II 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 196 

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 

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, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Modernizing Congres5 sional Reporting Act of 2019’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

7 In this Act— 

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

9 means a file format and metadata elements authorVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:04 Jan 26, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S196.IS S196

kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
2 

•S 196 IS

1 ized by the National Archives and Records Adminis2 tration for the transfer of permanent electronic 

3 records— 

4 (A) as set forth in— 

5 (i) National Archives and Records Ad6 ministration Bulletin 2014–04: Revised 

7 Format Guidance for the Transfer of Per8 manent Electronic Records, dated January 

9 31, 2014, or any successor bulletin; and 

10 (ii) National Archives and Records 

11 Administration Bulletin 2015–04: Metada12 ta Guidance for the Transfer of Permanent 

13 Electronic Records, dated September 15, 

14 2015, or any successor bulletin; and 

15 (B) that complies with the requirements of 

16 the Office of Management and Budget Memo17 randum on the Managing Government Records 

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

19 or any successor memorandum; 

20 (2) the term ‘‘agency’’— 

21 (A) means— 

22 (i) a Federal agency, as defined in 

23 section 102 of title 40, United States 

24 Code; and 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
3 

•S 196 IS

1 (ii) an agency, as defined in section 

2 552(f)(1) of title 5, United States Code; 

3 and 

4 (B) does not include the Government Ac5 countability Office; 

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

7 means a report that is required to be submitted to 

8 either House of Congress or any committee of Con9 gress, or subcommittee thereof, by a statute, resolu10 tion, or conference report that accompanies legisla11 tion enacted into law; 

12 (4) the term ‘‘congressional office’’ means— 

13 (A) an office of any committee or sub14 committee of the Senate or the House of Rep15 resentatives, including any select or special 

16 committee; 

17 (B) an office of any individual Senator or 

18 Member of the House of Representatives; 

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

20 House of Representatives; and 

21 (D) Congress or any House of Congress; 

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

23 for storing digital data based on an underlying open 

24 standard that— 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
4 

•S 196 IS

1 (A) is not encumbered by any restrictions 

2 that would impede reuse; and 

3 (B) is based on an underlying open data 

4 standard that is maintained by a standards or5 ganization; 

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

7 all recorded information, regardless of form or char8 acteristics; and 

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

10 given the term in National Archives and Records 

11 Administration Bulletin 2014–04: Revised Format 

12 Guidance for the Transfer of Permanent Electronic 

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

14 bulletin. 

15 SEC. 3. ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION OF REPORTS. 

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

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

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

19 required otherwise by law— 

20 (1) any report or other recorded information re21 quired to be submitted to Congress by an agency 

22 under any provision of law, and any response from 

23 an agency to a request by a congressional office for 

24 any report or other recorded information, shall only 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
5 

•S 196 IS

1 be transmitted by the agency in an acceptable elec2 tronic format; and 

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

4 used to create any chart included in or with, any re5 port or other recorded information described in 

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

7 an acceptable electronic format for structured data. 

8 (b) FORMAT PREFERENCE.— 

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

10 other recorded information described in subsection 

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

12 extent possible, provide the original electronic file or 

13 an electronically converted file rather than a scanned 

14 document, even if the document includes a signa15 ture. 

16 (2) SEARCHABLE SCANNED DOCUMENTS.— 

17 Each scanned document that is transmitted by an 

18 agency to a congressional office shall be made 

19 searchable via optical character recognition or other 

20 means. 

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

22 transmit a report or other recorded information described 

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

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

25 to with, the congressional office— 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
6 

•S 196 IS

1 (1) transmit the report or other recorded infor2 mation to the congressional office— 

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

4 acceptable electronic format; or 

5 (B) as a physical document; 

6 (2) allow the report or other recorded informa7 tion to be reviewed in camera; or 

8 (3) not transmit the report or other recorded 

9 information. 

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

11 method to receive reports and other recorded information 

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

13 shall transmit a report or other recorded information to 

14 the congressional office using the designated method, un15 less otherwise requested by the congressional office. 

16 SEC. 4. PUBLISHING OF REPORTS. 

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

18 days after the date of enactment of this Act, any congres19 sionally mandated report, and any structured data de20 scribed in section 3(a)(2) and any transmittal letter asso21 ciated with the report, shall be posted on the public 

22 website of the agency submitting the report— 

23 (1) in an acceptable electronic format; 

24 (2) in an open format; 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
7 

•S 196 IS

1 (3) in accordance with the format preference 

2 described in section 3(b); and 

3 (4) at a uniform resource locator or similar lo4 cator that is changed as infrequently as possible. 

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

6 or other access limitation shall be imposed on access to 

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

8 (c) OPEN ACCESS.—All reports, data, and other in9 formation posted under this section shall be available to 

10 the public without restrictions, including restrictions that 

11 would impede reuse of any or all elements of the informa12 tion. 

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

14 tabular form a list of all reports, data, or other informa15 tion required to be posted under subsection (a) that— 

16 (1) is— 

17 (A) accessible via a link posted at the foot18 er of the public website of the agency; 

19 (B) accessible at a uniform resource loca20 tor or similar locator that is changed as infre21 quently as practicable; 

22 (C) in a structure that is changed as infre23 quently as practicable and is as consistent with 

24 the structure used by other agencies as prac25 ticable; 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
8 

•S 196 IS

1 (D) searchable and sortable by, at a min2 imum— 

3 (i) the title of the report; 

4 (ii) the date of publication of the re5 port; 

6 (iii) each congressional office receiving 

7 the report, if applicable; 

8 (iv) the statute, resolution, or con9 ference report requiring the report; 

10 (v) the metadata elements of the re11 port; 

12 (vi) a unique alphanumeric identifier 

13 for the report that is consistent across re14 port editions; and 

15 (vii) the serial number, Super16 intendent of Documents number, or other 

17 identification number for the report, if ap18 plicable; 

19 (E) available in an acceptable electronic 

20 format for structured data, to allow for auto21 mated parsing of all data described in subpara22 graph (D) and download of all reports and as23 sociated structured data; and 

24 (F) updated immediately upon posting of 

25 the report, data, or other information; and 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
9 

•S 196 IS

1 (2) contains links to download each report, 

2 data, and other information. 

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

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

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

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

7 or other information to Congress. 

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

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

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

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

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

13 congressional office to which the report, data, or 

14 other information is submitted; and 

15 (2) Congress enacts a joint resolution author16 izing the changing or removal of the report, data, or 

17 other information. 

18 (g) RELATION TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

19 ACT AND REDACTION.— 

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

21 be construed to require the disclosure of information 

22 or records that are— 

23 (A) exempt from disclosure under section 

24 552 of title 5, United States Code (commonly 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
10 

•S 196 IS

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

2 or 

3 (B) otherwise prohibited from disclosure by 

4 law. 

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

6 each report, data, or other information required to 

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

8 head of the agency shall— 

9 (A) redact any information that may not 

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

11 United States Code, or is otherwise prohibited 

12 from disclosure by law, before posting the re13 port; 

14 (B) only redact the information described 

15 in subparagraph (A); 

16 (C) identify where each redaction is made 

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

18 (D) identify the exemption under such sec19 tion 552(b) under which each redaction is 

20 made. 

21 (h) WITHHOLDING INFORMATION.—An agency— 

22 (1) may withhold information otherwise re23 quired to be disclosed under this section only if— 

24 (A) the agency reasonably foresees that 

25 disclosure would harm an interest protected by 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
11 

•S 196 IS

1 an exemption described in section 552(b) of 

2 title 5, United States Code; or 

3 (B) disclosure is prohibited by law; and 

4 (2) shall— 

5 (A) consider whether partial disclosure of 

6 information otherwise required to be disclosed 

7 under this section is possible whenever the 

8 agency determines that a full disclosure of the 

9 information is not possible; and 

10 (B) take reasonable steps necessary to seg11 regate and release nonexempt information. 

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

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

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

15 to the public on Data.gov or a successor Federal open gov16 ernment data site, in a structure and format used by that 

17 system. 

18 (j) SUBMISSION OF REPORTS.—Nothing in this sec19 tion shall be construed to— 

20 (1) relieve an agency of any other requirement 

21 to publish a congressionally mandated report on the 

22 website of the agency or otherwise submit a congres23 sionally mandated report to Congress or specific 

24 committees or subcommittees of Congress; or 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
12 

•S 196 IS

1 (2) impose any additional requirement to redact 

2 any submission to or withhold information from any 

3 congressional office. 

Æ 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS