I 
118TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 9566 
To require governmentwide source code sharing, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 12, 2024 
Mr. LANGWORTHY (for himself and Mr. TIMMONS) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability 
A BILL 
To require governmentwide source code sharing, and for 
other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Source code Harmoni-
zation And Reuse in Information Technology Act’’ or the 
‘‘SHARE IT Act’’. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) AGENCY.—The term ‘‘agency’’ has the 
meaning given that term in section 3502 of title 44, 
United States Code. 
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(2) APPROPRIATE
CONGRESSIONAL
COMMIT-
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-
mittees’’ means the Committee on Homeland Secu-
rity and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the 
Committee on Oversight and Accountability of the 
House of Representatives. 
(3) CUSTOM-DEVELOPED
CODE.—The term 
‘‘custom-developed code’’— 
(A) means source code that is— 
(i) produced in the performance of a 
contract with an agency or is otherwise ex-
clusively funded by the Federal Govern-
ment; or 
(ii) developed by a Federal employee 
as part of the official duties of the em-
ployee; 
(B) includes— 
(i) source code, or segregable portions 
of source code, for which the Federal Gov-
ernment could obtain unlimited rights 
under part 27 of the Federal Acquisition 
Regulation or any relevant supplemental 
acquisition regulations of an agency; and 
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a computer programming language that a computer 
can execute as a piece of software. 
SEC. 3. SOFTWARE REUSE. 
(a) SHARING.—Not later than 210 days after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the head of each agency 
shall ensure that the custom-developed code of the agency 
and other key technical components (including documenta-
tion, data models, schemas, metadata, and architecture 
designs) of the code is— 
(1) stored at not less than 1 public repository 
or private repository; 
(2) accessible to Federal employees via proce-
dures developed under subsection (d)(1)(A)(ii)(III); 
and 
(3) owned by the agency. 
(b) SOFTWARE REUSE RIGHTS IN PROCUREMENT 
CONTRACTS.—The head of an agency that enters into a 
contract for the custom development of software for use 
by the agency shall acquire and exercise rights sufficient 
to enable the governmentwide access to, sharing of, use 
of, and modification of any custom-developed code created 
in the development of such software. 
(c) DISCOVERY.—Not later than 210 days after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the head of each agency 
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shall make metadata created on or after such date for the 
custom-developed code of the agency publicly accessible. 
(d) ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISMS.— 
(1) AGENCY CIOS.—Not later than 180 days 
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Chief In-
formation Officer of each agency, in consultation 
with the Chief Acquisition Officer, or similar official, 
of the agency and the Federal Chief Information Of-
ficer, shall develop an agency-wide policy that— 
(A) implements the requirements of this 
Act, including— 
(i) ensuring that custom-developed 
code follows the best practices established 
by the Director of the Office and Manage-
ment and Budget under paragraph (3) for 
operating repositories and version control 
systems to keep track of changes and to 
facilitate collaboration among multiple de-
velopers; and 
(ii) managing the sharing of custom- 
developed code under subsection (b), and 
the public accessibility of metadata under 
subsection (c), including developing— 
(I) 
procedures 
to 
determine 
whether any custom-developed code 
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meets the conditions under section 
4(b) for an exemption under this Act; 
(II) 
procedures 
for 
making 
metadata for custom-developed code 
publicly accessible pursuant to sub-
section (c); 
(III) procedures for Federal em-
ployees to gain access to public reposi-
tories and private repositories that 
contain custom developed source code; 
and 
(IV) standardized reporting prac-
tices across the agency to capture key 
information relating to a contract 
under which custom-developed source 
code was produced for reporting sta-
tistics about the contract; and 
(B) corrects or amends any policies of the 
agency that are inconsistent with the require-
ments of this Act. 
(2) ADMINISTRATOR OF THE OFFICE OF ELEC-
TRONIC GOVERNMENT.— 
(A) MINIMUM STANDARD REPORTING RE-
QUIREMENTS.—Not later than 120 days after 
the date of enactment of this Act, the Adminis-
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trator of the Office of Electronic Government 
shall establish minimum standard reporting re-
quirements for the Chief Information Officers 
of agencies, which shall include information re-
lating to— 
(i) measuring the frequency of reuse 
of code, including access and modification 
under subsection (b); 
(ii) whether the shared code is main-
tained; 
(iii) whether there is a feedback mech-
anism for improvements to or community 
development of the shared code; and 
(iv) the number and circumstances of 
all exemptions granted under section 
4(a)(2). 
(B) ANNUAL REPORT.—Not later than 1 
year after the date of enactment of this Act, 
and annually thereafter, the Administrator of 
the Office of Electronic Government shall sub-
mit to Congress a report on the status of the 
implementation of this Act by each agency, in-
cluding— 
(i) a complete list of all exemptions 
granted under section 4(a)(2); and 
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(ii) a table showing whether each 
agency has updated the acquisition and 
other policies of the agency to be compliant 
with this Act. 
(3) GUIDANCE.—The Director of the Office of 
Management and Budget shall issue guidance, con-
sistent with the purpose of this Act, that establishes 
best practices and uniform procedures across agen-
cies for the purposes of implementing this sub-
section. 
SEC. 4. EXEMPTIONS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.— 
(1) AUTOMATIC.— 
(A) IN
GENERAL.—This Act shall not 
apply to classified source code or source code 
developed primarily for use in a national secu-
rity system (as defined in section 11103 of title 
40, United States Code). 
(B) NATIONAL SECURITY.—An exemption 
from the requirements under section 3 shall 
apply to classified source code or source code 
developed— 
(i) primarily for use in a national se-
curity system (as defined in section 11103 
of title 40, United States Code); or 
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(ii) by an agency, or part of an agen-
cy, that is an element of the intelligence 
community (as defined in section 3(4) of 
the National Security Act of 1947 (50 
U.S.C. 3003(4)). 
(C) FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT.—An 
exemption from the requirements under section 
3 shall apply to source code the disclosure of 
which is exempt under section 552(b) of title 5, 
United States Code (commonly known as the 
‘‘Freedom of Information Act’’). 
(2) DISCRETIONARY.— 
(A) EXEMPTION AND GUIDANCE.— 
(i) IN GENERAL.—The Chief Informa-
tion Officer of an agency, in consultation 
with the Federal Privacy Council, or any 
successor thereto, may exempt from the re-
quirements of section 3 any source code for 
which a limited exemption described in 
subparagraph (B) applies. 
(ii) GUIDANCE REQUIRED.—The Fed-
eral Privacy Council shall provide guidance 
to the Chief Information Officer of each 
agency relating to the limited exemption 
described in subparagraph (B)(ii) to en-
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sure consistent application of this para-
graph across agencies. 
(B) LIMITED
EXEMPTIONS.—The limited 
exemptions described in this paragraph are the 
following: 
(i) The head of the agency is prohib-
ited from providing the source code to an-
other individual or entity under another 
Federal 
law 
or 
regulation, 
including 
under— 
(I) the Export Administration 
Regulations; 
(II) the International Traffic in 
Arms Regulations; 
(III) 
the 
regulations 
of 
the 
Transportation Security Administra-
tion relating to the protection of Sen-
sitive Security Information; and 
(IV) the Federal laws and regula-
tions governing the sharing of classi-
fied information not covered by the 
exemption in paragraph (1). 
(ii) The sharing or public accessibility 
of the source code would create an identifi-
able risk to the privacy of an individual. 
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(b) REPORTS REQUIRED.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than December 31 
of each year, the Chief Information Officer of an 
agency shall submit to the Administrator of the Of-
fice of Electronic Government a report of the source 
code of the agency to which an exemption under 
subsection (1) or (2) of subsection (a) applied dur-
ing the fiscal year ending on September 30 of that 
year with a brief narrative justification of each ex-
emption. 
(2) FORM.—The report under paragraph (1) 
shall be submitted in unclassified form, with a clas-
sified annex as appropriate. 
(3) ANNUAL REPORT.—Not later than 1 year 
after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually 
thereafter, the Administrator of the Office of Elec-
tronic Government shall submit to the appropriate 
congressional committees a report on the status of 
the implementation of this Act by each agency, in-
cluding— 
(A) a compilation of all information, in-
cluding a narrative justification, relating to 
each exemption granted under paragraph (1) or 
(2) of subsection (a); 
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(B) a table showing whether each agency 
has updated the acquisition and other policies 
of the agency to be compliant with this Act; 
(C) an evaluation of the compliance of the 
agency with the framework described in section 
3(d)(2)(A); and 
(D) a classified annex as appropriate. 
SEC. 5. GAO REPORT ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 
PRACTICES. 
(a) INITIAL REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after 
the date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 
of the United States shall submit to Congress a report 
that includes an assessment of— 
(1) any duplication in the procurement of soft-
ware by agencies, including estimates of the fre-
quency and dollar value of such duplication; 
(2) how source code sharing and open-source 
software collaboration can improve cybersecurity at 
agencies; 
(3) how the adoption of cloud-based software 
may support the heads of Federal agencies; and 
(4) how the acquisition of commercial software 
may support the heads of Federal agencies. 
(b) SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT.—Not later than 2 
years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Comp-
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troller General of the United States shall submit to Con-
gress a report that includes an assessment of the imple-
mentation of this Act. 
SEC. 6. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 
Nothing in this Act may be construed as requiring 
the disclosure of information or records that are exempt 
from public disclosure under section 552 of title 5, United 
States Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Freedom of Infor-
mation Act’’). 
SEC. 7. APPLICATION. 
This Act shall apply to custom-developed code that 
is developed or revised— 
(1) by a Federal employee not less than 180 
days after the date of enactment of this Act; or 
(2) under a contract awarded pursuant to a so-
licitation issued not less than 180 days after the 
date of enactment of this Act. 
SEC. 8. NO ADDITIONAL FUNDING. 
No additional funds are authorized to be appro-
priated to carry out this Act. 
Æ 
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