I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3732 

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 

JULY 12, 2019 

Ms. DEAN 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 2019’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. 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) SPECIAL RULES.—In any civil action brought by 

8 the United States House of Representatives, the United 

9 States Senate, or a committee or subcommittee thereof, 

10 against the recipient of a subpoena to secure declaratory, 

11 injunctive, or other relief as may be appropriate con12 cerning the failure to comply with a subpoena issued by 

13 a congressional committee or subcommittee, the following 

14 rules shall apply: 

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

16 States district court of competent jurisdiction. 

17 ‘‘(2) It shall be the duty of the United States 

18 district courts, the United States courts of appeal, 

19 and the Supreme Court of the United States to ad20 vance on the docket and to expedite to the greatest 

21 possible extent the disposition of any such action 

22 and appeal. 

23 ‘‘(3) If a three-judge court is expressly re24 quested by the plaintiff in the initial pleading, the 

25 action shall be heard by a three-judge court con26 vened pursuant to section 2284 of title 28, United 


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1 States Code, and shall be reviewable only by appeal 

2 directly to the Supreme Court of the United States. 

3 Such appeal shall be taken by the filing of a notice 

4 of appeal within 10 days, and the filing of a jurisdic5 tional statement within 30 days, of the entry of the 

6 final decision. 

7 ‘‘(b) MONETARY PENALTIES IN CASES INVOLVING

8 GOVERNMENT AGENCIES.— 

9 ‘‘(1) The court may impose monetary penalties 

10 directly against the head of a Government agency or 

11 a component thereof held to have willfully failed to 

12 comply with any part of a congressional subpoena. 

13 ‘‘(2) No appropriated funds, funds provided 

14 from any accounts in the Treasury, funds derived 

15 from the collection of fees, or other Government 

16 funds shall be used to pay any monetary penalty im17 posed by the court pursuant to this section. 

18 ‘‘(c) WAIVER OF PRIVILEGE.—Any assertion of a 

19 privilege or other ground for noncompliance (whether stat20 utory, common law, or otherwise) asserted by the recipient 

21 of a congressional subpoena may be determined to have 

22 been waived as to any particular record withheld from pro23 duction if the court finds that the recipient failed in a 

24 timely manner to comply with the requirement of section 


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1 105 of the Revised Statutes of the United States that it 

2 produce a privilege log with respect to such record. 

3 ‘‘(d) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this section, the 

4 term ‘Government agency’ means an executive department 

5 listed in section 101 of title 5, United States Code, an 

6 independent establishment, commission, board, bureau, di7 vision, or office in the executive branch, or other agency 

8 of the Federal Government, including wholly or partly 

9 owned Government corporations.’’. 

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

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

12 by inserting after the item relating to section 1365 the 

13 following: 

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

14 SEC. 3. COMPLIANCE WITH CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS. 

15 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 7 of title II of the Re16 vised Statutes of the United States (2 U.S.C. 191 et seq.) 

17 is amended by adding at the end the following: 

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

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

20 Any recipient of any subpoena from a congressional com21 mittee or subcommittee shall appear and testify or 

22 produce records in a manner consistent with the subpoena 

23 and this section. 

24 ‘‘(b) CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS FOR RECORDS.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) IDENTIFICATION OF RECORDS WITH2 HELD.—In the case of a record that is withheld, in 

3 whole or in part, by the subpoena recipient, the sub4 poena recipient shall provide a log containing the 

5 following information concerning such record: 

6 ‘‘(A) An express assertion and description 

7 of the legal basis asserted for withholding the 

8 record. 

9 ‘‘(B) The type of record. 

10 ‘‘(C) The general subject matter. 

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

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

13 addressee to each other. 

14 ‘‘(F) The custodian of the record. 

15 ‘‘(G) Any other descriptive information 

16 that may be produced or disclosed regarding 

17 the record that will enable the congressional 

18 committee or subcommittee issuing the sub19 poena to assess the legal basis asserted for 

20 withholding the record. 

21 ‘‘(2) MISSING RECORDS.—In the case of any 

22 record responsive to the subpoena submitted under 

23 paragraph (1) that was, but no longer is, in the pos24 session, custody, or control of the subpoena recipi25 ent, the subpoena recipient shall identify the record 


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1 (including the date, author, subject, and each recipi2 ent of the record) and explain the circumstances 

3 under which the record ceased to be in the posses4 sion, custody, or control of the subpoena recipient. 

5 ‘‘(3) ELECTRONIC RECORDS.—Electronic 

6 records shall be produced pursuant to this sub7 section in their native or original file format. Elec8 tronic records shall be delivered on a storage device 

9 (such as compact disk, memory stick, or thumb 

10 drive) and, to the extent feasible, shall be organized, 

11 identified, and indexed electronically and shall in12 clude an index describing the contents of the produc13 tion. 

14 ‘‘(c) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section the 

15 term ‘record’ includes any books, papers, documents, data, 

16 or other objects requested in a subpoena issued by a con17 gressional committee or subcommittee.’’. 

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

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

20 United States is amended by adding at the end the fol21 lowing: 

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

22 SEC. 4. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 

23 Nothing in this Act shall be interpreted to diminish 

24 Congress’ inherent authority or previously established 

25 methods and practices for enforcing compliance with conVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:38 Jul 25, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3732.IH H3732

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1 gressional subpoenas, nor shall anything in this Act be in2 terpreted to establish Congress’ acceptance of any as3 serted privilege or other legal basis for noncompliance with 

4 a congressional subpoena. 

Æ 


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