Congressional Subpoena Compliance and Enforcement Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3732 To amend the Revised Statutes of the United States and title 28, United States Code, to enhance compliance with requests for information pursu- ant to legislative power under Article I of the Constitution, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JULY 12, 2019 Ms. DEAN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To amend the Revised Statutes of the United States and title 28, United States Code, to enhance compliance with requests for information pursuant to legislative power under Article I of the Constitution, and for other pur- poses. 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 ‘‘Congressional Sub- 4 poena Compliance and Enforcement Act of 2019’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:38 Jul 25, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3732.IH H3732 Pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 3732 IH SEC. 2. ENFORCEMENT OF CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS. 1 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 85 of title 28, United 2 States Code, is amended by inserting after section 1365 3 the following: 4 ‘‘§ 1365a. Congressional actions against subpoena re- 5 cipients 6 ‘‘(a) SPECIAL RULES.—In any civil action brought by 7 the United States House of Representatives, the United 8 States Senate, or a committee or subcommittee thereof, 9 against the recipient of a subpoena to secure declaratory, 10 injunctive, or other relief as may be appropriate con- 11 cerning the failure to comply with a subpoena issued by 12 a congressional committee or subcommittee, the following 13 rules shall apply: 14 ‘‘(1) The action shall be filed in a United 15 States district court of competent jurisdiction. 16 ‘‘(2) It shall be the duty of the United States 17 district courts, the United States courts of appeal, 18 and the Supreme Court of the United States to ad- 19 vance on the docket and to expedite to the greatest 20 possible extent the disposition of any such action 21 and appeal. 22 ‘‘(3) If a three-judge court is expressly re- 23 quested by the plaintiff in the initial pleading, the 24 action shall be heard by a three-judge court con- 25 vened pursuant to section 2284 of title 28, United 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:38 Jul 25, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3732.IH H3732 Pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 3732 IH States Code, and shall be reviewable only by appeal 1 directly to the Supreme Court of the United States. 2 Such appeal shall be taken by the filing of a notice 3 of appeal within 10 days, and the filing of a jurisdic- 4 tional statement within 30 days, of the entry of the 5 final decision. 6 ‘‘(b) MONETARY PENALTIES IN CASES INVOLVING 7 GOVERNMENT AGENCIES.— 8 ‘‘(1) The court may impose monetary penalties 9 directly against the head of a Government agency or 10 a component thereof held to have willfully failed to 11 comply with any part of a congressional subpoena. 12 ‘‘(2) No appropriated funds, funds provided 13 from any accounts in the Treasury, funds derived 14 from the collection of fees, or other Government 15 funds shall be used to pay any monetary penalty im- 16 posed by the court pursuant to this section. 17 ‘‘(c) WAIVER OF PRIVILEGE.—Any assertion of a 18 privilege or other ground for noncompliance (whether stat- 19 utory, common law, or otherwise) asserted by the recipient 20 of a congressional subpoena may be determined to have 21 been waived as to any particular record withheld from pro- 22 duction if the court finds that the recipient failed in a 23 timely manner to comply with the requirement of section 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:38 Jul 25, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3732.IH H3732 Pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 3732 IH 105 of the Revised Statutes of the United States that it 1 produce a privilege log with respect to such record. 2 ‘‘(d) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this section, the 3 term ‘Government agency’ means an executive department 4 listed in section 101 of title 5, United States Code, an 5 independent establishment, commission, board, bureau, di- 6 vision, or office in the executive branch, or other agency 7 of the Federal Government, including wholly or partly 8 owned Government corporations.’’. 9 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 10 for chapter 85 of title 28, United States Code, is amended 11 by inserting after the item relating to section 1365 the 12 following: 13 ‘‘1365a. Congressional actions against subpoena recipients.’’. SEC. 3. COMPLIANCE WITH CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS. 14 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 7 of title II of the Re- 15 vised Statutes of the United States (2 U.S.C. 191 et seq.) 16 is amended by adding at the end the following: 17 ‘‘SEC. 105. RESPONSE TO CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS. 18 ‘‘(a) SUBPOENA BY CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE.— 19 Any recipient of any subpoena from a congressional com- 20 mittee or subcommittee shall appear and testify or 21 produce records in a manner consistent with the subpoena 22 and this section. 23 ‘‘(b) CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS FOR RECORDS.— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:38 Jul 25, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3732.IH H3732 Pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 3732 IH ‘‘(1) IDENTIFICATION OF RECORDS WITH- 1 HELD.—In the case of a record that is withheld, in 2 whole or in part, by the subpoena recipient, the sub- 3 poena recipient shall provide a log containing the 4 following information concerning such record: 5 ‘‘(A) An express assertion and description 6 of the legal basis asserted for withholding the 7 record. 8 ‘‘(B) The type of record. 9 ‘‘(C) The general subject matter. 10 ‘‘(D) The date, author, and addressee. 11 ‘‘(E) The relationship of the author and 12 addressee to each other. 13 ‘‘(F) The custodian of the record. 14 ‘‘(G) Any other descriptive information 15 that may be produced or disclosed regarding 16 the record that will enable the congressional 17 committee or subcommittee issuing the sub- 18 poena to assess the legal basis asserted for 19 withholding the record. 20 ‘‘(2) MISSING RECORDS.—In the case of any 21 record responsive to the subpoena submitted under 22 paragraph (1) that was, but no longer is, in the pos- 23 session, custody, or control of the subpoena recipi- 24 ent, the subpoena recipient shall identify the record 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:38 Jul 25, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3732.IH H3732 Pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 3732 IH (including the date, author, subject, and each recipi- 1 ent of the record) and explain the circumstances 2 under which the record ceased to be in the posses- 3 sion, custody, or control of the subpoena recipient. 4 ‘‘(3) ELECTRONIC RECORDS.—Electronic 5 records shall be produced pursuant to this sub- 6 section in their native or original file format. Elec- 7 tronic records shall be delivered on a storage device 8 (such as compact disk, memory stick, or thumb 9 drive) and, to the extent feasible, shall be organized, 10 identified, and indexed electronically and shall in- 11 clude an index describing the contents of the produc- 12 tion. 13 ‘‘(c) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section the 14 term ‘record’ includes any books, papers, documents, data, 15 or other objects requested in a subpoena issued by a con- 16 gressional committee or subcommittee.’’. 17 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 18 for chapter 7 of title II of the Revised Statutes of the 19 United States is amended by adding at the end the fol- 20 lowing: 21 ‘‘105. Response to congressional subpoenas.’’. SEC. 4. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 22 Nothing in this Act shall be interpreted to diminish 23 Congress’ inherent authority or previously established 24 methods and practices for enforcing compliance with con- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:38 Jul 25, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3732.IH H3732 Pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 3732 IH gressional subpoenas, nor shall anything in this Act be in- 1 terpreted to establish Congress’ acceptance of any as- 2 serted privilege or other legal basis for noncompliance with 3 a congressional subpoena. 4 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:38 Jul 25, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H3732.IH H3732 Pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS