II 

Calendar No. 68 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 196 

[Report No. 116–32] 

To save taxpayer money and improve the efficiency and speed of 

intragovernmental correspondence, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 19, 2019 

Mr. PORTMAN (for himself, Ms. HASSAN, Ms. HARRIS, Mr. HOEVEN, Mr. 

LANKFORD, Mr. DAINES, Ms. ERNST, Mr. JONES, and Mr. CARPER) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

APRIL 10, 2019 

Reported by Mr. JOHNSON, with amendments 

[Omit the part struck through and insert the part printed in italic] 

A BILL 

To save taxpayer money and improve the efficiency and 

speed of intragovernmental correspondence, 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 ‘‘Modernizing Congres3 sional Reporting Act of 2019’’. 

4 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

5 In this Act— 

6 (1) the term ‘‘acceptable electronic format’’ 

7 means a file format and metadata elements author8 ized by the National Archives and Records Adminis9 tration for the transfer of permanent electronic 

10 records— 

11 (A) as set forth in— 

12 (i) National Archives and Records Ad13 ministration Bulletin 2014–04: Revised 

14 Format Guidance for the Transfer of Per15 manent Electronic Records, dated January 

16 31, 2014, or any successor bulletin; and 

17 (ii) National Archives and Records 

18 Administration Bulletin 2015–04: Metada19 ta Guidance for the Transfer of Permanent 

20 Electronic Records, dated September 15, 

21 2015, or any successor bulletin; and 

22 (B) that complies with the requirements of 

23 the Office of Management and Budget Memo24 randum on the Managing Government Records 

25 Directive, dated August 24, 2012 (M–12–18), 

26 or any successor memorandum; 


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1 (2) the term ‘‘agency’’— 

2 (A) means— 

3 (i) a Federal agency, as defined in 

4 section 102 of title 40, United States 

5 Code; and 

6 (ii) an agency, as defined in section 

7 552(f)(1) of title 5, United States Code; 

8 and 

9 (B) does not include the Government Ac10 countability Office; 

11 (3) the term ‘‘congressionally mandated report’’ 

12 means a report that is required to be submitted to 

13 either House of Congress or any committee of Con14 gress, or subcommittee thereof, by a statute, resolu15 tion, or conference report that accompanies legisla16 tion enacted into law; 

17 (4)(3) the term ‘‘congressional office’’ means— 

18 (A) an office of any committee or sub19 committee of the Senate or the House of Rep20 resentatives, including any select or special 

21 committee; 

22 (B) an office of any individual Senator or 

23 Member of the House of Representatives; 

24 (C) a leadership office of the Senate or the 

25 House of Representatives; and 


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1 (D) Congress or any House of Congress; 

2 (4) the term ‘‘congressionally mandated report’’ 

3 means a report that is required to be submitted to ei4 ther House of Congress or any committee of Congress, 

5 or subcommittee thereof, by a statute, resolution, or 

6 conference report that accompanies legislation enacted 

7 into law; 

8 (5) the term ‘‘open format’’ means a file format 

9 for storing digital data based on an underlying open 

10 standard that— 

11 (A) is not encumbered by any restrictions 

12 that would impede reuse; and 

13 (B) is based on an underlying open data 

14 standard that is maintained by a standards or15 ganization; 

16 (6) the term ‘‘recorded information’’ includes 

17 all recorded information, regardless of form or char18 acteristics; and 

19 (7) the term ‘‘structured data’’ has the meaning 

20 given the term in National Archives and Records 

21 Administration Bulletin 2014–04: Revised Format 

22 Guidance for the Transfer of Permanent Electronic 

23 Records, dated January 31, 2014, or any successor 

24 bulletin. 


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1 SEC. 3. ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION OF REPORTS. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—On and after the date that is 30 

3 days after the date of enactment of this Act, except as 

4 provided in subsection (c) and to the extent specifically 

5 required otherwise by law— 

6 (1) any report or other recorded information re7 quired to be submitted to Congress by an agency 

8 under any provision of law, and any response from 

9 an agency to a request by a congressional office for 

10 any report or other recorded information, shall only 

11 be transmitted by the agency in an acceptable elec12 tronic format; and 

13 (2) any structured data included in or with, or 

14 used to create any chart included in or with, any re15 port or other recorded information described in 

16 paragraph (1) shall be transmitted by the agency in 

17 an acceptable electronic format for structured data. 

18 (b) FORMAT PREFERENCE.— 

19 (1) IN GENERAL.—In transmitting a report or 

20 other recorded information described in subsection 

21 (a) to a congressional office, an agency shall, to the 

22 extent possible, provide the original electronic file or 

23 an electronically converted file rather than a scanned 

24 document, even if the document includes a signa25 ture. 


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1 (2) SEARCHABLE SCANNED DOCUMENTS.— 

2 Each scanned document that is transmitted by an 

3 agency to a congressional office shall be made 

4 searchable via optical character recognition or other 

5 means. 

6 (c) OTHER FORMATS.—An agency that is required to 

7 transmit a report or other recorded information described 

8 in subsection (a) to a congressional office in an acceptable 

9 electronic format may, if requested by, or otherwise agreed 

10 to with, the congressional office— 

11 (1) transmit the report or other recorded infor12 mation to the congressional office— 

13 (A) in an electronic format that is not an 

14 acceptable electronic format; or 

15 (B) as a physical document; 

16 (2) allow the report or other recorded informa17 tion to be reviewed in camera; or 

18 (3) not transmit the report or other recorded 

19 information. 

20 (d) ROUTING.—If a congressional office designates a 

21 method to receive reports and other recorded information 

22 described in subsection (a) from agencies, each agency 

23 shall transmit a report or other recorded information to 

24 the congressional office using the designated method, un25 less otherwise requested by the congressional office. 


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1 SEC. 4. PUBLISHING OF REPORTS. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—On and after the date that is 30 

3 days after the date of enactment of this Act, any congres4 sionally mandated report, and any structured data de5 scribed in section 3(a)(2) and any transmittal letter asso6 ciated with the report, shall be posted on the public 

7 website of the agency submitting the report— 

8 (1) in an acceptable electronic format; 

9 (2) in an open format; 

10 (3) in accordance with the format preference 

11 described in section 3(b); and 

12 (4) at a uniform resource locator or similar lo13 cator that is changed as infrequently as possible. 

14 (b) FREE ACCESS.—No fee, registration requirement, 

15 or other access limitation shall be imposed on access to 

16 any report required to be posted under subsection (a). 

17 (c) OPEN ACCESS.—All reports, data, and other in18 formation posted under this section shall be available to 

19 the public without restrictions, including restrictions that 

20 would impede reuse of any or all elements of the informa21 tion. 

22 (d) EASE OF ACCESS.—Each agency shall provide in 

23 tabular form a list of all reports, data, or other informa24 tion required to be posted under subsection (a) that— 

25 (1) is— 


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1 (A) accessible via a link posted at the foot2 er of the public website of the agency; 

3 (B) accessible at a uniform resource loca4 tor or similar locator that is changed as infre5 quently as practicable; 

6 (C) in a structure that is changed as infre7 quently as practicable and is as consistent with 

8 the structure used by other agencies as prac9 ticable; 

10 (D) searchable and sortable by, at a min11 imum— 

12 (i) the title of the report; 

13 (ii) the date of publication of the re14 port; 

15 (iii) each congressional office receiving 

16 the report, if applicable; 

17 (iv) the statute, resolution, or con18 ference report requiring the report; 

19 (v) the metadata elements of the re20 port; 

21 (vi) a unique alphanumeric identifier 

22 for the report that is consistent across re23 port editions; and 

24 (vii) the serial number, Super25 intendent of Documents number, or other 


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1 identification number for the report, if ap2 plicable; 

3 (E) available in an acceptable electronic 

4 format for structured data, to allow for auto5 mated parsing of all data described in subpara6 graph (D) and download of all reports and as7 sociated structured data; and 

8 (F) updated immediately upon posting of 

9 the report, data, or other information; and 

10 (2) contains links to download each report, 

11 data, and other information. 

12 (e) TIMELY ACCESS.—An agency shall post a report, 

13 data, or other information required to be posted by the 

14 agency under subsection (a) not later than 30 days after 

15 the date on which the agency submits the report, data, 

16 or other information to Congress. 

17 (f) REMOVING AND ALTERING REPORTS.—An agency 

18 may only change or remove, with the exception of technical 

19 changes, a report, data, or other information required to 

20 be posted by the agency under subsection (a) if— 

21 (1) the head of the agency consults with each 

22 congressional office to which the report, data, or 

23 other information is submitted; and 


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1 (2) Congress enacts a joint resolution author2 izing the changing or removal of the report, data, or 

3 other information. 

4 (g) RELATION TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

5 ACT AND REDACTION.— 

6 (1) IN GENERAL.—Nothing in this section shall 

7 be construed to require the disclosure of information 

8 or records that are— 

9 (A) exempt from disclosure under section 

10 552 of title 5, United States Code (commonly 

11 known as the ‘‘Freedom of Information Act’’); 

12 or 

13 (B) otherwise prohibited from disclosure by 

14 law. 

15 (2) REDACTION OF REPORT.—With respect to 

16 each report, data, or other information required to 

17 be posted by an agency under subsection (a), the 

18 head of the agency shall— 

19 (A) redact any information that may not 

20 be disclosed under section 552(b) of title 5, 

21 United States Code, or is otherwise prohibited 

22 from disclosure by law, before posting the re23 port; 

24 (B) only redact the information described 

25 in subparagraph (A); 


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1 (C) identify where each redaction is made 

2 in the report, data, or other information; and 

3 (D) identify the exemption under such sec4 tion 552(b) under which each redaction is 

5 made. 

6 (h) WITHHOLDING INFORMATION.—An agency— 

7 (1) may withhold information otherwise re8 quired to be disclosed under this section only if— 

9 (A) the agency reasonably foresees that 

10 disclosure would harm an interest protected by 

11 an exemption described in section 552(b) of 

12 title 5, United States Code; or 

13 (B) disclosure is prohibited by law; and 

14 (2) shall— 

15 (A) consider whether partial disclosure of 

16 information otherwise required to be disclosed 

17 under this section is possible whenever the 

18 agency determines that a full disclosure of the 

19 information is not possible; and 

20 (B) take reasonable steps necessary to seg21 regate and release nonexempt information. 

22 (i) OPEN DATA REGISTRATION.—Not later than 30 

23 days after the date of enactment of this Act, each agency 

24 shall make the list described in subsection (d) available 

25 to the public on Data.gov or a successor Federal open govVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S196.RS S196

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1 ernment data site, in a structure and format used by that 

2 system. 

3 (j) SUBMISSION OF REPORTS.—Nothing in this sec4 tion shall be construed to— 

5 (1) relieve an agency of any other requirement 

6 to publish a congressionally mandated report on the 

7 website of the agency or otherwise submit a congres8 sionally mandated report to Congress or specific 

9 committees or subcommittees of Congress; or 

10 (2) impose any additional requirement to redact 

11 any submission to or withhold information from any 

12 congressional office. 


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Calendar No. 68 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 196 

[Report No. 116–32] 

A BILL 

To save taxpayer money and improve the efficiency 

and for other purposes. and speed of intragovernmental correspondence, 

APRIL 10, 2019 

Reported with amendments 


pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS