I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 6079 

To protect our democracy by preventing abuses of presidential power, restoring checks and balances and accountability and transparency in government, and defending elections against foreign interference, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

NOVEMBER 26, 2021 

Ms. DEAN (for herself, Mr. NADLER, and Mr. SCHIFF) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To protect our democracy by preventing abuses of presidential power, restoring checks and balances and accountability and transparency in government, and defending elections against foreign interference, 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’’. 

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 ‘‘(4) The initial pleading must be accompanied 

11 by certification that the party bringing the action 

12 has in good faith conferred or attempted to confer 

13 with the recipient of the subpoena to secure compli14 ance with the subpoena without court action. 

15 ‘‘(c) PENALTIES.— 

16 ‘‘(1) CASES INVOLVING GOVERNMENT AGEN17 CIES.— 

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

19 monetary penalties directly against each head of 

20 a Government agency and the head of each 

21 component thereof held to have knowingly failed 

22 to comply with any part of a congressional sub23 poena, unless— 

24 ‘‘(i) the President instructed the offi25 cial not to comply; and 


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1 ‘‘(ii) the President, or the head of the 

2 agency or component thereof, submits to 

3 the court a letter confirming such instruc4 tion and the basis for such instruction. 

5 ‘‘(B) PROHIBITION ON USE OF GOVERN6 MENT FUNDS.—No appropriated funds, funds 

7 provided from any accounts in the Treasury, 

8 funds derived from the collection of fees, or 

9 other Government funds shall be used to pay 

10 any monetary penalty imposed by the court 

11 pursuant to this paragraph. 

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

13 penalties or sanctions, the court shall require that 

14 any defendant, other than a Government agency, 

15 held to have willfully failed to comply with any part 

16 of a congressional subpoena, pay a penalty in an 

17 amount equal to that party’s legal fees, including at18 torney’s fees, litigation expenses, and other costs. If 

19 such defendant is an officer or employee of a Gov20 ernment agency, such fees may be paid from funds 

21 appropriated to pay the salary of the defendant. 

22 ‘‘(d) WAIVER.—Any ground for noncompliance as23 serted by the recipient of a congressional subpoena shall 

24 be deemed to have been waived as to any particular infor25 mation withheld from production if the court finds that 


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

2 applicable requirements of section 105(b) of the Revised 

3 Statutes of the United States with respect to such infor4 mation. 

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

6 and the Judicial Conference of the United States shall 

7 prescribe rules of procedure to ensure the expeditious 

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

9 rules shall be prescribed and submitted to the Congress 

10 pursuant to sections 2072, 2073, and 2074. This shall in11 clude procedures for expeditiously considering any asser12 tion of constitutional or Federal statutory privilege made 

13 in connection with testimony by any recipient of a sub14 poena from a congressional committee or subcommittee. 

15 The Supreme Court shall transmit such rules to Congress 

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

17 then pursuant to section 2074 thereafter. 

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

19 term ‘Government agency’ means any office or entity de20 scribed in sections 105 and 106 of title 3, an executive 

21 department listed in section 101 of title 5, an independent 

22 establishment, commission, board, bureau, division, or of23 fice in the executive branch, or other agency or instrumen24 tality of the Federal Government, including wholly or part25 ly owned Government corporations.’’. 


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

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

3 by inserting after the item relating to section 1365 the 

4 following: 

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

5 SEC. 4. COMPLIANCE WITH CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS. 

6 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 7 of title II of the Re7 vised Statutes of the United States (2 U.S.C. 191 et seq.) 

8 is amended— 

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

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

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

12 Any recipient of any subpoena from a congressional com13 mittee or subcommittee shall appear and testify, produce, 

14 or otherwise disclose information in a manner consistent 

15 with the subpoena and this section. 

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

17 ‘‘(1) GROUNDS FOR WITHHOLDING INFORMA18 TION.—Unless required by the Constitution or by 

19 Federal statute, no claim of privilege or protection 

20 from disclosure shall be a ground for withholding in21 formation responsive to the subpoena or required by 

22 this section. 

23 ‘‘(2) IDENTIFICATION OF INFORMATION WITH24 HELD.—In the case of information that is withheld, 

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


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1 subpoena recipient shall, without delay provide a log 

2 containing the following: 

3 ‘‘(A) An express assertion and description 

4 of the ground asserted for withholding the in5 formation. 

6 ‘‘(B) The type of information. 

7 ‘‘(C) The general subject matter. 

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

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

10 addressee to each other. 

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

12 ‘‘(G) Any other descriptive information 

13 that may be produced or disclosed regarding 

14 the information that will enable the congres15 sional committee or subcommittee issuing the 

16 subpoena to assess the ground asserted for 

17 withholding the information. 

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

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

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

21 a congressional committee or subcommittee.’’. 

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

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

24 United States is amended by adding at the end the fol25 lowing: 

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


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1 SEC. 5. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 

2 Nothing in this Act may be interpreted to limit or 

3 constrain Congress’ inherent authority or foreclose any 

4 other means for enforcing compliance with congressional 

5 subpoenas, nor may anything in this Act be interpreted 

6 to establish or recognize any ground for noncompliance 

7 with a congressional subpoena. 

Æ 


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