117 
(3) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(h) None of the funds in the account in the National 
Archives Trust Fund that may be expended for the benefit 
and in the interest of a Presidential archival depository 
relating to a former President may be used for the cost 
of digitizing records the former President wishes to de-
posit in and make available through the Presidential archi-
val depository.’’. 
TITLE 
VII—STRENGTHENING 
THE FREEDOM OF INFORMA-
TION ACT 
SEC. 701. DIGITAL ACCESS TO RECORDS MADE AVAILABLE 
UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION 
ACT. 
Section 552(a)(3) is amended by adding at the end 
the following: 
‘‘(F) Not later than two months after the 
date on which the head of an agency makes a 
record available to a person under this para-
graph, the head of the agency shall make avail-
able on the website of the agency, at no cost to 
the public and in a searchable, sortable, 
downloadable, and machine-readable format, 
electronic copies of the request for the record 
and any response provided to the person that 
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made the request for the record (including the 
record made available to the person), unless the 
head of the agency determines that the exces-
sive cost of making such copies available on the 
website would place an undue burden on the 
agency.’’. 
SEC. 702. FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT AMENDMENTS. 
(a) DISCLOSURE
OF CERTAIN RECORDS.—Section 
552(a)(2) of title 5, United States Code, is amended by 
adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(F)(i) materials related to the operations and estab-
lishment of advisory committees (as defined in section 
1001) and any subcommittee thereof, including events, 
timelines, agendas, minutes, transcripts, recordings, com-
mittee member names and biographies, conflict of interest 
waivers, committee charters, and any other related mate-
rials; 
‘‘(ii) unclassified reports submitted to Congress 
by the head of the agency; 
‘‘(iii) unclassified testimony submitted to Con-
gress by the head of the agency; 
‘‘(iv) agency organization charts and directories 
with the contact information for all offices of the 
agency; 
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‘‘(v) any log relating to a request for a record 
under paragraph (3), including any tracking number 
assigned to the request, the date the request was re-
ceived by the head of the agency, the subject of the 
request, and the disposition of the request; 
‘‘(vi) any record that reflects the official cal-
endar of the head of the agency, including a record 
that reflects an event, meeting, or telephone call 
scheduled for the head of the agency; 
‘‘(vii) a list— 
‘‘(I) identifying— 
‘‘(aa) each contract or grant of the 
agency 
with 
a 
value 
exceeding 
$100,000,000; or 
‘‘(bb) the 10 contracts or grants of 
the agency with the highest value if fewer 
than 10 contracts or grants have a value 
exceeding $100,000,000; 
‘‘(II) the award ID for each such contract 
or grant; 
‘‘(III) a description of each such contract 
or grant, including the award type of the con-
tract or grant; 
‘‘(IV) the recipient of each such contract 
or grant; 
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‘‘(V) the start and end date each such con-
tract or grant; and 
‘‘(VI) the total obligations related to the 
contract or grant; 
‘‘(viii) final reports or memoranda created by 
an entity other than the agency, including other 
Governmental entities, at the request of the head of 
the agency and used to make a final policy decision; 
‘‘(ix) any memorandum from the Office of 
Legal Council of the Department of Justice provided 
to the head of the agency; 
‘‘(x) any documents containing legal analysis 
relied upon formally or informally by the head of the 
agency to respond to the public; 
‘‘(xi) any documents containing legal analysis 
relied upon formally or informally by the head of the 
agency to inform policy analysis or policy determina-
tions; and 
‘‘(xii) unclassified reports of the Inspector Gen-
eral of the agency.’’. 
(b) ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC RECORDS BY FOIA OF-
FICERS.—Section 552(a)(3)(C) of title 5, United States 
Code, is amended to read as follows: 
‘‘(C) In responding under this paragraph to a request 
for a record originally created in an electronic form or for-
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mat, an agency shall make a reasonable effort to produce 
the record in that form or format, except when such an 
effort would significantly interfere with the operation of 
the automated information system of the agency. 
‘‘(D) For the purpose of responding under this para-
graph to a request for a record, the Chief FOIA Officer 
of the agency may access and retrieve any such record 
without making a request to a document custodian of the 
agency for such access or retrieval.’’. 
(c) CLARIFYING AUTHORIZATION FOR COURT ORDER 
COMPLIANCE.—Section 552(a)(4)(B) of title 5, United 
States Code, is amended to read as follows: 
‘‘(B)(i) A person aggrieved by a failure of an agency 
to comply with any requirement of this section may bring 
an action against the agency in a district court of the 
United States. The district courts shall have original juris-
diction of all actions arising under this section. Venue over 
such an action is proper in the district in which the com-
plainant resides, or has his principal place of business, or 
in which the agency records that are the subject of the 
action are situated, or in the District of Columbia. The 
court in such an action may— 
‘‘(I) enjoin the agency from withholding an 
agency record; 
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‘‘(II) order the agency to publish records 
in the Federal Register as required by para-
graph (1), and to require such publication on a 
continuing basis; 
‘‘(III) order the agency to make records 
available for public inspection in an electronic 
format as required by paragraph (2), and to re-
quire such public access on a continuing basis; 
‘‘(IV) order the agency to produce agency 
records in response to a request under para-
graph (3); 
‘‘(V) provide relief to resolve any dispute 
over— 
‘‘(aa) the validity of a request under 
paragraph (3), including whether a request 
reasonably describes the records sought or 
has been submitted in accordance with an 
agency’s published rules and procedures; 
‘‘(bb) an agency’s interpretation of 
the scope of a request under paragraphs 
(1), (2), or (3); 
‘‘(cc) the validity of an agency deter-
mination under paragraph (6); 
‘‘(dd) the reasonableness of an agen-
cy’s search for records; 
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‘‘(ee) the ability of an agency to re-
produce a record in a particular form or 
format; 
‘‘(ff) the treatment of a record under 
paragraph (2) of subsection (f); 
‘‘(gg) any fee issue, including an 
agency’s denial of a request for the waiver 
or reduction fees; and 
‘‘(hh) the denial of a request for expe-
dited processing; 
‘‘(VI) enjoin the agency from maintaining 
or applying any policy or practice that impairs 
lawful access to records or otherwise fails to 
abide by the terms of this section; 
‘‘(VII) issue a declaratory judgment, to the 
extent authorized by section 2201 of title 28; 
and 
‘‘(VIII) provide any other appropriate eq-
uitable relief to remedy a violation of this sec-
tion. 
