I 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 8335 

To amend the Revised Statutes of the United States and title 28, United 

States Code, to enhance compliance with requests for information pursuant to legislative power under Article I of the Constitution, and for 

other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 22, 2020 

Ms. DEAN (for herself and Mr. NADLER) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To amend the Revised Statutes of the United States and 

title 28, United States Code, to enhance compliance with 

requests for information pursuant to legislative power 

under Article I of the Constitution, 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 ‘‘Congressional Sub5 poena Compliance and Enforcement Act of 2020’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds as follows: 


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1 (1) As the Supreme Court has repeatedly af2 firmed, including in its July 9, 2020, holding in 

3 Trump v. Mazars, Congress’s ‘‘power of inquiry— 

4 with process to enforce it—is an essential and ap5 propriate auxiliary to the legislative function’’. 

6 Congress’s power to obtain information, including 

7 through the issuance of subpoenas and the enforce8 ment of such subpoenas, is ‘‘broad and indispen9 sable’’. 

10 (2) Congress ‘‘suffers a concrete and particular11 ized injury when denied the opportunity to obtain in12 formation necessary’’ to the exercise of its constitu13 tional functions, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for 

14 the District of Columbia Circuit correctly recognized 

15 in its August 7, 2020, en banc decision in Com16 mittee on the Judiciary of the U.S. House of Rep17 resentatives v. McGahn. 

18 (3) Accordingly, the Constitution secures to 

19 each House of Congress an inherent right to enforce 

20 its subpoenas in court. Explicit statutory authoriza21 tion is not required to secure such a right of action, 

22 and the contrary holding by a divided panel of the 

23 U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia 

24 Circuit in McGahn, entered on August 31, 2020, 

25 was in error. 


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1 SEC. 3. ENFORCEMENT OF CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 85 of title 28, United 

3 States Code, is amended by inserting after section 1365 

4 the following: 

5 ‘‘§ 1365a. Congressional actions against subpoena re6 cipients 

7 ‘‘(a) CAUSE OF ACTION.—The United States House 

8 of Representatives, the United States Senate, or a com9 mittee or subcommittee thereof, may bring a civil action 

10 against the recipient of a subpoena issued by a congres11 sional committee or subcommittee to enforce compliance 

12 with the subpoena. 

13 ‘‘(b) SPECIAL RULES.—In any civil action described 

14 in subsection (a), the following rules shall apply: 

15 ‘‘(1) The action may be filed in a United States 

16 district court of competent jurisdiction. 

17 ‘‘(2) Notwithstanding section 1657(a), it shall 

18 be the duty of every court of the United States to 

19 expedite to the greatest possible extent the disposi20 tion of any such action and appeal. Upon a showing 

21 by the plaintiff of undue delay, other irreparable 

22 harm, or good cause, a court to which an appeal of 

23 the action may be taken shall issue any necessary 

24 and appropriate writs and orders to ensure compli25 ance with this paragraph. 


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1 ‘‘(3) If a three-judge court is expressly re2 quested by the plaintiff in the initial pleading, the 

3 action shall be heard by a three-judge court con4 vened pursuant to section 2284, and shall be review5 able only by appeal directly to the Supreme Court of 

6 the United States. Such appeal shall be taken by the 

7 filing of a notice of appeal within 10 days, and the 

8 filing of a jurisdictional statement within 30 days, of 

9 the entry of the final decision. 

10 ‘‘(c) PENALTIES.— 

11 ‘‘(1) CASES INVOLVING GOVERNMENT AGEN12 CIES.— 

13 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The court may impose 

14 monetary penalties directly against each head of 

15 a Government agency and the head of each 

16 component thereof held to have knowingly failed 

17 to comply with any part of a congressional sub18 poena. 

19 ‘‘(B) PROHIBITION ON USE OF GOVERN20 MENT FUNDS.—No appropriated funds, funds 

21 provided from any accounts in the Treasury, 

22 funds derived from the collection of fees, or 

23 other Government funds shall be used to pay 

24 any monetary penalty imposed by the court 

25 pursuant to this paragraph. 


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1 ‘‘(2) LEGAL FEES.—In addition to any other 

2 penalties or sanctions, the court shall require that 

3 any defendant, other than a Government agency, 

4 held to have willfully failed to comply with any part 

5 of a congressional subpoena, pay a penalty in an 

6 amount equal to that party’s legal fees, including at7 torney’s fees, litigation expenses, and other costs. If 

8 such defendant if is an officer or employee of a Gov9 ernment agency, such fees may be paid from funds 

10 appropriated to pay the salary of the defendant. 

