 
scientific institution or a representative of the news media or by another person that asks 
for information, for a use or purpose that is not determined to be a commercial request, on 
a case-by-case basis.
Sec. 4.  1 MRSA §402, sub-§2-B is enacted to read:
2-B.  Noncommercial scientific institution.  "Noncommercial scientific institution" 
means an institution that is not operated on a commercial basis and that is operated solely 
for the purpose of conducting scientific research, the results of which are not intended to 
promote any particular product or industry.
Sec. 5.  1 MRSA §402, sub-§7 is enacted to read:
7.  Representative of news media.  "Representative of the news media" means a 
person or entity that actively gathers information of potential interest to a segment of the 
public, uses its editorial skills to turn the raw materials into a distinct work about a current 
event or that would be of current interest to the public and distributes that work to an 
audience.  "Representative of news media" includes, but is not limited to, television or radio 
stations that broadcast news to the public at large and publishers of periodicals that 
disseminate news through a variety of means to the general public, including news 
organizations that disseminate solely or in part on the Internet.
Sec. 6.  1 MRSA §408-A, sub-§8, ¶B, as amended by PL 2021, c. 375, §1, is further 
amended to read:
B.  The agency or official may charge a fee to cover the actual cost of searching for, 
retrieving and compiling the requested public record in accordance with this paragraph. 
Compiling the public record includes reviewing and redacting confidential 
information.
(1)  The agency or official may not charge a fee for the first 2 hours of staff time 
per noncommercial request.
(2)  After the first 2 hours of staff time per noncommercial request, the agency or 
official may charge a fee of not more than $25 per hour.
(3)  The agency or official may establish a fee structure and charge a fee for a 
commercial request.
Sec. 7.  1 MRSA §408-A, sub-§13 is enacted to read:
13.  Certification of use of request.  A person or entity must certify whether a request 
made pursuant to this section is a commercial request or a noncommercial request and 
whether the public information subject to the request is likely to be produced pursuant to 
an ongoing judicial proceeding and provide additional information, as necessary, to the 
agency or official having custody or control of a public record subject to a request under 
this section, on a form to be developed by the agency or official.
SUMMARY
This bill prohibits an agency or official from charging a fee to cover the actual cost of 
searching for, retrieving and compiling a noncommercial request of a public record for the 
first 2 hours of staff time.  The bill allows an agency or official to establish a fee structure 
and charge a fee for a commercial request of a public record.  The bill also requires a person 
or entity to certify whether a request for a public record is a commercial request or a 
noncommercial request and whether the public information subject to the request is likely 
to be produced pursuant to an ongoing judicial proceeding and to provide additional 
information, as necessary, to the agency or official having custody or control of a public 
record subject to the request.