I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4010 
To amend the Revised Statutes of the United States and title 28, United 
States Code, to enhance compliance with requests for information pursu-
ant to legislative power under Article I of the Constitution, and for 
other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 11, 2017 
Mr. ISSA (for himself, Mr. GOODLATTE, Mr. SMITH of Texas, Mr. SESSIONS, 
and Mr. FARENTHOLD) introduced the following bill; which was referred 
to the Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To amend the Revised Statutes of the United States and 
title 28, United States Code, to enhance compliance with 
requests for information pursuant to legislative power 
under Article I of the Constitution, and for other pur-
poses. 
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 ‘‘Congressional Sub-
poena Compliance and Enforcement Act of 2017’’. 
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SEC. 2. ENFORCEMENT OF CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 85 of title 28, United 
States Code, is amended by inserting after section 1365 
the following: 
‘‘§ 1365a. Congressional actions against subpoena re-
cipients 
‘‘(a) CIVIL ACTION.— 
‘‘(1) SPECIAL
RULES.—In any civil action 
brought by the United States House of Representa-
tives, the United States Senate, or a committee or 
subcommittee thereof, against the recipient of a sub-
poena to secure declaratory, injunctive, or other re-
lief as may be appropriate concerning the failure to 
comply with a subpoena issued by a congressional 
committee or subcommittee, the following rules shall 
apply: 
‘‘(A) The action shall be filed in a United 
States district court of competent jurisdiction. 
‘‘(B) It shall be the duty of the United 
States district courts, the United States courts 
of appeal, and the Supreme Court of the United 
States to advance on the docket and to expedite 
to the greatest possible extent the disposition of 
any such action and appeal. 
‘‘(C) If a three-judge court is expressly re-
quested by the plaintiff in the initial pleading, 
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the action shall be heard by a three-judge court 
convened pursuant to section 2284 of title 28, 
United States Code, and shall be reviewable 
only by appeal directly to the Supreme Court of 
the United States. Such appeal shall be taken 
by the filing of a notice of appeal within 10 
days, and the filing of a jurisdictional statement 
within 30 days, of the entry of the final deci-
sion. 
‘‘(2) MONETARY PENALTIES IN CASES INVOLV-
ING GOVERNMENT AGENCIES.— 
‘‘(A) The court may impose monetary pen-
alties directly against the head of a government 
agency or a component thereof held to have 
willfully failed to comply with any part of a con-
gressional subpoena. 
‘‘(B) No appropriated funds, funds pro-
vided from any accounts in the Treasury, or 
funds derived from the collection of fees shall 
be used to pay any monetary penalty imposed 
by the court pursuant to this section. 
‘‘(3) WAIVER OF PRIVILEGE.—Any assertion of 
a privilege or other ground for noncompliance 
(whether statutory, common law, or otherwise) as-
serted by the recipient of a congressional subpoena 
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may be determined to have been waived as to any 
particular record withheld from production if the 
court finds that the recipient failed in a timely man-
ner to comply with the requirement of section 105 
of the Revised Statutes of the United States that it 
produce a privilege log with respect to such record. 
‘‘(4) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this sec-
tion, the term ‘government agency’ means an execu-
tive department listed in section 101 of title 5, 
United States Code, an independent establishment, 
commission, board, bureau, division, or office in the 
executive branch, or other agency of the Federal 
Government, including wholly or partly owned Gov-
ernment corporations.’’. 
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 
for chapter 85 of title 28, United States Code, is amended 
by inserting after the item relating to section 1365 the 
following: 
‘‘1365a. Congressional actions against subpoena recipients.’’. 
SEC. 3. COMPLIANCE WITH CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter seven of title II of the 
Revised Statutes of the United States (2 U.S.C. 191 et 
seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘SEC. 105. RESPONSE TO CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS. 
‘‘(a) SUBPOENA BY CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE.— 
Any recipient of any subpoena from a congressional com-
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mittee or subcommittee shall appear and testify or 
produce records in a manner consistent with the subpoena 
and this section. 
‘‘(b) CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS FOR RECORDS.— 
‘‘(1) IDENTIFICATION
OF
RECORDS
WITH-
HELD.—In the case of a record that is withheld, in 
whole or in part, by the subpoena recipient, the sub-
poena recipient shall provide a log containing the 
following information concerning such record: 
‘‘(A) An express assertion and description 
of the legal basis asserted for withholding the 
record. 
‘‘(B) The type of record. 
‘‘(C) The general subject matter. 
‘‘(D) The date, author, and addressee. 
‘‘(E) The relationship of the author and 
addressee to each other. 
‘‘(F) The custodian of the record. 
‘‘(G) Any other descriptive information 
that may be produced or disclosed regarding 
the record that will enable the congressional 
committee or subcommittee issuing the sub-
poena to assess the legal basis asserted for 
withholding the record. 
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‘‘(2) MISSING RECORDS.—In the case of any 
record responsive to the subpoena submitted under 
paragraph (1) that was, but no longer is, in the pos-
session, custody, or control of the subpoena recipi-
ent, the subpoena recipient shall identify the record 
(including the date, author, subject, and each recipi-
ent of the record) and explain the circumstances 
under which the record ceased to be in the posses-
sion, custody, or control of the subpoena recipient. 
‘‘(3) 
ELECTRONIC
RECORDS.—Electronic 
records shall be produced pursuant to this sub-
section in their native or original file format. Elec-
tronic records shall be delivered on a storage device 
(such as compact disk, memory stick, or thumb 
drive) and, to the extent feasible, shall be organized, 
identified, and indexed electronically and shall in-
clude an index describing the contents of the produc-
tion. 
‘‘(b) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section the 
term ‘record’ includes any books, papers, documents, data, 
or other objects requested in a subpoena issued by a con-
gressional committee or subcommittee.’’. 
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 
for chapter 7 of title II of the Revised Statutes of the 
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