Open and Responsive Government Act of 2021

II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 742 To modify the exemption for trade secrets and commercial or financial information in the Freedom of Information Act, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MARCH 15, 2021 Mr. GRASSLEY (for himself, Mr. LEAHY, and Mrs. FEINSTEIN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To modify the exemption for trade secrets and commercial or financial information in the Freedom of Information Act, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Open and Responsive 4 Government Act of 2021’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:36 Apr 03, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S742.IS S742 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 742 IS SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION 1 ACT. 2 Section 552 of title 5, United States Code (commonly 3 known as the ‘‘Freedom of Information Act’’) is amend- 4 ed— 5 (1) in subsection (b)(4), by inserting before the 6 semicolon at the end the following: ‘‘, provided that 7 the term ‘confidential’ means information that, if 8 disclosed, would likely cause substantial harm to the 9 competitive position of the person from whom the in- 10 formation was obtained’’; and 11 (2) in subsection (d)— 12 (A) by striking ‘‘This section does not au- 13 thorize withholding of information’’ and insert- 14 ing ‘‘This section— 15 ‘‘(1) does not authorize the withholding of in- 16 formation’’; 17 (B) in paragraph (1), as so designated, by 18 striking ‘‘. This section is not authority to with- 19 hold information from Congress.’’ and inserting 20 a semicolon; and 21 (C) by adding at the end the following: 22 ‘‘(2) does not authorize the withholding of a 23 portion of an otherwise responsive record on the 24 basis that the portion is non-responsive; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:36 Apr 03, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S742.IS S742 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 742 IS ‘‘(3) is not authority to withhold information 1 from Congress.’’. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:36 Apr 03, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S742.IS S742 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS