Federal Travel Transparency Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 2665 To amend section 5707 of title 5, United States Code, to require the General Services Administration to make information regarding travel by the heads of Executive agencies and other individuals in senior positions publicly available. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES OCTOBER 22, 2019 Ms. DUCKWORTH (for herself, Mr. PETERS, Mr. CARPER, and Mr. WYDEN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs A BILL To amend section 5707 of title 5, United States Code, to require the General Services Administration to make in- formation regarding travel by the heads of Executive agencies and other individuals in senior positions publicly available. 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 ‘‘Federal Travel Trans- 4 parency Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:00 Oct 24, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2665.IS S2665 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 2665 IS SEC. 2. DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION REGARDING TRAV- 1 EL BY CERTAIN SENIOR OFFICIALS. 2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 5707 of title 5, United 3 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol- 4 lowing: 5 ‘‘(d) ADDITIONAL DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION 6 REGARDING TRAVEL BY CERTAIN SENIOR OFFICIALS.— 7 ‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection— 8 ‘‘(A) the term ‘Administrator’ means the 9 Administrator of General Services; 10 ‘‘(B) the term ‘covered individual’ means— 11 ‘‘(i) the head of an Executive agency; 12 or 13 ‘‘(ii) an individual serving in a posi- 14 tion at level I or II of the Executive Sched- 15 ule under section 5312 or 5313, respec- 16 tively; 17 ‘‘(C) the term ‘machine-readable form’ 18 means a format in which information or data 19 can be easily processed by a computer without 20 human intervention while ensuring no semantic 21 meaning is lost; 22 ‘‘(D) the term ‘open format’ means a tech- 23 nical format based on an underlying open 24 standard that is— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:00 Oct 24, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2665.IS S2665 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 2665 IS ‘‘(i) not encumbered by restrictions 1 that would impede use or reuse; and 2 ‘‘(ii) based on an underlying open 3 standard that is maintained by a standards 4 organization; and 5 ‘‘(E) the term ‘travel information website’ 6 means the website used by the Administrator to 7 make available information under paragraph 8 (2)(B)(i). 9 ‘‘(2) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF TRAVEL INFOR- 10 MATION FOR COVERED INDIVIDUALS.— 11 ‘‘(A) REPORTING.—Not later than 30 busi- 12 ness days after the end of each calendar quar- 13 ter, each Executive agency employing 1 or more 14 covered individuals who performed official travel 15 during the calendar quarter shall submit to the 16 Administrator data in machine-readable form 17 and open format regarding the travel by each 18 such covered individual during the calendar 19 quarter on a commercial aircraft, privately- 20 owned aircraft, or Government-owned or Gov- 21 ernment-leased aircraft, which shall include— 22 ‘‘(i) the duration of the travel; 23 ‘‘(ii) the destination or destinations of 24 the travel; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:00 Oct 24, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2665.IS S2665 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 2665 IS ‘‘(iii) the individuals in the travel 1 party; 2 ‘‘(iv) the justification for the travel; 3 ‘‘(v) the authorizing official who ap- 4 proved the travel; and 5 ‘‘(vi) the total cost to the Government 6 for— 7 ‘‘(I) the travel as a whole; 8 ‘‘(II) transportation during the 9 travel; and 10 ‘‘(III) lodging accommodations 11 during the travel. 12 ‘‘(B) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.— 13 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator 14 shall make available online to the public, at 15 no cost to access, the information provided 16 by Executive agencies to the Administrator 17 under subparagraph (A). 18 ‘‘(ii) NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMA- 19 TION.— 20 ‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—An Executive 21 agency may exclude national security 22 sensitive travel information from the 23 travel information submitted to the 24 Administrator if the Executive agency 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:00 Oct 24, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2665.IS S2665 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 2665 IS determines public online disclosure of 1 the national security sensitive travel 2 information would result in harm to 3 national security interests. 4 ‘‘(II) JUSTIFICATION.—Each Ex- 5 ecutive agency shall establish and pre- 6 serve an accurate record documenting 7 each instance in which the Executive 8 agency excluded national security sen- 9 sitive travel information from submis- 10 sion, as authorized in subclause (I), 11 which shall include information ex- 12 plaining how public online disclosure 13 of the national security sensitive trav- 14 el information would have resulted in 15 harm to national security interests. 16 ‘‘(C) USE OF EXISTING RESOURCES.—To 17 the maximum extent practicable, the Adminis- 18 trator shall use a website in existence on the 19 date of enactment of this subsection to carry 20 out this subsection. 21 ‘‘(3) REQUIREMENTS.—Not later than 30 busi- 22 ness days after the date on which the Administrator 23 receives information from an Executive agency re- 24 garding travel by a covered individual under para- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:00 Oct 24, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2665.IS S2665 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •S 2665 IS graph (2)(A), the Administrator shall make the in- 1 formation available on the travel information 2 website. 3 ‘‘(4) CLASSIFIED TRIPS.— 4 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Nothing in this sub- 5 section shall preclude an Executive agency from 6 excluding from the information submitted to the 7 Administrator information regarding classified 8 travel. 9 ‘‘(B) MAINTAINING OF INFORMATION.—An 10 Executive agency shall maintain information re- 11 lating to classified travel by a covered employee 12 until the end of the 2-year period beginning on 13 the date on which the classified travel con- 14 cludes. 15 ‘‘(5) AUDITING.—The Inspector General of 16 each Executive agency may, as determined appro- 17 priate by the Inspector General— 18 ‘‘(A) conduct and publish an audit of the 19 accuracy and completeness of information the 20 Executive agency provides to the Administrator 21 under paragraph (2)(A); 22 ‘‘(B) conduct an audit of determinations 23 by the Executive agency to exclude information 24 under paragraph (2)(B)(ii) to ensure each such 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:00 Oct 24, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2665.IS S2665 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •S 2665 IS decision was appropriate and justified in regard 1 to protecting national security interests from 2 harm that would have resulted from public on- 3 line disclosure; and 4 ‘‘(C) provide each committee of Congress 5 with jurisdiction over the activities of or appro- 6 priations for the Executive agency with written 7 notification if the Inspector General determines 8 that the Executive agency is improperly with- 9 holding, or failed to justify the withholding of, 10 information from the Administrator under para- 11 graph (2)(B)(ii).’’. 12 (b) RELATION TO OTHER REPORTING REQUIRE- 13 MENTS.—Nothing in the amendment made by subsection 14 (a) shall be construed to modify or supercede the reporting 15 requirements under the Federal Travel Regulation (in- 16 cluding the requirements relating to the Senior Federal 17 Travel report, or any successor thereto) or under any 18 other provision of law. 19 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:00 Oct 24, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S2665.IS S2665 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS