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 Subpoena 
Compliance and Enforcement Act of 2017’’. 
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) SPECIAL RULES.—In any civil action brought by 
the United States House of Representatives, the United 
States Senate, or a committee or subcommittee thereof, 
against the recipient of a subpoena to secure declaratory, 
injunctive, or other relief as may be appropriate concerning 
the failure to comply with a subpoena issued by a congres-
sional committee or subcommittee, the following rules shall 
apply: 
‘‘(1) The action shall be filed in a United States 
district court of competent jurisdiction. 
‘‘(2) It shall be the duty of the United States dis-
trict courts, the United States courts of appeal, and 
the Supreme Court of the United States to advance on 
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the docket and to expedite to the greatest possible ex-
tent the disposition of any such action and appeal. 
‘‘(3) If a three-judge court is expressly requested 
by the plaintiff in the initial pleading, the action 
shall be heard by a three-judge court convened pursu-
ant 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 with-
in 10 days, and the filing of a jurisdictional state-
ment within 30 days, of the entry of the final deci-
sion. 
‘‘(b) MONETARY PENALTIES IN CASES INVOLVING GOV-
ERNMENT AGENCIES.— 
‘‘(1) The court may impose monetary penalties 
directly against the head of a Government agency or 
a component thereof held to have willfully failed to 
comply with any part of a congressional subpoena. 
‘‘(2) No appropriated funds, funds provided from 
any accounts in the Treasury, funds derived from the 
collection of fees, or other Government funds shall be 
used to pay any monetary penalty imposed by the 
court pursuant to this section. 
‘‘(c) WAIVER
OF PRIVILEGE.—Any assertion of a 
privilege or other ground for noncompliance (whether statu-
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tory, common law, or otherwise) asserted by the recipient 
of a congressional subpoena may be determined to have been 
waived as to any particular record withheld from produc-
tion if the court finds that the recipient failed in a timely 
manner 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. 
‘‘(d) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this section, the 
term ‘Government agency’ means an executive department 
listed in section 101 of title 5, United States Code, an inde-
pendent establishment, commission, board, bureau, division, 
or office in the executive branch, or other agency of the Fed-
eral Government, including wholly or partly owned Govern-
ment 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 fol-
lowing: 
‘‘1365a. Congressional actions against subpoena recipients.’’. 
SEC. 3. COMPLIANCE WITH CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter seven of title II of the Re-
vised 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 WITHHELD.— 
In the case of a record that is withheld, in whole or 
in part, by the subpoena recipient, the subpoena re-
cipient 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 ad-
dressee 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 com-
mittee or subcommittee issuing the subpoena 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 recipient, 
the subpoena recipient shall identify the record (in-
cluding the date, author, subject, and each recipient 
of the record) and explain the circumstances under 
which the record ceased to be in the possession, cus-
tody, or control of the subpoena recipient. 
‘‘(3) ELECTRONIC RECORDS.—Electronic records 
shall be produced pursuant to this subsection in their 
native or original file format. Electronic 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 include an index describing 
the contents of the production. 
‘‘(c) 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 congres-
sional committee or subcommittee.’’. 
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents for 
chapter 7 of title II of the Revised Statutes of the United 
States is amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘105. Response to congressional subpoenas.’’. 
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SEC. 4. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 
Nothing in this Act shall be interpreted to diminish 
Congress’ inherent authority or previously established meth-
ods and practices for enforcing compliance with congres-
sional subpoenas, nor shall anything in this Act be inter-
preted to establish Congress’ acceptance of any privilege or 
other legal basis for noncompliance with a congressional 
subpoena. 
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Union Calendar No. 264 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 4010 
[Report No. 115–360] 
A BILL 
To amend the Revised Statutes of the United 
States and title 28, United States Code, to en-
hance compliance with requests for information 
pursuant to legislative power under Article I of 
the Constitution, and for other purposes. 
OCTOBER 23, 2017 
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Com-
mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, 
and ordered to be printed 
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