118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 300
AN ACT
To amend chapter 3 of title 5, United States Code, to require
the publication of settlement agreements, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 2
•HR 300 EH
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Settlement Agreement 2
Information Database Act of 2023’’. 3
SEC. 2. INFORMATION REGARDING SETTLEMENT AGREE-4
MENTS ENTERED INTO BY FEDERAL AGEN-5
CIES. 6
(a) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR SETTLEMENT AGREE-7
MENTS.—Chapter 3 of title 5, United States Code, is 8
amended by adding at the end the following new section: 9
‘‘§ 307. Information regarding settlement agreements 10
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 11
‘‘(1) L
OCAL GOVERNMENT .—The term ‘local 12
government’ has the meaning given that term in sec-13
tion 6501 of title 31. 14
‘‘(2) O
RDER TYPE.—The term ‘order type’ 15
means the type of action or instrument used to set-16
tle a civil or criminal judicial action. 17
‘‘(3) S
ETTLEMENT AGREEMENT .—The term 18
‘settlement agreement’ means a settlement agree-19
ment (including a consent decree) that— 20
‘‘(A) is entered into by an Executive agen-21
cy; and 22
‘‘(B) relates to an alleged violation of Fed-23
eral civil or criminal law. 24
‘‘(4) S
TATE.—The term ‘State’ means each of 25
the several States, the District of Columbia, each 26 3
•HR 300 EH
territory or possession of the United States, and 1
each federally recognized Indian Tribe. 2
‘‘(b) S
ETTLEMENT AGREEMENT INFORMATION 3
D
ATABASE.— 4
‘‘(1) E
XECUTIVE AGENCY REQUIREMENT .— 5
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to subpara-6
graph (B), the head of each Executive agency 7
shall, in accordance with guidance issued pursu-8
ant to paragraph (2), submit the following in-9
formation to the database established under 10
paragraph (3): 11
‘‘(i) A list of each settlement agree-12
ment, in a categorized and searchable for-13
mat, entered into by the Executive agency, 14
as a party to a lawsuit, which shall in-15
clude, for each settlement agreement— 16
‘‘(I) the order type of the settle-17
ment agreement; 18
‘‘(II) the date on which the par-19
ties entered into the settlement agree-20
ment; 21
‘‘(III) a list of specific violations 22
that specify the basis for the action 23
taken, with a description of the claims 24 4
•HR 300 EH
each party settled under the settle-1
ment agreement; 2
‘‘(IV) the amount of attorneys’ 3
fees and other litigation costs award-4
ed, if any, including a description of 5
the statutory basis for such an award; 6
‘‘(V) the amount each party set-7
tling a claim under the settlement 8
agreement is obligated to pay under 9
the settlement agreement; 10
‘‘(VI) the total amount the set-11
tling parties are obligated to pay 12
under the settlement agreement; 13
‘‘(VII) the amount, if any, the 14
settling party is obligated to pay that 15
is expressly specified under the settle-16
ment agreement as a civil or criminal 17
penalty or fine; 18
‘‘(VIII) any payment made under 19
the settlement agreement, including a 20
description of any payment made to 21
the Federal Government; 22
‘‘(IX) the projected duration of 23
the settlement agreement, if available; 24 5
•HR 300 EH
‘‘(X) a list of State or local gov-1
ernments that may be directly af-2
fected by the terms of the settlement 3
agreement; 4
‘‘(XI) a brief description of any 5
economic data and methodology used 6
to justify the terms of the settlement 7
agreement; 8
‘‘(XII) any modifications to the 9
settlement agreement, when applica-10
ble; 11
‘‘(XIII) notice and comments, 12
when applicable; and 13
‘‘(XIV) whether the settlement 14
agreement is still under judicial en-15
forcement and any period of time by 16
which the parties agreed to have cer-17
tain conditions met. 18
‘‘(ii) A copy of each— 19
‘‘(I) settlement agreement en-20
tered into by the Executive agency; 21
and 22
‘‘(II) statement issued under 23
paragraph (4). 24 6
•HR 300 EH
‘‘(B) NONDISCLOSURE.—The requirement 1
to submit information or a copy of a settlement 2
agreement under subparagraph (A) shall not 3
apply to the extent the information or copy (or 4
portion thereof)— 5
‘‘(i) is subject to a confidentiality pro-6
vision that prohibits disclosure of the infor-7
mation or copy (or portion thereof); and 8
‘‘(ii) would not be disclosed under sec-9
tion 552, if the Executive agency provides 10
a citation to the applicable exemption. 11
‘‘(C) C
LARIFICATION OF RESPONSIBLE 12
AGENCY.—In a case in which an Executive 13
agency is acting at the request or on behalf of 14
another Executive agency (referred to as the 15
originating agency), the originating agency is 16
responsible for submitting information under 17
subparagraph (A). 18
‘‘(2) G
UIDANCE.—The Director of the Office of 19
Management and Budget shall issue guidance for 20
Executive agencies to implement paragraph (1). 21
Such guidance shall include the following: 22
‘‘(A) Specific dates by which submissions 23
must be made, not less than twice a year. 24 7
•HR 300 EH
‘‘(B) Data standards, including common 1
data elements and a common, nonproprietary, 2
searchable, machine-readable, platform inde-3
pendent format. 4
‘‘(C) A requirement that the information 5
and documents required under paragraph (1) 6
are publicly available for a period starting on 7
the date of the settlement through not less than 8
5 years after the termination of the settlement 9
agreement. 10
‘‘(3) E
STABLISHMENT OF DATABASE .—The Di-11
rector of the Office of Management and Budget, or 12
the head of an Executive agency designated by the 13
Director, shall establish and maintain a public, 14
searchable, downloadable database for Executive 15
agencies to directly upload and submit the informa-16
tion and documents required under paragraph (1) 17
for immediate publication online. 18
‘‘(4) S
TATEMENT OF CONFIDENTIALITY .—If 19
the head of an Executive agency determines that a 20
confidentiality provision in a settlement agreement, 21
or the sealing of a settlement agreement, is required 22
to protect the public interest of the United States, 23
the head of the Executive agency may except the 24
settlement agreement from the requirement in para-25 8
•HR 300 EH
graph (1) and shall issue a written public statement 1
stating why such action is required to protect the 2
public interest of the United States, which shall ex-3
plain— 4
‘‘(A) what interests confidentiality pro-5
tects; and 6
‘‘(B) why the interests protected by con-7
fidentiality outweigh the public’s interest in 8
knowing about the conduct of the Federal Gov-9
ernment and the expenditure of Federal re-10
sources.’’. 11
(b) T
ECHNICAL AND CONFORMINGAMENDMENT.— 12
The table of sections for chapter 3 of title 5, United States 13
Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new 14
item: 15
‘‘307. Information regarding settlement agreements.’’.
(c) DEADLINETOESTABLISHDATABASE.—Not later 16
than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, 17
the Director of the Office of Management and Budget 18
shall issue guidance required by section 307(b)(2) of title 19
5, United States Code, as added by subsection (a), and 20
establish the settlement agreement information database 21
required by section 307(b)(3) of title 5, United States 22
Code, as added by subsection (a). 23
(d) D
EADLINE FORFIRSTSUBMISSION.—Not later 24
than 90 days after the Director issues guidance under sec-25 9
•HR 300 EH
tion 307(b)(2) of title 5, United States Code, as added 1
by subsection (a), the head of each Executive agency (as 2
defined in section 105 of title 5, United States Code) shall 3
begin submitting information to the database established 4
under such section 307. 5
SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION 6
ACT. 7
Section 552(a)(2) of title 5, United States Code, is 8
amended— 9
(1) by redesignating subparagraphs (B) 10
through (E) as subparagraphs (C) through (F), re-11
spectively; and 12
(2) by inserting after subparagraph (A) the fol-13
lowing new subparagraph: 14
‘‘(B) each settlement agreement (as defined in 15
section 307) entered into by an Executive agency, 16
with redactions for information that the agency may 17
withhold under paragraph (8) and subsections (b) 18
and (c) of this section;’’. 19
SEC. 4. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 20
Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this 21
Act, shall be construed to require the disclosure of infor-22
mation or records that any agency may properly withhold 23
from public disclosure under section 552 of title 5, United 24 10
•HR 300 EH
States Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Freedom of Infor-1
mation Act’’). 2
SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE; APPLICABILITY. 3
This Act shall be effective 180 days after the date 4
of the enactment of this Act and shall apply— 5
(1) with respect to any settlement agreement 6
(as such term is defined in section 307 of title 5, 7
United States Code, as added by section 2), entered 8
into on or after the date of the enactment of this 9
Act; and 10
(2) to the extent practicable, any such settle-11
ment agreement (as such term is defined in section 12
307 of title 5, United States Code, as added by sec-13
tion 2) that remains in effect on or after the date 14
of the enactment of this Act. 15
Passed the House of Representatives January 24,
2023.
Attest:
Clerk. 118
TH
CONGRESS
1
ST
S
ESSION
H. R. 300
AN ACT
To amend chapter 3 of title 5, United States Code,
to require the publication of settlement agree-
ments, and for other purposes.