VA FOIA Reform Act of 2021

IIB 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2726 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 16, 2021 Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary AN ACT To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a plan to reduce the backlog of requests for information made to the Department of Veterans Affairs pursuant to section 552 of title 5, United States Code, 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:59 Jun 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2726.RFS H2726 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 HR 2726 RFS SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘VA FOIA Reform Act 2 of 2021’’. 3 SEC. 2. PLAN FOR REDUCTION OF BACKLOG OF FOIA RE- 4 QUESTS. 5 (a) PLAN.—The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall 6 establish and carry out a plan for the Secretary to meet, 7 by not later than five years after the date of the enactment 8 of this Act, the requirements of section 552 of title 5, 9 United States Code, with respect to providing documents 10 and information under such section within the timeframes 11 required by such section. The plan shall include the fol- 12 lowing: 13 (1) Improving and acquiring technology, includ- 14 ing with respect to searching email and other elec- 15 tronic information, and the timelines for such im- 16 provement, to ensure that the information tech- 17 nology of the Department of Veterans Affairs is ca- 18 pable of carrying out the plan. 19 (2) Identification of efficient procedures, poli- 20 cies, and systems of the Department that could be 21 developed to allow employees of the Department re- 22 sponsible for replying to requests under such section 23 552 to search and review documents rather than 24 other employees of the Department. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:59 Jun 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2726.RFS H2726 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 HR 2726 RFS (3) A schedule for carrying out the plan, includ- 1 ing key milestones and metrics. 2 (b) COMPLIANCE ASSESSMENT.—The Secretary shall 3 request the Director of the Office of Government Informa- 4 tion Services of the National Archives and Records Admin- 5 istration to conduct an assessment of the compliance by 6 the Department of Veterans Affairs with section 552 of 7 title 5, United States Code. 8 (c) REPORTS.— 9 (1) INITIAL REPORT.—Not later than 180 days 10 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec- 11 retary shall submit to the Committees on Veterans’ 12 Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Sen- 13 ate a report on implementing subsections (a) and 14 (b). The report shall include the following: 15 (A) The plan established under subsection 16 (a). 17 (B) An analysis of the root causes of the 18 backlog of FOIA requests. 19 (C) Recommendations with respect to any 20 additional resources or legislative action the 21 Secretary determines necessary for such imple- 22 mentation. 23 (2) ANNUAL REPORTS.—During the five-year 24 period following the date of the enactment of this 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:59 Jun 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2726.RFS H2726 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 HR 2726 RFS Act, the Secretary shall submit to the Committees 1 on Veterans’ Affairs of the House of Representatives 2 and the Senate annual reports on— 3 (A) carrying out the plan under subsection 4 (a), including any updates or changes made to 5 the plan; and 6 (B) the compliance by the Department as 7 described in subsection (b). 8 (3) PUBLICATION.—The Secretary shall make 9 publicly available on the internet website of the De- 10 partment the reports under paragraphs (1) and (2) 11 by not later than 30 days after the date on which 12 the Secretary submits the reports to the Committees 13 on Veterans’ Affairs of the House of Representatives 14 and the Senate. 15 (d) BACKLOG OF FOIA REQUESTS DEFINED.—In 16 this section, the term ‘‘backlog of FOIA requests’’ means 17 the number of requests, as reported by the Secretary of 18 Veterans Affairs to the Attorney General in the Annual 19 FOIA Report, made by individuals to the Secretary pursu- 20 ant to section 552 of title 5, United States Code, for docu- 21 ments 22 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:59 Jun 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2726.RFS H2726 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 HR 2726 RFS or information that the Secretary has not fulfilled or pro- 1 vided a response to the individual. 2 Passed the House of Representatives June 15, 2021. Attest: CHERYL L. JOHNSON, Clerk. VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:59 Jun 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2726.RFS H2726 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS