I 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 9566 

To require governmentwide source code sharing, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 12, 2024 

Mr. LANGWORTHY (for himself and Mr. TIMMONS) introduced the following 

bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability 

A BILL 

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, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Source code Harmoni5 zation And Reuse in Information Technology Act’’ or the 

6 ‘‘SHARE IT Act’’. 

7 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

8 In this Act: 

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

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

11 United States Code. 


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1 (2) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT2 TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com3 mittees’’ means the Committee on Homeland Secu4 rity and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the 

5 Committee on Oversight and Accountability of the 

6 House of Representatives. 

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

8 ‘‘custom-developed code’’— 

9 (A) means source code that is— 

10 (i) produced in the performance of a 

11 contract with an agency or is otherwise ex12 clusively funded by the Federal Govern13 ment; or 

14 (ii) developed by a Federal employee 

15 as part of the official duties of the em16 ployee; 

17 (B) includes— 

18 (i) source code, or segregable portions 

19 of source code, for which the Federal Gov20 ernment could obtain unlimited rights 

21 under part 27 of the Federal Acquisition 

22 Regulation or any relevant supplemental 

23 acquisition regulations of an agency; and 


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1 (ii) source code written for a software 

2 project, module, plugin, script, middleware, 

3 or application programming interface; and 

4 (C) does not include— 

5 (i) source code that is solely explor6 atory or disposable in nature, including 

7 source code written by a developer experi8 menting with a new language or library; or 

9 (ii) commercial computer software, 

10 commercial off-the-shelf software, or con11 figuration scripts for such software. 

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

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

14 2105(a) of title 5, United States Code. 

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

16 respect to custom-developed code— 

17 (A) has the meaning given that term in 

18 section 3502 of title 44, United States Code; 

19 and 

20 (B) includes— 

21 (i) information on whether the cus22 tom-developed code was— 

23 (I) produced pursuant to a con24 tract; or 


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1 (II) shared in a public or private 

2 repository; 

3 (ii) any contract number under which 

4 the custom-developed code was produced; 

5 and 

6 (iii) any hyperlink to the repository in 

7 such the code was shared. 

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

9 repository’’ means a software storage location— 

10 (A) that contains source code, documenta11 tion, and other files; and 

12 (B) access to which is restricted to only 

13 authorized users. 

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

15 repository’’ means a software storage location— 

16 (A) that contains source code, documenta17 tion, and other files; and 

18 (B) access to which is open to the public. 

19 (8) SOFTWARE.—The term ‘‘software’’ has the 

20 meaning given the term ‘‘computer software’’ in sec21 tion 2.101 of title 48, Code of Federal Regulations, 

22 or any successor regulation. 

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

24 means a collection of computer commands written in 


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1 a computer programming language that a computer 

2 can execute as a piece of software. 

3 SEC. 3. SOFTWARE REUSE. 

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

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

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

7 and other key technical components (including documenta8 tion, data models, schemas, metadata, and architecture 

9 designs) of the code is— 

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

11 or private repository; 

12 (2) accessible to Federal employees via proce13 dures developed under subsection (d)(1)(A)(ii)(III); 

14 and 

15 (3) owned by the agency. 

16 (b) SOFTWARE REUSE RIGHTS IN PROCUREMENT

17 CONTRACTS.—The head of an agency that enters into a 

18 contract for the custom development of software for use 

19 by the agency shall acquire and exercise rights sufficient 

20 to enable the governmentwide access to, sharing of, use 

21 of, and modification of any custom-developed code created 

22 in the development of such software. 

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

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


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

2 custom-developed code of the agency publicly accessible. 

