I 
113TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5170 
To improve Federal employee compliance with the Federal and Presidential 
recordkeeping requirements, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 23, 2014 
Mr. MEADOWS (for himself and Mr. ISSA) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 
A BILL 
To improve Federal employee compliance with the Federal 
and Presidential recordkeeping requirements, 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; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Federal Records Accountability Act of 2014’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Removal for deliberate destruction of Federal records. 
Sec. 3. Use of non-official electronic messaging accounts. 
Sec. 4. Reporting of the loss or potential loss of records. 
Sec. 5. Senior Agency Official for Records Compliance. 
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SEC. 2. REMOVAL FOR DELIBERATE DESTRUCTION OF FED-
ERAL RECORDS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 75 of title 5, United 
States Code, is amended by adding after subchapter V the 
following: 
‘‘SUBCHAPTER VI—FEDERAL RECORDS 
‘‘§ 7551. Definitions 
‘‘In this subchapter the following definitions apply: 
‘‘(1) 
EMPLOYEE.—The 
term 
‘employee’ 
means— 
‘‘(A) an individual in the competitive serv-
ice who is not serving a probationary or trial 
period under an initial appointment or who has 
completed 1 year of current continuous employ-
ment in the same or similar positions under 
other than a temporary appointment limited to 
1 year or less; or 
‘‘(B) a career appointee in the Senior Ex-
ecutive Service who— 
‘‘(i) has completed the probationary 
period prescribed under section 3393(d) of 
this title; or 
‘‘(ii) was covered by the provisions of 
subchapter II of this chapter immediately 
before appointment to the Senior Executive 
Service. 
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‘‘(2) SUSPENSION.—The term ‘suspension’ has 
the meaning given that term in section 7501 of this 
title. 
‘‘§ 7552. Suspension and removal 
‘‘(a) INSPECTOR GENERAL FINDING.—If the Inspec-
tor General of an agency determines an employee of the 
agency has willfully and unlawfully concealed, removed, 
mutilated, obliterated, falsified, or destroyed any record, 
proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing 
in the custody of such employee, or verifies a violation 
under section 2208 or 2911 of title 44, the Inspector Gen-
eral shall promptly inform the head of the agency of that 
determination in writing. 
‘‘(b) SUSPENSION.—Notwithstanding any other pro-
vision of law, the head of an agency shall suspend an em-
ployee of that agency who has been determined by the In-
spector General under subsection (a) to have willfully and 
unlawfully concealed, removed, mutilated, obliterated, fal-
sified, or destroyed any record, proceeding, map, book, 
document, paper, or other thing in the custody of such 
employee, or who has been verified by the Inspector Gen-
eral to be in violation of section 2208 or 2911 of title 44. 
‘‘(c) REQUIREMENTS AFTER SUSPENSION.—An em-
ployee suspended under subsection (b) is entitled, after 
suspension and before removal, to— 
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