I

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 2136

To protect the confidentiality of information acquired from the public for

statistical purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JUNE 12, 2001

Mr. SAWYER (for himself and Mr. WAXMAN) introduced the following bill;

which was referred to the Committee on Government Reform

A BILL

To protect the confidentiality of information acquired from

the public for statistical 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 ‘‘Confidential Informa5 tion Protection Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

7 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:

8 (1) Consumers, citizens, businesses, and other

9 organizations have varying degrees of legal protec-
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1 tion when providing information to the Federal Gov2 ernment for strictly statistical purposes.

3 (2) The integrity and credibility of pledges of

4 confidentiality by the Federal Government provide

5 assurances to the public that information about indi6 viduals or organizations or provided by individuals

7 or organizations for exclusively statistical purposes

8 will be held in confidence and will not be used

9 against such individuals or organizations in any

10 Federal Government action.

11 (3) Protecting the privacy and confidentiality

12 interests of individuals or organizations who provide

13 information for Federal statistical programs serves

14 both the interests of the public and the needs of so15 ciety.

16 (4) Declining trust of the public in the protec17 tion of information provided to the Federal Govern18 ment adversely affects both the accuracy and com19 pleteness of statistical analyses.

20 (5) Ensuring that information provided for sta21 tistical purposes receives protection is essential in

22 continuing public cooperation in statistical pro23 grams.

24 (b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are the fol25 lowing:
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1 (1) To ensure that information supplied by in2 dividuals or organizations to an agency for statistical

3 purposes is used exclusively for statistical purposes.

4 (2) To ensure that individuals or organizations

5 who supply information to the Federal Government

6 for statistical purposes will not have that informa7 tion disclosed in identifiable form for any purpose

8 other than a statistical purpose, without the consent

9 of such individuals or organizations.

10 (3) To safeguard the confidentiality of individ11 ually identifiable information acquired for statistical

12 purposes by controlling access to, and uses made of,

13 such information.

14 (4) To respect the rights and privileges of the

15 public by observing and promoting fair information

16 practices.

17 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

18 As used in this Act:

19 (1) The term ‘‘respondent’’ means a person

20 who, or organization that, is requested or required

21 to supply information to an agency, is the subject of

22 information requested or required to be supplied to

23 an agency, or provides that information to an agen24 cy.
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1 (2) The term ‘‘identifiable form’’ means any

2 representation of information that permits informa3 tion concerning individual subjects to be reasonably

4 inferred by either direct or indirect means.

5 (3) The term ‘‘nonstatistical purpose’’ means

6 use of data in identifiable form for any purpose that

7 is not a statistical purpose, and includes any admin8 istrative, regulatory, law enforcement, adjudicatory,

9 or other purpose that affects the rights, privileges,

10 or benefits of a particular identifiable respondent.

11 (4) The term ‘‘agency’’ means any entity that

12 falls within the definition of the term ‘‘executive

13 agency’’ as defined in section 102 of title 31, United

14 States Code, or ‘‘agency’’, as defined in section 3502

15 of title 44, United States Code.

16 (5) The term ‘‘statistical purpose’’—

17 (A) means the description, estimation, or

18 analysis of the characteristics of groups without

19 regard to the identities of individuals or organi20 zations that comprise such groups; and

21 (B) includes the development, implementa22 tion, or maintenance of methods, technical or

23 administrative procedures, or information re24 sources that support the purposes described in

25 subparagraph (A).
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1 (6) The term ‘‘statistical agency or unit’’ means

2 an agency or organizational unit of the executive

3 branch whose activities are predominantly the collec4 tion, compilation, processing, or analysis of informa5 tion for statistical purposes.

6 (7) The term ‘‘agent’’ means a person des7 ignated by an executive agency to perform, either in

8 the capacity of a Federal employee or otherwise, ex9 clusively statistical activities under the supervision

10 or control of an officer or employee of that agency,

11 who agrees in writing to comply with all provisions

12 of law that affect information acquired by that agen13 cy.

14 SEC. 4. LIMITATIONS ON USE AND DISCLOSURE OF DATA

15 AND INFORMATION.

16 (a) USE OF STATISTICAL DATA OR INFORMATION.—

17 Data or information acquired by an agency for exclusively

18 statistical purposes shall be used by the agency only for

19 statistical purposes.

20 (b) DISCLOSURE OF STATISTICAL DATA OR INFOR21 MATION.—Data or information acquired by an agency for

22 exclusively statistical purposes shall not be disclosed by

23 an agency in identifiable form, for any purpose other than

24 a statistical purpose, without the informed consent of the

25 respondent.
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1 (c) RULE FOR USE OF DATA OR INFORMATION FOR

2 NONSTATISTICAL PURPOSES.—A statistical agency or

3 unit shall clearly distinguish any data or information it

4 collects for nonstatistical purposes (as authorized by law)

5 by a rule that provides that the respondent supplying the

6 data or information is fully informed, before the data or

7 information is collected, that the data or information will

8 be used for nonstatistical purposes.

9 (d) DESIGNATION OF AGENTS.—A statistical agency

10 or unit may designate agents who may perform exclusively

11 statistical activities, subject to the limitations and pen12 alties described in this Act.

13 SEC. 5. COORDINATION AND OVERSIGHT OF POLICIES.

14 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Office of

15 Management and Budget shall coordinate and oversee the

16 confidentiality and disclosure policies established by this

17 Act.

18 (b) REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF RULES.—The Direc19 tor shall review any rules proposed by an agency pursuant

20 to this Act for consistency with the provisions of this Act

21 and chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code, and such

22 rules shall be subject to the approval of the Director.

23 SEC. 6. EFFECT ON OTHER LAWS.

24 (a) TITLE 44, U.S.C.—This Act does not diminish

25 the authority under section 3510 of title 44, United States
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1 Code, of the Director of the Office of Management and

2 Budget to direct, and of an agency to make, disclosures

3 that are not inconsistent with any applicable law.

4 (b) EXEMPTION FROM FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

5 ACT.—Data or information acquired for exclusively statis6 tical purposes as described in section 4 is exempt from

7 mandatory disclosure under section 552 of title 5, United

8 States Code, pursuant to section 552(b)(3) of such title.

9 (c) PREEMPTION OF STATE LAW.—Nothing in this

10 Act shall preempt applicable State law regarding the con11 fidentiality of data collected by the States.

12 (d) CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act shall be

13 construed as restricting or diminishing any confidentiality

14 protections that otherwise apply to data or information

15 collected for statistical purposes or nonstatistical pur16 poses.

17 SEC. 7. DISCLOSURE PENALTIES.

18 An officer, employee, or agent of an agency who

19 knowingly, without the informed consent of the respond20 ent, discloses in identifiable form, for any purpose other

21 than a statistical purpose, data or information acquired

22 by an agency for an exclusively statistical purpose, shall

23 be found guilty of a class E felony and imprisoned for
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1 not more than 5 years, or fined not more than $250,000,

2 or both.

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