3 (d) ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISMS.— 

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

5 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Chief In6 formation Officer of each agency, in consultation 

7 with the Chief Acquisition Officer, or similar official, 

8 of the agency and the Federal Chief Information Of9 ficer, shall develop an agency-wide policy that— 

10 (A) implements the requirements of this 

11 Act, including— 

12 (i) ensuring that custom-developed 

13 code follows the best practices established 

14 by the Director of the Office and Manage15 ment and Budget under paragraph (3) for 

16 operating repositories and version control 

17 systems to keep track of changes and to 

18 facilitate collaboration among multiple de19 velopers; and 

20 (ii) managing the sharing of custom21 developed code under subsection (b), and 

22 the public accessibility of metadata under 

23 subsection (c), including developing— 

24 (I) procedures to determine 

25 whether any custom-developed code 


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1 meets the conditions under section 

2 4(b) for an exemption under this Act; 

3 (II) procedures for making 

4 metadata for custom-developed code 

5 publicly accessible pursuant to sub6 section (c); 

7 (III) procedures for Federal em8 ployees to gain access to public reposi9 tories and private repositories that 

10 contain custom developed source code; 

11 and 

12 (IV) standardized reporting prac13 tices across the agency to capture key 

14 information relating to a contract 

15 under which custom-developed source 

16 code was produced for reporting sta17 tistics about the contract; and 

18 (B) corrects or amends any policies of the 

19 agency that are inconsistent with the require20 ments of this Act. 

21 (2) ADMINISTRATOR OF THE OFFICE OF ELEC22 TRONIC GOVERNMENT.— 

23 (A) MINIMUM STANDARD REPORTING RE24 QUIREMENTS.—Not later than 120 days after 

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1 trator of the Office of Electronic Government 

2 shall establish minimum standard reporting re3 quirements for the Chief Information Officers 

4 of agencies, which shall include information re5 lating to— 

6 (i) measuring the frequency of reuse 

7 of code, including access and modification 

8 under subsection (b); 

9 (ii) whether the shared code is main10 tained; 

11 (iii) whether there is a feedback mech12 anism for improvements to or community 

13 development of the shared code; and 

14 (iv) the number and circumstances of 

15 all exemptions granted under section 

16 4(a)(2). 

17 (B) ANNUAL REPORT.—Not later than 1 

18 year after the date of enactment of this Act, 

19 and annually thereafter, the Administrator of 

20 the Office of Electronic Government shall sub21 mit to Congress a report on the status of the 

22 implementation of this Act by each agency, in23 cluding— 

24 (i) a complete list of all exemptions 

25 granted under section 4(a)(2); and 


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1 (ii) a table showing whether each 

2 agency has updated the acquisition and 

3 other policies of the agency to be compliant 

4 with this Act. 

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

6 Management and Budget shall issue guidance, con7 sistent with the purpose of this Act, that establishes 

8 best practices and uniform procedures across agen9 cies for the purposes of implementing this sub10 section. 

11 SEC. 4. EXEMPTIONS. 

12 (a) IN GENERAL.— 

13 (1) AUTOMATIC.— 

14 (A) IN GENERAL.—This Act shall not 

15 apply to classified source code or source code 

16 developed primarily for use in a national secu17 rity system (as defined in section 11103 of title 

18 40, United States Code). 

19 (B) NATIONAL SECURITY.—An exemption 

20 from the requirements under section 3 shall 

21 apply to classified source code or source code 

22 developed— 

23 (i) primarily for use in a national se24 curity system (as defined in section 11103 

25 of title 40, United States Code); or 


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1 (ii) by an agency, or part of an agen2 cy, that is an element of the intelligence 

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

4 the National Security Act of 1947 (50 

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

6 (C) FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT.—An 

7 exemption from the requirements under section 

8 3 shall apply to source code the disclosure of 

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

10 United States Code (commonly known as the 

11 ‘‘Freedom of Information Act’’). 

12 (2) DISCRETIONARY.— 

13 (A) EXEMPTION AND GUIDANCE.— 

14 (i) IN GENERAL.—The Chief Informa15 tion Officer of an agency, in consultation 

16 with the Federal Privacy Council, or any 

17 successor thereto, may exempt from the re18 quirements of section 3 any source code for 

19 which a limited exemption described in 

20 subparagraph (B) applies. 

