Us Congress House Bill HB5048 Introduced / Bill

                    I 
118THCONGRESS 
1
STSESSION H. R. 5048 
To protect our democracy by preventing abuses of Presidential power, restor-
ing checks and balances and accountability and transparency in govern-
ment, and defending elections against foreign interference, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY27, 2023 
Mr. S
CHIFF(for himself, Mr. NADLER, Mr. LARSENof Washington, Mr. 
E
VANS, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. CA´RDENAS, Mr. RASKIN, Ms. BROWNLEY, 
Ms. S
CHAKOWSKY, Mr. HIMES, Mr. BOYLEof Pennsylvania, Mr. 
M
ORELLE, Mr. TRONE, Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. JOHNSONof Georgia, Mr. 
T
AKANO, Ms. NORTON, Ms. WILLIAMSof Georgia, Ms. SEWELL, Ms. 
D
ELBENE, Ms. BARRAGA´N, Mr. CASTEN, Mr. ROBERTGARCIAof Cali-
fornia, Mr. P
HILLIPS, Ms. TOKUDA, Mr. POCAN, Mr. DESAULNIER, Mr. 
S
ARBANES, Mr. MULLIN, Mr. BERA, Mr. ALLRED, Ms. LOFGREN, Mr. 
K
ILMER, Mr. IVEY, Ms. CLARKEof New York, Mr. GOMEZ, Mr. 
S
WALWELL, Mr. LIEU, Mr. GOLDMANof New York, Ms. WILSONof Flor-
ida, Mr. K
IMof New Jersey, Mr. GALLEGO, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mrs. WAT-
SONCOLEMAN, Ms. DEANof Pennsylvania, Mr. BISHOPof Georgia, Ms. 
M
CCOLLUM, Mr. HIGGINSof New York, Ms. JACKSONLEE, Ms. 
J
AYAPAL, Mr. CORREA, Mr. DAVIDSCOTTof Georgia, Mr. KHANNA, Ms. 
S
TEVENS, Ms. SCANLON, Ms. TITUS, Ms. PELOSI, Mr. COHEN, Mr. BLU-
MENAUER, Ms. MENG, Mr. QUIGLEY, Ms. PORTER, Ms. BALINT, Ms. 
E
SHOO, Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. CARTERof Louisiana, Mr. MFUME, Mr. 
L
YNCH, Mr. AGUILAR, Mr. CARSON, Mr. CROW, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. 
T
ORRESof New York, Ms. BLUNTROCHESTER, Ms. LEEof California, 
Mr. D
ELUZIO, Mr. PANETTA, Ms. PINGREE, Ms. STRICKLAND, Ms. 
V
ELA´ZQUEZ, Mr. AUCHINCLOSS, Mr. PASCRELL, Ms. GARCIAof Texas, 
Mr. L
ARSONof Connecticut, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. DAVIS 
of Illinois, Ms. K
ELLYof Illinois, Ms. WEXTON, Mr. DAVISof North 
Carolina, Ms. E
SCOBAR, Mrs. HAYES, Mrs. BEATTY, Ms. SALINAS, Ms. 
C
ASTORof Florida, Mrs. FLETCHER, Mr. NORCROSS, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, 
Ms. S
A´NCHEZ, Mr. BEYER, Mr. SCOTTof Virginia, Ms. BROWN, Mr. 
N
EGUSE, Ms. JACOBS, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. LEVIN, Mr. GRIJALVA, and Mr. 
T
ONKO) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Oversight and Accountability, and in addition to the Commit-
tees on the Judiciary, House Administration, the Budget, Transportation 
and Infrastructure, Rules, Foreign Affairs, Ways and Means, and Intel-
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ligence (Permanent Select), for a period to be subsequently determined 
by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To protect our democracy by preventing abuses of Presi-
dential power, restoring checks and balances and ac-
countability and transparency in government, and de-
fending elections against foreign interference, 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 ‘‘Protecting Our Democ-4
racy Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. ORGANIZATION OF ACT INTO DIVISIONS; TABLE OF 6
CONTENTS. 7
(a) D
IVISIONS.—This Act is organized into divisions 8
as follows: 9
(1) Division A—Preventing Abuses of Presi-10
dential Power. 11
(2) Division B—Restoring Checks and Bal-12
ances, Accountability, and Transparency. 13
(3) Division C—Miscellaneous. 14
(4) Division D—Severability. 15
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(b) TABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents of 1
this Act is as follows: 2
Sec. 1. Short title. 
