118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 9566 

AN ACT 

To require governmentwide source code sharing, and for 

other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Source code Harmoni3 zation And Reuse in Information Technology Act’’ or the 

4 ‘‘SHARE IT Act’’. 

5 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

6 In this Act: 

7 (1) AGENCY.—The term ‘‘agency’’ has the 

8 meaning given that term in section 3502 of title 44, 

9 United States Code. 

10 (2) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT11 TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com12 mittees’’ means the Committee on Homeland Secu13 rity and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the 

14 Committee on Oversight and Accountability of the 

15 House of Representatives. 

16 (3) CUSTOM-DEVELOPED CODE.—The term 

17 ‘‘custom-developed code’’— 

18 (A) means source code that is— 

19 (i) produced in the performance of a 

20 contract with an agency or is otherwise ex21 clusively funded by the Federal Govern22 ment; or 

23 (ii) developed by a Federal employee 

24 as part of the official duties of the em25 ployee; 

26 (B) includes— 
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1 (i) source code, or segregable portions 

2 of source code, for which the Federal Gov3 ernment could obtain unlimited rights 

4 under part 27 of the Federal Acquisition 

5 Regulation or any relevant supplemental 

6 acquisition regulations of an agency; and 

7 (ii) source code written for a software 

8 project, module, plugin, script, middleware, 

9 or application programming interface; and 

10 (C) does not include— 

11 (i) source code that is solely explor12 atory or disposable in nature, including 

13 source code written by a developer experi14 menting with a new language or library; or 

15 (ii) commercial computer software, 

16 commercial off-the-shelf software, or con17 figuration scripts for such software. 

18 (4) FEDERAL EMPLOYEE.—The term ‘‘Federal 

19 employee’’ has the meaning given the term in section 

20 2105(a) of title 5, United States Code. 

21 (5) METADATA.—The term ‘‘metadata’’, with 

22 respect to custom-developed code— 

23 (A) has the meaning given that term in 

24 section 3502 of title 44, United States Code; 

25 and 
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1 (B) includes— 

2 (i) information on whether the cus3 tom-developed code was— 

4 (I) produced pursuant to a con5 tract; or 

6 (II) shared in a public or private 

7 repository; 

8 (ii) any contract number under which 

9 the custom-developed code was produced; 

10 and 

11 (iii) any hyperlink to the repository in 

12 such the code was shared. 

13 (6) PRIVATE REPOSITORY.—The term ‘‘private 

14 repository’’ means a software storage location— 

15 (A) that contains source code, documenta16 tion, configuration scripts, as appropriate, revi17 sion history, and other files; and 

18 (B) access to which is restricted to only 

19 authorized users. 

20 (7) PUBLIC REPOSITORY.—The term ‘‘public 

21 repository’’ means a software storage location— 

22 (A) that contains source code, documenta23 tion, configuration scripts, as appropriate, revi24 sion history, and other files; and 

25 (B) access to which is open to the public. 
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1 (8) SOFTWARE.—The term ‘‘software’’ has the 

2 meaning given the term ‘‘computer software’’ in sec3 tion 2.101 of title 48, Code of Federal Regulations, 

4 or any successor regulation. 

5 (9) SOURCE CODE.—The term ‘‘source code’’ 

6 means a collection of computer commands written in 

7 a computer programming language that a computer 

8 can execute as a piece of software. 

9 SEC. 3. SOFTWARE REUSE. 

10 (a) SHARING.—Not later than 210 days after the 

11 date of enactment of this Act, the head of each agency 

12 shall ensure that the custom-developed code of the agency 

13 and other key technical components of the code (including 

14 documentation, data models, schemas, metadata, architec15 ture designs, configuration scripts, and artifacts required 

16 to develop, build, test, and deploy the code) of the code 

17 are— 

18 (1) stored at not less than 1 public repository 

19 or private repository; 

20 (2) accessible to Federal employees via proce21 dures developed under subsection (d)(1)(A)(ii)(III); 

22 and 

23 (3) owned by the agency. 

24 (b) SOFTWARE REUSE RIGHTS IN PROCUREMENT

25 CONTRACTS.—The head of an agency that enters into a 
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1 contract for the custom development of software shall ac2 quire and exercise rights sufficient to enable the govern3 mentwide access to, sharing of, use of, and modification 

4 of any custom-developed code created in the development 

5 of such software. 

6 (c) DISCOVERY.—Not later than 210 days after the 

7 date of enactment of this Act, the head of each agency 

8 shall make metadata created on or after such date for the 

9 custom-developed code of the agency publicly accessible. 

10 (d) ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISMS.— 

11 (1) AGENCY CIOS.—Not later than 180 days 

12 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Chief In13 formation Officer of each agency, in consultation 

14 with the Chief Acquisition Officer, or similar official, 

15 of the agency and the Administrator of the Office of 

16 Electronic Government, shall develop an agency-wide 

17 policy that— 

18 (A) implements the requirements of this 

19 Act, including— 

20 (i) ensuring that custom-developed 

21 code follows the best practices established 

22 by the Director of the Office and Manage23 ment and Budget under paragraph (3) for 

24 operating repositories and version control 

25 systems to keep track of changes and to 
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1 facilitate collaboration among multiple de2 velopers; and 

3 (ii) managing the sharing of custom4 developed code under subsection (b), and 

5 the public accessibility of metadata under 

6 subsection (c), including developing— 

7 (I) procedures to determine 

8 whether any custom-developed code 

9 meets the conditions under section 

10 4(b) for an exemption under this Act; 

11 (II) procedures for making 

12 metadata for custom-developed code 

13 publicly accessible pursuant to sub14 section (c); 

15 (III) procedures for Federal em16 ployees to gain access to public reposi17 tories and private repositories that 

18 contain custom developed source code; 

19 and 

20 (IV) standardized reporting prac21 tices across the agency to capture key 

22 information relating to a contract 

23 under which custom-developed source 

24 code was produced for reporting sta25 tistics about the contract; and 
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1 (B) corrects or amends any policies of the 

2 agency that are inconsistent with the require3 ments of this Act. 

4 (2) ADMINISTRATOR OF THE OFFICE OF ELEC5 TRONIC GOVERNMENT.— 

6 (A) MINIMUM STANDARD REPORTING RE7 QUIREMENTS.—Not later than 120 days after 

8 the date of enactment of this Act, the Adminis9 trator of the Office of Electronic Government 

10 shall establish minimum standard reporting re11 quirements for the Chief Information Officers 

12 of agencies, which shall include information re13 lating to— 

14 (i) measuring the frequency of reuse 

15 of code, including access and modification 

16 under subsection (b); 

17 (ii) whether the shared code is main18 tained; 

19 (iii) whether there is a feedback mech20 anism for improvements to or community 

21 development of the shared code; and 

22 (iv) the number and circumstances of 

23 all exemptions granted under section 

24 4(a)(2). 

25 (B) REPORTING REQUIREMENT.— 
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1 (i) REQUIREMENT.—Not later than 1 

2 year after the date of the enactment of this 

3 Act, and annually thereafter, the Adminis4 trator of the Office of Electronic Govern5 ment shall publish on a centralized website 

6 a report on the implementation of this Act 

7 that includes— 

8 (I) a complete list of all exemp9 tions granted under section 4(a)(2); 

10 and 

11 (II) information showing whether 

12 each agency has updated the acquisi13 tion and other policies of the agency 

14 to be compliant with this Act. 

15 (ii) OPEN GOVERNMENT DATA

16 ASSET.—The report under clause (i) shall 

17 be maintained as an open Government 

18 data asset (as defined in section 3502 of 

19 title 44, United States Code). 

20 (3) GUIDANCE.—The Director of the Office of 

21 Management and Budget shall issue guidance, con22 sistent with the purpose of this Act, that establishes 

23 best practices and uniform procedures across agen24 cies for the purposes of implementing this sub25 section. 
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1 SEC. 4. EXEMPTIONS. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.— 

3 (1) AUTOMATIC.— 

4 (A) IN GENERAL.—This Act shall not 

5 apply to classified source code or source code 

6 developed primarily for use in a national secu7 rity system (as defined in section 11103 of title 

8 40, United States Code). 

9 (B) NATIONAL SECURITY.—An exemption 

10 from the requirements under section 3 shall 

11 apply to classified source code or source code 

12 developed— 

13 (i) primarily for use in a national se14 curity system (as defined in section 11103 

15 of title 40, United States Code); or 

16 (ii) by an agency, or part of an agen17 cy, that is an element of the intelligence 

18 community (as defined in section 3(4) of 

19 the National Security Act of 1947 (50 

20 U.S.C. 3003(4)). 

21 (C) FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT.—An 

22 exemption from the requirements under section 

23 3 shall apply to source code the disclosure of 

24 which is exempt under section 552(b) of title 5, 

25 United States Code (commonly known as the 

26 ‘‘Freedom of Information Act’’). 
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1 (2) DISCRETIONARY.— 

2 (A) EXEMPTION AND GUIDANCE.— 

3 (i) IN GENERAL.—The Chief Informa4 tion Officer of an agency, in consultation 

5 with the Federal Privacy Council, or any 

6 successor thereto, may exempt from the re7 quirements of section 3 any source code for 

8 which a limited exemption described in 

9 subparagraph (B) applies. 

10 (ii) GUIDANCE REQUIRED.—The Fed11 eral Privacy Council shall provide guidance 

12 to the Chief Information Officer of each 

13 agency relating to the limited exemption 

14 described in subparagraph (B)(ii) to en15 sure consistent application of this para16 graph across agencies. 

17 (B) LIMITED EXEMPTIONS.—The limited 

18 exemptions described in this paragraph are the 

19 following: 

20 (i) The head of the agency is prohib21 ited from providing the source code to an22 other individual or entity under another 

23 Federal law or regulation, including 

24 under— 
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1 (I) the Export Administration 

2 Regulations; 

3 (II) the International Traffic in 

4 Arms Regulations; 

5 (III) the regulations of the 

6 Transportation Security Administra7 tion relating to the protection of Sen8 sitive Security Information; and 

9 (IV) the Federal laws and regula10 tions governing the sharing of classi11 fied information not covered by the 

12 exemption in paragraph (1). 

13 (ii) The sharing or public accessibility 

14 of the source code would create an identifi15 able risk to the privacy of an individual. 

16 (b) REPORTS REQUIRED.— 

17 (1) AGENCY REPORTING.—Not later than De18 cember 31 of each year, the Chief Information Offi19 cer of an agency shall submit to the Administrator 

20 of the Office of Electronic Government a report of 

21 the source code of the agency to which an exemption 

22 under paragraph (1) or (2) of subsection (a) applied 

23 during the fiscal year ending on September 30 of 

24 that year with a brief narrative justification of each 

25 exemption. 
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1 (2) ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later 

2 than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, 

3 and annually thereafter, the Administrator of the 

4 Office of Electronic Government shall submit to the 

5 appropriate congressional committees a report on all 

6 exemptions granted under paragraph (1) or (2) of 

7 subsection (a) by each agency, including a compila8 tion of all information, including the narrative jus9 tification, relating to each such exemption. 

10 (3) FORM.—The reports under paragraphs (1) 

11 and (2) shall be submitted in unclassified form, with 

12 a classified annex as appropriate. 

13 SEC. 5. GAO REPORT. 

14 Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment 

15 of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States 

16 shall submit to Congress a report that includes an assess17 ment of the implementation of this Act. 

18 SEC. 6. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 

19 Nothing in this Act may be construed as requiring 

20 the disclosure of information or records that are exempt 

21 from public disclosure under section 552 of title 5, United 

22 States Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Freedom of Infor23 mation Act’’). 
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1 SEC. 7. APPLICATION. 

2 This Act shall apply to custom-developed code that 

3 is developed or revised— 

4 (1) by a Federal employee not less than 180 

5 days after the date of enactment of this Act; or 

6 (2) under a contract awarded pursuant to a so7 licitation issued not less than 180 days after the 

8 date of enactment of this Act. 

9 SEC. 8. REVISION OF FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION. 

10 Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 

11 of this Act, the Federal Acquisition Regulation shall be 

12 revised as necessary to implement the provisions of this 

13 Act. 

14 SEC. 9. NO ADDITIONAL FUNDING. 

15 No additional funds are authorized to be appro16 priated to carry out this Act. 

Passed the House of Representatives December 4, 

2024. 

Attest: 

Clerk. 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 9566 

AN ACT 

To require governmentwide source code sharing, 

and for other purposes.