11 ‘‘(d) WAIVER.—Any ground for noncompliance as12 serted by the recipient of a congressional subpoena shall 

13 be deemed to have been waived as to any particular infor14 mation withheld from production if the court finds that 

15 the recipient failed in a timely manner to comply with the 

16 requirements of section 105(b) of the Revised Statutes of 

17 the United States with respect to such information. 

18 ‘‘(e) RULES OF PROCEDURE.—The Supreme Court 

19 and the Judicial Conference of the United States shall 

20 prescribe rules of procedure to ensure the expeditious 

21 treatment of actions described in subsection (a). Such 

22 rules shall be prescribed and submitted to the Congress 

23 pursuant to sections 2072, 2073, and 2074. This shall in24 clude procedures for expeditiously considering any asser25 tion of constitutional or Federal statutory privilege made 


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1 in connection with testimony by any recipient of a sub2 poena from a congressional committee or subcommittee. 

3 The Supreme Court shall transmit such rules to Congress 

4 within 6 months after the effective date of this section and 

5 then pursuant to section 2074 thereafter. 

6 ‘‘(f) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this section, the 

7 term ‘Government agency’ means any office or entity de8 scribed in section 105 and 106 of title 3, an executive de9 partment listed in section 101 of title 5, an independent 

10 establishment, commission, board, bureau, division, or of11 fice in the executive branch, or other agency or instrumen12 tality of the Federal Government, including wholly or part13 ly owned Government corporations.’’. 

14 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 

15 for chapter 85 of title 28, United States Code, is amended 

16 by inserting after the item relating to section 1365 the 

17 following: 

‘‘1365a. Congressional actions against subpoena recipients.’’. 

18 SEC. 4. COMPLIANCE WITH CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS. 

19 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 7 of title II of the Re20 vised Statutes of the United States (2 U.S.C. 191 et seq.) 

21 is amended— 

22 (1) by adding at the end the following: 

23 ‘‘SEC. 105. RESPONSE TO CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS. 

24 ‘‘(a) SUBPOENA BY CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE.— 

25 Any recipient of any subpoena from a congressional comVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:12 Oct 04, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8335.IH H8335

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1 mittee or subcommittee shall appear and testify, produce, 

2 or otherwise disclose information in a manner consistent 

3 with the subpoena and this section. 

4 ‘‘(b) FAILURE TO PRODUCE INFORMATION.— 

5 ‘‘(1) GROUNDS FOR WITHHOLDING INFORMA6 TION.—Unless required by the Constitution or by 

7 Federal statute, no claim of privilege or protection 

8 from disclosure shall be a ground for withholding in9 formation responsive to the subpoena or required by 

10 this section. 

11 ‘‘(2) IDENTIFICATION OF INFORMATION WITH12 HELD.—In the case of information that is withheld, 

13 in whole or in part, by the subpoena recipient, the 

14 subpoena recipient shall, without delay provide a log 

15 containing the following: 

16 ‘‘(A) An express assertion and description 

17 of the ground asserted for withholding the in18 formation. 

19 ‘‘(B) The type of information. 

20 ‘‘(C) The general subject matter. 

21 ‘‘(D) The date, author, and addressee. 

22 ‘‘(E) The relationship of the author and 

23 addressee to each other. 

24 ‘‘(F) The custodian of the information. 


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1 ‘‘(G) Any other descriptive information 

2 that may be produced or disclosed regarding 

3 the information that will enable the congres4 sional committee or subcommittee issuing the 

5 subpoena to assess the ground asserted for 

6 withholding the information. 

7 ‘‘(c) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this section the 

8 term ‘information’ includes any books, papers, documents, 

9 data, or other objects requested in a subpoena issued by 

10 a congressional committee or subcommittee.’’; and 

11 (2) in section 104, by striking the period at the 

12 end and inserting the following: 

13 ‘‘, or the Attorney General for the District of Colum14 bia, in which case, notwithstanding section 23–101, Dis15 trict of Columbia Official Code, the offense may be pros16 ecuted by the Attorney General for the District of Colum17 bia, and shall be punishable by a fine of not more than 

18 $1,000 and imprisonment of not more than 12 months.’’. 

19 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 

20 for chapter 7 of title II of the Revised Statutes of the 

21 United States is amended by adding at the end the fol22 lowing: 

‘‘105. Response to congressional subpoenas.’’. 

23 SEC. 5. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 

24 Nothing in this Act may be interpreted to limit or 

25 constrain Congress’ inherent authority or foreclose any 


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1 other means for enforcing compliance with congressional 

2 subpoenas, nor may anything in this Act be interpreted 

3 to establish or recognize any ground for noncompliance 

4 with a congressional subpoena. 

Æ 


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