‘‘(ii) In any action brought under this section, 
the court shall determine the matter de novo. The 
court, may examine the contents of agency records 
in camera to determine whether such records or any 
part thereof shall be withheld under any of the ex-
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emptions set forth in subsection (b) of this section. 
The burden is on the agency to sustain its action. 
In addition to any other matters to which a court 
accords substantial weight, a court shall accord sub-
stantial weight to an affidavit of an agency con-
cerning the agency’s determination as to technical 
feasibility under paragraph (2)(C) and subsection 
(b), and reproducibility under paragraph (3)(B).’’. 
(d) DISCLOSURE OF CERTAIN COMMERCIAL OR FI-
NANCIAL
INFORMATION
UNDER
FOIA.—Section 
552(b)(4) of the United States Code is amended by insert-
ing after ‘‘confidential’’ the following: ‘‘except for commer-
cial or financial information the disclosure of which under 
this subsection would not cause substantial harm to the 
person from any competitor of the person’’. 
(e) ADDITIONAL MATTERS TO BE INCLUDED IN AN-
NUAL REPORT.—Section 552(e)(1) of title 5, United 
States Code, is amended— 
(1) in subparagraph (P), by striking ‘‘; and’’ 
and inserting a semicolon; 
(2) in subparagraph (Q), by striking the period 
at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 
(3) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(R) a detailed description of any steps taken 
by the agency to design or format information or 
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records, such that such information or records may 
be made available to the public under subsection (a); 
‘‘(S) the number of requests for records the 
agency found to be not reasonably described or un-
duly burdensome; and 
‘‘(T) the number of requests for records with 
respect to which the agency could neither confirm 
nor deny the existence of the records.’’. 
SEC. 703. OTHER MATTERS. 
(a) PRESUMPTION OF OPENNESS.— 
(1) AMENDMENTS.—Section 552(b) of title 5, 
United States Code, is amended— 
(A) in paragraph (3)(B), by inserting 
‘‘with an explanation for the exemption’’ after 
‘‘specifically cites to this paragraph’’; 
(B) in paragraph (5), by inserting before 
the semicolon at the end the following: ‘‘, except 
for inter-agency and intra-agency memoran-
dums or letters required to be disclosed under 
subsection (a), including— 
‘‘(A) opinions that are controlling interpre-
tations of law; 
‘‘(B) final reports or memoranda created 
by an entity other than the agency, including 
other Governmental entities, at the request of 
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the agency and used to make a final policy deci-
sion; or 
‘‘(C) guidance documents used by the 
agency to respond to the public.’’; 
(C) in paragraph (6), by striking ‘‘similar 
files’’ and inserting ‘‘files that contain personal 
information (such as contact information or fi-
nancial information of a person)’’; and 
(D) in the matter following paragraph 
(9)— 
(i) by inserting before ‘‘Any reason-
ably segregable portion’’ the following: ‘‘An 
agency may not withhold information 
under this subsection unless such agency 
reasonably foresees that disclosure would 
cause specific identifiable harm to an inter-
est protected by an exemption’’; and 
(ii) by inserting before ‘‘If technically 
feasible,’’ the following: ‘‘For each record 
not released in whole or in part pursuant 
to the exemption under paragraph (3), the 
agency shall, at the time the agency pro-
vides the record or a response to the re-
quest for such record, identify that the 
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record was not released in whole or in part 
pursuant to such exemption’’. 
(2) EXEMPTION
DECISION
TRANSPARENCY.— 
Section 552(a)(6)(C)(i) of title 5, United States 
Code, is amended by striking the fourth sentence 
and inserting at the end the following: ‘‘Any notifi-
cation of denial or partial denial of any request for 
records under this subsection shall set forth each 
name and title or position of each person responsible 
for the denial or partial denial or any decision to 
withhold a responsive record under subsection (b).’’. 
(3) PROVISIONS RELATING TO THE OFFICE OF 
GOVERNMENT
INFORMATION
SERVICES.—Section 
552(h) of title 5, United States Code, is amended by 
adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(7) ACCESS TO AGENCY RECORDS.—The head of an 
administrative agency shall provide to the Director of the 
Office of Government Information Services any record re-
quested by the Director for the purpose of carrying out 
mediation services pursuant to paragraph (3).’’. 
(b) GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE.—Sub-
section (i) of section 552 of title 5, United States Code, 
is amended to read as follows: 
‘‘(i) The Comptroller General shall— 
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