Modernizing Congressional Reporting Act of 2019

II Calendar No. 68 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 196 [Report No. 116–32] To save taxpayer money and improve the efficiency and speed of intragovernmental correspondence, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JANUARY 19, 2019 Mr. PORTMAN (for himself, Ms. HASSAN, Ms. HARRIS, Mr. HOEVEN, Mr. LANKFORD, Mr. DAINES, Ms. ERNST, Mr. JONES, and Mr. CARPER) in- troduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com- mittee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs APRIL 10, 2019 Reported by Mr. JOHNSON, with amendments [Omit the part struck through and insert the part printed in italic] A BILL To save taxpayer money and improve the efficiency and speed of intragovernmental correspondence, 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 23:16 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S196.RS S196 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 196 RS SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Modernizing Congres- 2 sional Reporting Act of 2019’’. 3 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 4 In this Act— 5 (1) the term ‘‘acceptable electronic format’’ 6 means a file format and metadata elements author- 7 ized by the National Archives and Records Adminis- 8 tration for the transfer of permanent electronic 9 records— 10 (A) as set forth in— 11 (i) National Archives and Records Ad- 12 ministration Bulletin 2014–04: Revised 13 Format Guidance for the Transfer of Per- 14 manent Electronic Records, dated January 15 31, 2014, or any successor bulletin; and 16 (ii) National Archives and Records 17 Administration Bulletin 2015–04: Metada- 18 ta Guidance for the Transfer of Permanent 19 Electronic Records, dated September 15, 20 2015, or any successor bulletin; and 21 (B) that complies with the requirements of 22 the Office of Management and Budget Memo- 23 randum on the Managing Government Records 24 Directive, dated August 24, 2012 (M–12–18), 25 or any successor memorandum; 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S196.RS S196 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 196 RS (2) the term ‘‘agency’’— 1 (A) means— 2 (i) a Federal agency, as defined in 3 section 102 of title 40, United States 4 Code; and 5 (ii) an agency, as defined in section 6 552(f)(1) of title 5, United States Code; 7 and 8 (B) does not include the Government Ac- 9 countability Office; 10 (3) the term ‘‘congressionally mandated report’’ 11 means a report that is required to be submitted to 12 either House of Congress or any committee of Con- 13 gress, or subcommittee thereof, by a statute, resolu- 14 tion, or conference report that accompanies legisla- 15 tion enacted into law; 16 (4)(3) the term ‘‘congressional office’’ means— 17 (A) an office of any committee or sub- 18 committee of the Senate or the House of Rep- 19 resentatives, including any select or special 20 committee; 21 (B) an office of any individual Senator or 22 Member of the House of Representatives; 23 (C) a leadership office of the Senate or the 24 House of Representatives; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S196.RS S196 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 196 RS (D) Congress or any House of Congress; 1 (4) the term ‘‘congressionally mandated report’’ 2 means a report that is required to be submitted to ei- 3 ther House of Congress or any committee of Congress, 4 or subcommittee thereof, by a statute, resolution, or 5 conference report that accompanies legislation enacted 6 into law; 7 (5) the term ‘‘open format’’ means a file format 8 for storing digital data based on an underlying open 9 standard that— 10 (A) is not encumbered by any restrictions 11 that would impede reuse; and 12 (B) is based on an underlying open data 13 standard that is maintained by a standards or- 14 ganization; 15 (6) the term ‘‘recorded information’’ includes 16 all recorded information, regardless of form or char- 17 acteristics; and 18 (7) the term ‘‘structured data’’ has the meaning 19 given the term in National Archives and Records 20 Administration Bulletin 2014–04: Revised Format 21 Guidance for the Transfer of Permanent Electronic 22 Records, dated January 31, 2014, or any successor 23 bulletin. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S196.RS S196 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 196 RS SEC. 3. ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION OF REPORTS. 1 (a) IN GENERAL.—On and after the date that is 30 2 days after the date of enactment of this Act, except as 3 provided in subsection (c) and to the extent specifically 4 required otherwise by law— 5 (1) any report or other recorded information re- 6 quired to be submitted to Congress by an agency 7 under any provision of law, and any response from 8 an agency to a request by a congressional office for 9 any report or other recorded information, shall only 10 be transmitted by the agency in an acceptable elec- 11 tronic format; and 12 (2) any structured data included in or with, or 13 used to create any chart included in or with, any re- 14 port or other recorded information described in 15 paragraph (1) shall be transmitted by the agency in 16 an acceptable electronic format for structured data. 17 (b) FORMAT PREFERENCE.— 18 (1) IN GENERAL.—In transmitting a report or 19 other recorded information described in subsection 20 (a) to a congressional office, an agency shall, to the 21 extent possible, provide the original electronic file or 22 an electronically converted file rather than a scanned 23 document, even if the document includes a signa- 24 ture. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S196.RS S196 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •S 196 RS (2) SEARCHABLE SCANNED DOCUMENTS.— 1 Each scanned document that is transmitted by an 2 agency to a congressional office shall be made 3 searchable via optical character recognition or other 4 means. 5 (c) OTHER FORMATS.—An agency that is required to 6 transmit a report or other recorded information described 7 in subsection (a) to a congressional office in an acceptable 8 electronic format may, if requested by, or otherwise agreed 9 to with, the congressional office— 10 (1) transmit the report or other recorded infor- 11 mation to the congressional office— 12 (A) in an electronic format that is not an 13 acceptable electronic format; or 14 (B) as a physical document; 15 (2) allow the report or other recorded informa- 16 tion to be reviewed in camera; or 17 (3) not transmit the report or other recorded 18 information. 19 (d) ROUTING.—If a congressional office designates a 20 method to receive reports and other recorded information 21 described in subsection (a) from agencies, each agency 22 shall transmit a report or other recorded information to 23 the congressional office using the designated method, un- 24 less otherwise requested by the congressional office. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S196.RS S196 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •S 196 RS SEC. 4. PUBLISHING OF REPORTS. 1 (a) IN GENERAL.—On and after the date that is 30 2 days after the date of enactment of this Act, any congres- 3 sionally mandated report, and any structured data de- 4 scribed in section 3(a)(2) and any transmittal letter asso- 5 ciated with the report, shall be posted on the public 6 website of the agency submitting the report— 7 (1) in an acceptable electronic format; 8 (2) in an open format; 9 (3) in accordance with the format preference 10 described in section 3(b); and 11 (4) at a uniform resource locator or similar lo- 12 cator that is changed as infrequently as possible. 13 (b) FREE ACCESS.—No fee, registration requirement, 14 or other access limitation shall be imposed on access to 15 any report required to be posted under subsection (a). 16 (c) OPEN ACCESS.—All reports, data, and other in- 17 formation posted under this section shall be available to 18 the public without restrictions, including restrictions that 19 would impede reuse of any or all elements of the informa- 20 tion. 21 (d) EASE OF ACCESS.—Each agency shall provide in 22 tabular form a list of all reports, data, or other informa- 23 tion required to be posted under subsection (a) that— 24 (1) is— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S196.RS S196 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 8 •S 196 RS (A) accessible via a link posted at the foot- 1 er of the public website of the agency; 2 (B) accessible at a uniform resource loca- 3 tor or similar locator that is changed as infre- 4 quently as practicable; 5 (C) in a structure that is changed as infre- 6 quently as practicable and is as consistent with 7 the structure used by other agencies as prac- 8 ticable; 9 (D) searchable and sortable by, at a min- 10 imum— 11 (i) the title of the report; 12 (ii) the date of publication of the re- 13 port; 14 (iii) each congressional office receiving 15 the report, if applicable; 16 (iv) the statute, resolution, or con- 17 ference report requiring the report; 18 (v) the metadata elements of the re- 19 port; 20 (vi) a unique alphanumeric identifier 21 for the report that is consistent across re- 22 port editions; and 23 (vii) the serial number, Super- 24 intendent of Documents number, or other 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S196.RS S196 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 9 •S 196 RS identification number for the report, if ap- 1 plicable; 2 (E) available in an acceptable electronic 3 format for structured data, to allow for auto- 4 mated parsing of all data described in subpara- 5 graph (D) and download of all reports and as- 6 sociated structured data; and 7 (F) updated immediately upon posting of 8 the report, data, or other information; and 9 (2) contains links to download each report, 10 data, and other information. 11 (e) TIMELY ACCESS.—An agency shall post a report, 12 data, or other information required to be posted by the 13 agency under subsection (a) not later than 30 days after 14 the date on which the agency submits the report, data, 15 or other information to Congress. 16 (f) REMOVING AND ALTERING REPORTS.—An agency 17 may only change or remove, with the exception of technical 18 changes, a report, data, or other information required to 19 be posted by the agency under subsection (a) if— 20 (1) the head of the agency consults with each 21 congressional office to which the report, data, or 22 other information is submitted; and 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S196.RS S196 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 10 •S 196 RS (2) Congress enacts a joint resolution author- 1 izing the changing or removal of the report, data, or 2 other information. 3 (g) RELATION TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION 4 ACT AND REDACTION.— 5 (1) IN GENERAL.—Nothing in this section shall 6 be construed to require the disclosure of information 7 or records that are— 8 (A) exempt from disclosure under section 9 552 of title 5, United States Code (commonly 10 known as the ‘‘Freedom of Information Act’’); 11 or 12 (B) otherwise prohibited from disclosure by 13 law. 14 (2) REDACTION OF REPORT.—With respect to 15 each report, data, or other information required to 16 be posted by an agency under subsection (a), the 17 head of the agency shall— 18 (A) redact any information that may not 19 be disclosed under section 552(b) of title 5, 20 United States Code, or is otherwise prohibited 21 from disclosure by law, before posting the re- 22 port; 23 (B) only redact the information described 24 in subparagraph (A); 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S196.RS S196 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 11 •S 196 RS (C) identify where each redaction is made 1 in the report, data, or other information; and 2 (D) identify the exemption under such sec- 3 tion 552(b) under which each redaction is 4 made. 5 (h) WITHHOLDING INFORMATION.—An agency— 6 (1) may withhold information otherwise re- 7 quired to be disclosed under this section only if— 8 (A) the agency reasonably foresees that 9 disclosure would harm an interest protected by 10 an exemption described in section 552(b) of 11 title 5, United States Code; or 12 (B) disclosure is prohibited by law; and 13 (2) shall— 14 (A) consider whether partial disclosure of 15 information otherwise required to be disclosed 16 under this section is possible whenever the 17 agency determines that a full disclosure of the 18 information is not possible; and 19 (B) take reasonable steps necessary to seg- 20 regate and release nonexempt information. 21 (i) OPEN DATA REGISTRATION.—Not later than 30 22 days after the date of enactment of this Act, each agency 23 shall make the list described in subsection (d) available 24 to the public on Data.gov or a successor Federal open gov- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S196.RS S196 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 12 •S 196 RS ernment data site, in a structure and format used by that 1 system. 2 (j) SUBMISSION OF REPORTS.—Nothing in this sec- 3 tion shall be construed to— 4 (1) relieve an agency of any other requirement 5 to publish a congressionally mandated report on the 6 website of the agency or otherwise submit a congres- 7 sionally mandated report to Congress or specific 8 committees or subcommittees of Congress; or 9 (2) impose any additional requirement to redact 10 any submission to or withhold information from any 11 congressional office. 12 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S196.RS S196 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S196.RS S196 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS Calendar No. 68 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 196 [Report No. 116–32] A BILL To save taxpayer money and improve the efficiency and speed of intragovernmental correspondence, and for other purposes. APRIL 10, 2019 Reported with amendments VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00014 Fmt 6651 Sfmt 6651 E:\BILLS\S196.RS S196 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS