Title: Federal Travel Transparency Act
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics

Summary:
Federal Travel Transparency Act
This bill requires a federal executive agency to report additional information to the General Services Administration (GSA) regarding travel by the agency head or certain high-level officials compensated on the Executive Schedule. The GSA must make the information publicly available on a travel information website.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2665 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2665

 To amend section 5707 of title 5, United States Code, to require the 
General Services Administration to make information regarding travel by 
    the heads of Executive agencies and other individuals in senior 
                     positions publicly available.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 22, 2019

  Ms. Duckworth (for herself, Mr. Peters, Mr. Carper, and Mr. Wyden) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
        Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend section 5707 of title 5, United States Code, to require the 
General Services Administration to make information regarding travel by 
    the heads of Executive agencies and other individuals in senior 
                     positions publicly available.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Federal Travel Transparency Act''.

SEC. 2. DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION REGARDING TRAVEL BY CERTAIN SENIOR 
              OFFICIALS.

    (a) In General.--Section 5707 of title 5, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(d) Additional Disclosure of Information Regarding Travel by 
Certain Senior Officials.--
            ``(1) Definitions.--In this subsection--
                    ``(A) the term `Administrator' means the 
                Administrator of General Services;
                    ``(B) the term `covered individual' means--
                            ``(i) the head of an Executive agency; or
                            ``(ii) an individual serving in a position 
                        at level I or II of the Executive Schedule 
                        under section 5312 or 5313, respectively;
                    ``(C) the term `machine-readable form' means a 
                format in which information or data can be easily 
                processed by a computer without human intervention 
                while ensuring no semantic meaning is lost;
                    ``(D) the term `open format' means a technical 
                format based on an underlying open standard that is--
                            ``(i) not encumbered by restrictions that 
                        would impede use or reuse; and
                            ``(ii) based on an underlying open standard 
                        that is maintained by a standards organization; 
                        and
                    ``(E) the term `travel information website' means 
                the website used by the Administrator to make available 
                information under paragraph (2)(B)(i).
            ``(2) Public availability of travel information for covered 
        individuals.--
                    ``(A) Reporting.--Not later than 30 business days 
                after the end of each calendar quarter, each Executive 
                agency employing 1 or more covered individuals who 
                performed official travel during the calendar quarter 
                shall submit to the Administrator data in machine-
                readable form and open format regarding the travel by 
                each such covered individual during the calendar 
                quarter on a commercial aircraft, privately-owned 
                aircraft, or Government-owned or Government-leased 
                aircraft, which shall include--
                            ``(i) the duration of the travel;
                            ``(ii) the destination or destinations of 
                        the travel;
                            ``(iii) the individuals in the travel 
                        party;
                            ``(iv) the justification for the travel;
                            ``(v) the authorizing official who approved 
                        the travel; and
                            ``(vi) the total cost to the Government 
                        for--
                                    ``(I) the travel as a whole;
                                    ``(II) transportation during the 
                                travel; and
                                    ``(III) lodging accommodations 
                                during the travel.
                    ``(B) Public availability.--
                            ``(i) In general.--The Administrator shall 
                        make available online to the public, at no cost 
                        to access, the information provided by 
                        Executive agencies to the Administrator under 
                        subparagraph (A).
                            ``(ii) National security information.--
                                    ``(I) In general.--An Executive 
                                agency may exclude national security 
                                sensitive travel information from the 
                                travel information submitted to the 
                                Administrator if the Executive agency 
                                determines public online disclosure of 
                                the national security sensitive travel 
                                information would result in harm to 
                                national security interests.
                                    ``(II) Justification.--Each 
                                Executive agency shall establish and 
                                preserve an accurate record documenting 
                                each instance in which the Executive 
                                agency excluded national security 
                                sensitive travel information from 
                                submission, as authorized in subclause 
                                (I), which shall include information 
                                explaining how public online disclosure 
                                of the national security sensitive 
                                travel information would have resulted 
                                in harm to national security interests.
                    ``(C) Use of existing resources.--To the maximum 
                extent practicable, the Administrator shall use a 
                website in existence on the date of enactment of this 
                subsection to carry out this subsection.
            ``(3) Requirements.--Not later than 30 business days after 
        the date on which the Administrator receives information from 
        an Executive agency regarding travel by a covered individual 
        under paragraph (2)(A), the Administrator shall make the 
        information available on the travel information website.
            ``(4) Classified trips.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Nothing in this subsection shall 
                preclude an Executive agency from excluding from the 
                information submitted to the Administrator information 
                regarding classified travel.
                    ``(B) Maintaining of information.--An Executive 
                agency shall maintain information relating to 
                classified travel by a covered employee until the end 
                of the 2-year period beginning on the date on which the 
                classified travel concludes.
            ``(5) Auditing.--The Inspector General of each Executive 
        agency may, as determined appropriate by the Inspector 
        General--
                    ``(A) conduct and publish an audit of the accuracy 
                and completeness of information the Executive agency 
                provides to the Administrator under paragraph (2)(A);
                    ``(B) conduct an audit of determinations by the 
                Executive agency to exclude information under paragraph 
                (2)(B)(ii) to ensure each such decision was appropriate 
                and justified in regard to protecting national security 
                interests from harm that would have resulted from 
                public online disclosure; and
                    ``(C) provide each committee of Congress with 
                jurisdiction over the activities of or appropriations 
                for the Executive agency with written notification if 
                the Inspector General determines that the Executive 
                agency is improperly withholding, or failed to justify 
                the withholding of, information from the Administrator 
                under paragraph (2)(B)(ii).''.
    (b) Relation to Other Reporting Requirements.--Nothing in the 
amendment made by subsection (a) shall be construed to modify or 
supercede the reporting requirements under the Federal Travel 
Regulation (including the requirements relating to the Senior Federal 
Travel report, or any successor thereto) or under any other provision 
of law.
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