II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 2163 

To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a plan to reduce 

the backlog of requests for information made to the Department of 

Veterans Affairs pursuant to section 552 of title 5, United States Code, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 22, 2021 

Ms. HASSAN (for herself and Mr. TILLIS) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

A BILL 

To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a 

plan to reduce the backlog of requests for information 

made to the Department of Veterans Affairs pursuant 

to section 552 of title 5, United States Code, 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 ‘‘VA FOIA Reform Act 

5 of 2021’’. 


pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
2 

•S 2163 IS

1 SEC. 2. PLAN FOR REDUCTION OF BACKLOG OF FOIA RE2 QUESTS. 

3 (a) PLAN.—The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall 

4 establish and carry out a plan for the Secretary to meet, 

5 by not later than five years after the date of the enactment 

6 of this Act, the requirements of section 552 of title 5, 

7 United States Code, with respect to providing documents 

8 and information under such section within the timeframes 

9 required by such section. The plan shall include the fol10 lowing: 

11 (1) Improving and acquiring technology, includ12 ing with respect to searching email and other elec13 tronic information, and the timelines for such im14 provement, to ensure that the information tech15 nology of the Department of Veterans Affairs is ca16 pable of carrying out the plan. 

17 (2) Identification of efficient procedures, poli18 cies, and systems of the Department that could be 

19 developed to allow employees of the Department re20 sponsible for replying to requests under such section 

21 552 to search and review documents rather than 

22 other employees of the Department. 

23 (3) A schedule for carrying out the plan, includ24 ing key milestones and metrics. 

25 (b) COMPLIANCE ASSESSMENT.—The Secretary shall 

26 request the Director of the Office of Government InformaVerDate Sep 11 2014 16:42 Jun 25, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2163.IS S2163

pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
3 

•S 2163 IS

1 tion Services of the National Archives and Records Admin2 istration to conduct an assessment of the compliance by 

3 the Department of Veterans Affairs with section 552 of 

4 title 5, United States Code. 

5 (c) REPORTS.— 

6 (1) INITIAL REPORT.—Not later than 180 days 

7 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec8 retary shall submit to the Committees on Veterans’ 

9 Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Sen10 ate a report on implementing subsections (a) and 

11 (b). The report shall include the following: 

12 (A) The plan established under subsection 

13 (a). 

14 (B) An analysis of the root causes of the 

15 backlog of FOIA requests. 

16 (C) Recommendations with respect to any 

17 additional resources or legislative action the 

18 Secretary determines necessary for such imple19 mentation. 

20 (2) ANNUAL REPORTS.—During the five-year 

21 period following the date of the enactment of this 

22 Act, the Secretary shall submit to the Committees 

23 on Veterans’ Affairs of the House of Representatives 

24 and the Senate annual reports on— 


pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
4 

•S 2163 IS

1 (A) carrying out the plan under subsection 

2 (a), including any updates or changes made to 

3 the plan; and 

4 (B) the compliance by the Department as 

5 described in subsection (b). 

6 (3) PUBLICATION.—The Secretary shall make 

7 publicly available on the internet website of the De8 partment the reports under paragraphs (1) and (2) 

9 by not later than 30 days after the date on which 

10 the Secretary submits the reports to the Committees 

11 on Veterans’ Affairs of the House of Representatives 

12 and the Senate. 

13 (d) BACKLOG OF FOIA REQUESTS DEFINED.—In 

14 this section, the term ‘‘backlog of FOIA requests’’ means 

15 the number of requests, as reported by the Secretary of 

16 Veterans Affairs to the Attorney General in the Annual 

17 FOIA Report, made by individuals to the Secretary pursu18 ant to section 552 of title 5, United States Code, for docu19 ments or information that the Secretary has not fulfilled 

20 or provided a response to the individual. 

Æ 


pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS