I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2726 
To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a plan to reduce 
the backlog of requests for information made to the Department of 
Veterans Affairs pursuant to section 552 of title 5, United States Code, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 21, 2021 
Mr. GALLEGO (for himself and Mr. MURPHY of North Carolina) introduced 
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 
A BILL 
To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a 
plan to reduce the backlog of requests for information 
made to the Department of Veterans Affairs pursuant 
to section 552 of title 5, United States Code, 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 ‘‘VA FOIA Reform Act 
of 2021’’. 
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SEC. 2. PLAN FOR REDUCTION OF BACKLOG OF FOIA RE-
QUESTS. 
(a) PLAN.—The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall 
establish and carry out a plan for the Secretary to meet, 
by not later than five years after the date of the enactment 
of this Act, the requirements of section 552 of title 5, 
United States Code, with respect to providing documents 
and information under such section within the timeframes 
required by such section. The plan shall include the fol-
lowing: 
(1) Improving and acquiring technology, includ-
ing with respect to searching email and other elec-
tronic information, and the timelines for such im-
provement, to ensure that the information tech-
nology of the Department of Veterans Affairs is ca-
pable of carrying out the plan. 
(2) Identification of efficient procedures, poli-
cies, and systems of the Department that could be 
developed to allow employees of the Department re-
sponsible for replying to requests under such section 
552 to search and review documents rather than 
other employees of the Department. 
(3) A schedule for carrying out the plan, includ-
ing key milestones and metrics. 
(b) COMPLIANCE ASSESSMENT.—The Secretary shall 
request the Director of the Office of Government Informa-
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tion Services of the National Archives and Records Admin-
istration to conduct an assessment of the compliance by 
the Department of Veterans Affairs with section 552 of 
title 5, United States Code. 
(c) REPORTS.— 
(1) INITIAL REPORT.—Not later than 180 days 
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec-
retary shall submit to the Committees on Veterans’ 
Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Sen-
ate a report on implementing subsections (a) and 
(b). The report shall include the following: 
(A) The plan established under subsection 
(a). 
(B) An analysis of the root causes of the 
backlog of FOIA requests. 
(C) Recommendations with respect to any 
additional resources or legislative action the 
Secretary determines necessary for such imple-
mentation. 
(2) ANNUAL
REPORTS.—During the five-year 
period following the date of the enactment of this 
Act, the Secretary shall submit to the Committees 
on Veterans’ Affairs of the House of Representatives 
and the Senate annual reports on— 
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(A) carrying out the plan under subsection 
(a), including any updates or changes made to 
the plan; and 
(B) the compliance by the Department as 
described in subsection (b). 
(3) PUBLICATION.—The Secretary shall make 
publicly available on the internet website of the De-
partment the reports under paragraphs (1) and (2) 
by not later than 30 days after the date on which 
the Secretary submits the reports to the Committees 
on Veterans’ Affairs of the House of Representatives 
and the Senate. 
(d) BACKLOG OF FOIA REQUESTS DEFINED.—In 
this section, the term ‘‘backlog of FOIA requests’’ means 
the number of requests, as reported by the Secretary of 
Veterans Affairs to the Attorney General in the Annual 
FOIA Report, made by individuals to the Secretary pursu-
ant to section 552 of title 5, United States Code, for docu-
ments or information that the Secretary has not fulfilled 
or provided a response to the individual. 
Æ 
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