Calendar No. 565
115th CONGRESS 2d Session |
[Report No. 115–333]
To save taxpayer money and improve the efficiency and speed of intragovernmental correspondence, and for other purposes.
June 7, 2018
Mrs. McCaskill (for herself, Mr. Portman, Mr. Peters, Mr. Carper, Ms. Hassan, Mr. Tester, Mr. Hoeven, Ms. Heitkamp, Mr. Jones, Ms. Harris, Mr. Lankford, Mr. Daines, Mrs. Ernst, and Ms. Klobuchar) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
September 4, 2018
Reported by Mr. Johnson, with an amendment
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]
To save taxpayer money and improve the efficiency and speed of intragovernmental correspondence, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
This Act may be cited as the “Modernizing Congressional Reporting Act of 2018”.
In this Act—
(1) the term “acceptable electronic format” means a file format and metadata elements authorized by the National Archives and Records Administration for the transfer of permanent electronic records—
(i) National Archives and Records Administration Bulletin 2014–04: Revised Format Guidance for the Transfer of Permanent Electronic Records, dated January 31, 2014, or any successor bulletin; and
(ii) National Archives and Records Administration Bulletin 2015–04: Metadata Guidance for the Transfer of Permanent Electronic Records, dated September 15, 2015, or any successor bulletin; and
(B) that complies with the requirements of the Office of Management and Budget Memorandum on the Managing Government Records Directive, dated August 24, 2012 (M–12–18), or any successor memorandum;
(3) the term “congressional office” means—
(A) an office of any committee or subcommittee of the Senate or the House of Representatives, including any select or special committee;
(B) an office of any individual Senator or Member of the House of Representatives; and
(C) a leadership office of the Senate or the House of Representatives; and
SEC. 3. Electronic transmission of reports.
(a) In general.—On or after the date that is 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act, except as provided in subsection (c) and to the extent specifically required otherwise by law—
(1) any report or written communication required to be submitted to Congress by an agency under any provision of law, and any response from an agency to a request by a congressional office for written information, shall only be transmitted by the agency in an acceptable electronic format; and
(2) any structured data included in or with any report, written communication, or written information described in paragraph (1) shall be transmitted by the agency in an acceptable electronic format for structured data.
(1) IN GENERAL.—In transmitting a report, written communication, or written information described in subsection (a) to a congressional office, an agency shall, to the extent possible, provide the original electronic file or an electronically converted file rather than a scanned document, even if the document includes a signature.
(2) SEARCHABLE SCANNED DOCUMENTS.—Each scanned document that is transmitted by an agency to a congressional office shall be made searchable via optical character recognition or other means.
(c) Other formats.—An agency that transmits a report, written communication, or written information described in subsection (a) to a congressional office in an acceptable electronic format may, if requested by the congressional office, transmit the report, written communication, or written information to the congressional office—
(1) in an electronic format that is not an acceptable electronic format;
(2) as a physical document; or
(3) in camera.
This Act may be cited as the “Modernizing Congressional Reporting Act of 2018”.
In this Act—
(1) the term “acceptable electronic format” means a file format and metadata elements authorized by the National Archives and Records Administration for the transfer of permanent electronic records—
(3) the term “congressionally mandated report” means a report that is required to be submitted to either House of Congress or any committee of Congress, or subcommittee thereof, by a statute, resolution, or conference report that accompanies legislation enacted into law;
(4) the term “congressional office” means—
(5) the term “open format” means a file format for storing digital data based on an underlying open standard that—
SEC. 3. Electronic transmission of reports.
(a) In general.—On or after the date that is 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act, except as provided in subsection (c) and to the extent specifically required otherwise by law—
(1) any report or other recorded information required to be submitted to Congress by an agency under any provision of law, and any response from an agency to a request by a congressional office for any report or other recorded information, shall only be transmitted by the agency in an acceptable electronic format; and
(b) Format preference.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—In transmitting a report or other recorded information described in subsection (a) to a congressional office, an agency shall, to the extent possible, provide the original electronic file or an electronically converted file rather than a scanned document, even if the document includes a signature.
(c) Other formats.—An agency that is required to transmit a report or other recorded information described in subsection (a) to a congressional office in an acceptable electronic format may, if requested by, or otherwise agreed to with, the congressional office—
(d) Routing.—If a congressional office designates a method to receive reports and other recorded information described in subsection (a) from agencies, each agency shall transmit a report or other recorded information to the congressional office using the designated method, unless otherwise requested by the congressional office.
SEC. 4. Publishing of reports.
(a) In general.—On or after the date that is 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act, any congressionally mandated report, and any structured data described in section (3)(a)(2) and any transmittal letter associated with the report, shall be posted on the public website of the agency—
(b) Free access.—No fee, registration requirement, or other access limitation shall be imposed on access to any report required to be posted under subsection (a).
(c) Open access.—All reports, data, and other information posted under this section shall be available to the public without restrictions, including restrictions that would impede reuse of any or all elements of the information.
(d) Ease of access.—Each agency shall provide in tabular form a list of all reports, data, or other information required to be posted under subsection (a) that—
(1) is—
(B) accessible at a uniform resource locator or similar locator that is changed as infrequently as practicable;
(C) in a structure that is changed as infrequently as practicable and consistent with the structure used by other agencies as practicable;
(e) Timely access.—An agency shall post a report, data, or other information required to be posted by the agency under subsection (a) not later than 30 days after the date on which the agency submits the report, data, or other information to Congress.
(f) Removing and altering reports.—An agency may only change or remove, with the exception of technical changes, a report, data, or other information required to be posted by the agency under subsection (a) if—
(g) Relation to the freedom of information act and redaction.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Nothing in this section shall be construed to require the disclosure of information or records that are—
(2) REDACTION OF REPORT.—With respect to each report, data, or other information required to be posted by an agency under subsection (a), the head of the agency shall—
(h) Withholding information.—An agency—
(1) may withhold information otherwise required to be disclosed under this section only if—
(i) Open data registration.—Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act, each agency shall make the list described in subsection (d) available to the public on Data.gov or a successor Federal open government data site, in a structure and format used by that system.
(j) Submission of reports.—Nothing in this section shall be construed to—
Calendar No. 565 | |||||
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[Report No. 115–333] | |||||
A BILL | |||||
To save taxpayer money and improve the efficiency and speed of intragovernmental correspondence,
and for other purposes. | |||||
September 4, 2018 | |||||
Reported with an amendment |