21 (ii) GUIDANCE REQUIRED.—The Fed22 eral Privacy Council shall provide guidance 

23 to the Chief Information Officer of each 

24 agency relating to the limited exemption 

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1 sure consistent application of this para2 graph across agencies. 

3 (B) LIMITED EXEMPTIONS.—The limited 

4 exemptions described in this paragraph are the 

5 following: 

6 (i) The head of the agency is prohib7 ited from providing the source code to an8 other individual or entity under another 

9 Federal law or regulation, including 

10 under— 

11 (I) the Export Administration 

12 Regulations; 

13 (II) the International Traffic in 

14 Arms Regulations; 

15 (III) the regulations of the 

16 Transportation Security Administra17 tion relating to the protection of Sen18 sitive Security Information; and 

19 (IV) the Federal laws and regula20 tions governing the sharing of classi21 fied information not covered by the 

22 exemption in paragraph (1). 

23 (ii) The sharing or public accessibility 

24 of the source code would create an identifi25 able risk to the privacy of an individual. 


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1 (b) REPORTS REQUIRED.— 

2 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than December 31 

3 of each year, the Chief Information Officer of an 

4 agency shall submit to the Administrator of the Of5 fice of Electronic Government a report of the source 

6 code of the agency to which an exemption under 

7 subsection (1) or (2) of subsection (a) applied dur8 ing the fiscal year ending on September 30 of that 

9 year with a brief narrative justification of each ex10 emption. 

11 (2) FORM.—The report under paragraph (1) 

12 shall be submitted in unclassified form, with a clas13 sified annex as appropriate. 

14 (3) ANNUAL REPORT.—Not later than 1 year 

15 after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually 

16 thereafter, the Administrator of the Office of Elec17 tronic Government shall submit to the appropriate 

18 congressional committees a report on the status of 

19 the implementation of this Act by each agency, in20 cluding— 

21 (A) a compilation of all information, in22 cluding a narrative justification, relating to 

23 each exemption granted under paragraph (1) or 

24 (2) of subsection (a); 


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1 (B) a table showing whether each agency 

2 has updated the acquisition and other policies 

3 of the agency to be compliant with this Act; 

4 (C) an evaluation of the compliance of the 

5 agency with the framework described in section 

6 3(d)(2)(A); and 

7 (D) a classified annex as appropriate. 

8 SEC. 5. GAO REPORT ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 

9 PRACTICES. 

10 (a) INITIAL REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after 

11 the date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 

12 of the United States shall submit to Congress a report 

13 that includes an assessment of— 

14 (1) any duplication in the procurement of soft15 ware by agencies, including estimates of the fre16 quency and dollar value of such duplication; 

17 (2) how source code sharing and open-source 

18 software collaboration can improve cybersecurity at 

19 agencies; 

20 (3) how the adoption of cloud-based software 

21 may support the heads of Federal agencies; and 

22 (4) how the acquisition of commercial software 

23 may support the heads of Federal agencies. 

24 (b) SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT.—Not later than 2 

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1 troller General of the United States shall submit to Con2 gress a report that includes an assessment of the imple3 mentation of this Act. 

4 SEC. 6. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 

5 Nothing in this Act may be construed as requiring 

6 the disclosure of information or records that are exempt 

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

8 States Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Freedom of Infor9 mation Act’’). 

10 SEC. 7. APPLICATION. 

11 This Act shall apply to custom-developed code that 

12 is developed or revised— 

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

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

15 (2) under a contract awarded pursuant to a so16 licitation issued not less than 180 days after the 

17 date of enactment of this Act. 

18 SEC. 8. NO ADDITIONAL FUNDING. 

19 No additional funds are authorized to be appro20 priated to carry out this Act. 

Æ 


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