II
Calendar No. 7
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 300
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY25, 2023
Received; read the first time
J
ANUARY26, 2023
Read the second time and placed on the calendar
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
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Settlement Agreement 4
Information Database Act of 2023’’. 5
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SEC. 2. INFORMATION REGARDING SETTLEMENT AGREE-1
MENTS ENTERED INTO BY FEDERAL AGEN-2
CIES. 3
(a) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR SETTLEMENT AGREE-4
MENTS.—Chapter 3 of title 5, United States Code, is 5
amended by adding at the end the following new section: 6
‘‘§ 307. Information regarding settlement agreements 7
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
‘‘(1) L
OCAL GOVERNMENT .—The term ‘local 9
government’ has the meaning given that term in sec-10
tion 6501 of title 31. 11
‘‘(2) O
RDER TYPE.—The term ‘order type’ 12
means the type of action or instrument used to set-13
tle a civil or criminal judicial action. 14
‘‘(3) S
ETTLEMENT AGREEMENT .—The term 15
‘settlement agreement’ means a settlement agree-16
ment (including a consent decree) that— 17
‘‘(A) is entered into by an Executive agen-18
cy; and 19
‘‘(B) relates to an alleged violation of Fed-20
eral civil or criminal law. 21
‘‘(4) S
TATE.—The term ‘State’ means each of 22
the several States, the District of Columbia, each 23
territory or possession of the United States, and 24
each federally recognized Indian Tribe. 25
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‘‘(b) SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT INFORMATION 1
D
ATABASE.— 2
‘‘(1) E
XECUTIVE AGENCY REQUIREMENT .— 3
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to subpara-4
graph (B), the head of each Executive agency 5
shall, in accordance with guidance issued pursu-6
ant to paragraph (2), submit the following in-7
formation to the database established under 8
paragraph (3): 9
‘‘(i) A list of each settlement agree-10
ment, in a categorized and searchable for-11
mat, entered into by the Executive agency, 12
as a party to a lawsuit, which shall in-13
clude, for each settlement agreement— 14
‘‘(I) the order type of the settle-15
ment agreement; 16
‘‘(II) the date on which the par-17
ties entered into the settlement agree-18
ment; 19
‘‘(III) a list of specific violations 20
that specify the basis for the action 21
taken, with a description of the claims 22
each party settled under the settle-23
ment agreement; 24
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‘‘(IV) the amount of attorneys’ 1
fees and other litigation costs award-2
ed, if any, including a description of 3
the statutory basis for such an award; 4
‘‘(V) the amount each party set-5
tling a claim under the settlement 6
agreement is obligated to pay under 7
the settlement agreement; 8
‘‘(VI) the total amount the set-9
tling parties are obligated to pay 10
under the settlement agreement; 11
‘‘(VII) the amount, if any, the 12
settling party is obligated to pay that 13
is expressly specified under the settle-14
ment agreement as a civil or criminal 15
penalty or fine; 16
‘‘(VIII) any payment made under 17
the settlement agreement, including a 18
description of any payment made to 19
the Federal Government; 20
‘‘(IX) the projected duration of 21
the settlement agreement, if available; 22
‘‘(X) a list of State or local gov-23
ernments that may be directly af-24
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fected by the terms of the settlement 1
agreement; 2
‘‘(XI) a brief description of any 3
economic data and methodology used 4
to justify the terms of the settlement 5
agreement; 6
‘‘(XII) any modifications to the 7
settlement agreement, when applica-8
ble; 9
‘‘(XIII) notice and comments, 10
when applicable; and 11
‘‘(XIV) whether the settlement 12
agreement is still under judicial en-13
forcement and any period of time by 14
which the parties agreed to have cer-15
tain conditions met. 16
‘‘(ii) A copy of each— 17
‘‘(I) settlement agreement en-18
tered into by the Executive agency; 19
and 20
‘‘(II) statement issued under 21
paragraph (4). 22
‘‘(B) N
ONDISCLOSURE.—The requirement 23
to submit information or a copy of a settlement 24
agreement under subparagraph (A) shall not 25
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apply to the extent the information or copy (or 1
portion thereof)— 2
‘‘(i) is subject to a confidentiality pro-3
vision that prohibits disclosure of the infor-4
mation or copy (or portion thereof); and 5
‘‘(ii) would not be disclosed under sec-6
tion 552, if the Executive agency provides 7
a citation to the applicable exemption. 8
‘‘(C) C
LARIFICATION OF RESPONSIBLE 9
AGENCY.—In a case in which an Executive 10
agency is acting at the request or on behalf of 11
another Executive agency (referred to as the 12
originating agency), the originating agency is 13
responsible for submitting information under 14
subparagraph (A). 15
‘‘(2) G
UIDANCE.—The Director of the Office of 16
Management and Budget shall issue guidance for 17
Executive agencies to implement paragraph (1). 18
Such guidance shall include the following: 19
‘‘(A) Specific dates by which submissions 20
must be made, not less than twice a year. 21
‘‘(B) Data standards, including common 22
data elements and a common, nonproprietary, 23
searchable, machine-readable, platform inde-24
pendent format. 25
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‘‘(C) A requirement that the information 1
and documents required under paragraph (1) 2
are publicly available for a period starting on 3
the date of the settlement through not less than 4
5 years after the termination of the settlement 5
agreement. 6
‘‘(3) E
STABLISHMENT OF DATABASE .—The Di-7
rector of the Office of Management and Budget, or 8
the head of an Executive agency designated by the 9
Director, shall establish and maintain a public, 10
searchable, downloadable database for Executive 11
agencies to directly upload and submit the informa-12
tion and documents required under paragraph (1) 13
for immediate publication online. 14
‘‘(4) S
TATEMENT OF CONFIDENTIALITY .—If 15
the head of an Executive agency determines that a 16
confidentiality provision in a settlement agreement, 17
or the sealing of a settlement agreement, is required 18
to protect the public interest of the United States, 19
the head of the Executive agency may except the 20
settlement agreement from the requirement in para-21
graph (1) and shall issue a written public statement 22
stating why such action is required to protect the 23
public interest of the United States, which shall ex-24
plain— 25
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‘‘(A) what interests confidentiality pro-1
tects; and 2
‘‘(B) why the interests protected by con-3
fidentiality outweigh the public’s interest in 4
knowing about the conduct of the Federal Gov-5
ernment and the expenditure of Federal re-6
sources.’’. 7
(b) T
ECHNICAL AND CONFORMINGAMENDMENT.— 8
The table of sections for chapter 3 of title 5, United States 9
Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new 10
item: 11
‘‘307. Information regarding settlement agreements.’’.
(c) DEADLINETOESTABLISHDATABASE.—Not later 12
than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, 13
the Director of the Office of Management and Budget 14
shall issue guidance required by section 307(b)(2) of title 15
5, United States Code, as added by subsection (a), and 16
establish the settlement agreement information database 17
required by section 307(b)(3) of title 5, United States 18
Code, as added by subsection (a). 19
(d) D
EADLINE FORFIRSTSUBMISSION.—Not later 20
than 90 days after the Director issues guidance under sec-21
tion 307(b)(2) of title 5, United States Code, as added 22
by subsection (a), the head of each Executive agency (as 23
defined in section 105 of title 5, United States Code) shall 24
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begin submitting information to the database established 1
under such section 307. 2
SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION 3
ACT. 4
Section 552(a)(2) of title 5, United States Code, is 5
amended— 6
(1) by redesignating subparagraphs (B) 7
through (E) as subparagraphs (C) through (F), re-8
spectively; and 9
(2) by inserting after subparagraph (A) the fol-10
lowing new subparagraph: 11
‘‘(B) each settlement agreement (as defined in 12
section 307) entered into by an Executive agency, 13
with redactions for information that the agency may 14
withhold under paragraph (8) and subsections (b) 15
and (c) of this section;’’. 16
SEC. 4. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 17
Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this 18
Act, shall be construed to require the disclosure of infor-19
mation or records that any agency may properly withhold 20
from public disclosure under section 552 of title 5, United 21
States Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Freedom of Infor-22
mation Act’’). 23
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SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE; APPLICABILITY. 1
This Act shall be effective 180 days after the date 2
of the enactment of this Act and shall apply— 3
(1) with respect to any settlement agreement 4
(as such term is defined in section 307 of title 5, 5
United States Code, as added by section 2), entered 6
into on or after the date of the enactment of this 7
Act; and 8
(2) to the extent practicable, any such settle-9
ment agreement (as such term is defined in section 10
307 of title 5, United States Code, as added by sec-11
tion 2) that remains in effect on or after the date 12
of the enactment of this Act. 13
Passed the House of Representatives January 24,
2023.
Attest: CHERYL L. JOHNSON,
Clerk.
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7
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.
J
ANUARY
26, 2023
Read the second time and placed on the calendar
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kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS