IIB 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1694 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

APRIL 28, 2017 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

AN ACT 

To require additional entities to be subject to the requirements of section 552 of title 5, United States Code 

(commonly referred to as the Freedom of Information 

Act), 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 ‘‘Fannie and Freddie 

3 Open Records Act of 2017’’. 

4 SEC. 2. APPLICABILITY OF FOIA. 

5 (a) APPLICABILITY TO GOVERNMENT SPONSORED

6 ENTITIES IN CONSERVATORSHIP.—Section 552 of title 5, 

7 United States Code (commonly referred to as the Freedom 

8 of Information Act), is amended by adding at the end the 

9 following new subsection: 

10 ‘‘(n)(1) This section shall apply to the Federal Na11 tional Mortgage Association and the Federal Home Loan 

12 Mortgage Corporation during any period either such en13 terprise is under conservatorship or receivership pursuant 

14 to section 1367 of the Federal Housing Enterprises Fi15 nancial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 (12 U.S.C. 

16 4617). 

17 ‘‘(2) For purposes of this subsection, the exemption 

18 described in subsection (b)(4), relating to trade secrets 

19 and commercial or financial information, shall apply with20 out regard to whether such information was obtained from 

21 a person outside the Federal National Mortgage Associa22 tion or the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, as 

23 the case may be.’’. 

24 (b) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act 

25 may be construed as precluding the application of any of 

26 the exemptions described in section 552 of title 5, United 


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1 States Code, to subsection (n) of such section, as added 

2 by subsection (a). 

3 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE; APPLICABILITY.—The amend4 ment made by subsection (a) shall be effective on the date 

5 that is six months after the date of the enactment of this 

6 Act and shall apply with respect to any request filed under 

7 section 552(a)(3) of title 5, United States Code, on or 

8 after such effective date, relating to any record created 

9 before, on, or after the date of the enactment of this Act. 

10 SEC. 3. COMMERCIAL REQUESTERS. 

11 For purposes of subsection (n) of section 552 of title 

12 5, United States Code, as added by section 2(a), each en13 terprise described in such subsection shall establish a fee 

14 schedule such that in the first year the fees collected from 

15 requests for records intended for a commercial use cover 

16 the costs of administering such subsection (n), which shall 

17 be estimated as $40,000,000 in the first year. In each sub18 sequent year, each such enterprise shall evaluate whether 

19 the fees collected under the prior year’s fee schedule were 

20 sufficient to recover all actual costs of administering sub21 section (n) and revise the fee schedule to recover the costs 

22 of administering subsection (n) in the following year and 

23 any outstanding costs of administering subsection (n) 

24 from the prior year not collected through fees in the prior 

25 year. Each such enterprise shall make the revised fee 


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1 schedule and a detailed explanation of the prior year’s 

2 costs and projections of future costs that were used to jus3 tify the fee schedule publicly available online for 10 days 

4 prior to the fee schedule going into effect. 

5 SEC. 4. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 

6 Nothing in this Act, or the amendment made by this 

7 Act, may be construed as precluding or restricting the dis8 closure of information regarding any proposed new prod9 uct or significant new product term prior to loan pur10 chasing, or substantive negotiation with an interested 

11 party regarding purchase of loans with such new product 

12 or significant new product term. 

Passed the House of Representatives April 27, 2017. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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