16 U.S.C. § 8549 — Cost recovery reform

(a) Cost recovery for special recreation permits. Besides any fee collected under section 6802 or other authorized fees, the Secretary in charge may charge an applicant or permit holder a reasonable fee to cover the agency's administrative costs. This covers processing the application, issuing the permit, and monitoring the permit holder's compliance. (b) De minimis exemption from cost recovery. If these administrative costs are billed by the hour, the Secretary must set a minimum number of free hours before any charge applies, and can only bill the applicant for hours beyond that threshold. (c) Multiple applications. If the Secretary processes several similar applications together for the same area, the Secretary must, as much as practical, split the fee proportionally among the applicants, and apply the free-hours exemption to each one separately. (d) Limitation. The Secretary cannot charge these administrative costs for a broad, "programmatic" environmental review. (e) Cost reduction. As much as practical, the agency processing an application must reuse existing studies and analysis to cut down on the work and cost needed to process it.