Open and Responsive Government Act of 2019

Bill: 116-s-2220
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Grassley, Chuck [R-IA]
Introduced: 2019-07-23
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
Subjects: Business records

Freedom of information

Trade secrets and economic espionage
Latest action: action_date: 2019-07-23
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Summaries:
action_date: 2019-07-23
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p><b>Open and Responsive Government Act of 2019</b></p> <p>This bill limits the extent to which federal agencies may exempt information from requests to disclose agency records under the Freedom of Information Act, including prohibiting the withholding of a portion of an otherwise responsive record on the basis that the portion is nonresponsive.</p>

tv_txt: II 116th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 2220 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES July 23, 2019 Mr. Grassley (for himself, Mr. Leahy , Mr. Cornyn , and Mrs. Feinstein ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To modify the exemption for trade secrets and commercial or financial information in the Freedom of Information Act, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Open and Responsive Government Act of 2019 . 2. Amendments to the Freedom of Information Act Section 552 of title 5, United States Code (commonly known as the Freedom of Information Act ) is amended— (1) in subsection (b)(4), by inserting before the semicolon at the end the following: , provided that the term confidential means information that, if disclosed, would likely cause substantial harm to the competitive position of the person from whom the information was obtained ; and (2) in subsection (d)— (A) by striking This section does not authorize withholding of information and inserting This section— (1) does not authorize the withholding of information ; (B) in paragraph (1), as so designated, by striking . This section is not authority to withhold information from Congress. and inserting a semicolon; and (C) by adding at the end the following: (2) does not authorize the withholding of a portion of an otherwise responsive record on the basis that the portion is non-responsive; and (3) is not authority to withhold information from Congress. .