Sec. 2. Organization of Act into divisions; table of contents. 
DIVISION A—PREVENTING ABUSES OF PRESIDENTIAL POWER 
TITLE I—ABUSE OF THE PARDON POWER PREVENTION 
Sec. 101. Short title. 
Sec. 102. Congressional oversight relating to certain pardons. 
Sec. 103. Bribery in connection with pardons and commutations. 
Sec. 104. Prohibition on presidential self-pardon. 
TITLE II—ENSURING NO PRESIDENT IS ABOVE THE LAW 
Sec. 201. Short title. 
Sec. 202. Tolling of statute of limitations. 
Sec. 203. Contracts by the President, the Vice President, or a Cabinet member. 
Sec. 204. Forfeiture of benefits for former Presidents convicted of a felony. 
TITLE III—ENFORCEMENT OF THE FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC 
EMOLUMENTS CLAUSES OF THE CONSTITUTION 
Sec. 301. Short title. 
Sec. 302. Definitions. 
Sec. 303. Prohibition on acceptance of foreign and domestic emoluments. 
Sec. 304. Civil actions by Congress concerning foreign emoluments. 
Sec. 305. Disclosures concerning foreign and domestic emoluments. 
Sec. 306. Enforcement authority of the Director of the Office of Government 
Ethics. 
Sec. 307. Jurisdiction of the Office of Special Counsel. 
Sec. 308. Rulemaking for ethics requirements for legal expense funds. 
Sec. 309. Limitations and disclosure of certain donations to, and disbursements 
by, inaugural committees. 
DIVISION B—RESTORING CHECKS AND BALANCES, 
ACCOUNTABILITY, AND TRANSPARENCY 
TITLE IV—ENFORCEMENT OF CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS 
Sec. 401. Short title. 
Sec. 402. Findings. 
Sec. 403. Enforcement of congressional subpoenas. 
Sec. 404. Compliance with congressional subpoenas. 
Sec. 405. Rule of construction. 
Sec. 406. Enforcement of requests for information from certain committees of 
Congress. 
TITLE V—REASSERTING CONGRESSIONAL POWER OF THE PURSE 
Sec. 500. Short title. 
Subtitle A—Strengthening Congressional Control and Review To Prevent 
Impoundment 
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Sec. 501. Strengthening congressional control. 
Sec. 502. Strengthening congressional review. 
Sec. 503. Updated authorities for and reporting by the Comptroller General. 
Sec. 504. Advance congressional notification and litigation. 
Sec. 505. Penalties for failure to comply with the Impoundment Control Act of 
1974. 
Subtitle B—Strengthening Transparency and Reporting 
P
ART1—FUNDSMANAGEMENT AND REPORTING TO THE CONGRESS 
Sec. 511. Expired balance reporting in the President’s budget. 
Sec. 512. Cancelled balance reporting in the President’s budget. 
Sec. 513. Lapse in appropriations—reporting in the President’s budget. 
Sec. 514. Transfer and other repurposing authority reporting in the President’s 
budget. 
Sec. 515. Authorizing cancellations in indefinite accounts by appropriation. 
P
ART2—EMPOWERINGCONGRESSIONALREVIEWTHROUGHNONPARTISAN 
C
ONGRESSIONALAGENCIES ANDTRANSPARENCYINITIATIVES 
Sec. 521. Requirement to respond to requests for information from the Comp-
troller General for budget and appropriations law decisions. 
Sec. 522. Reporting requirements for Antideficiency Act violations. 
Sec. 523. Department of Justice reporting to Congress for Antideficiency Act 
violations. 
Sec. 524. Publication of budget or appropriations law opinions of the Depart-
ment of Justice Office of Legal Counsel. 
Sec. 525. Treatment of requests for information from Members of Congress. 
Subtitle C—Strengthening Congressional Role in and Oversight of Emergency 
Declarations and Designations 
Sec. 531. Improving checks and balances on the use of the National Emer-
gencies Act. 
Sec. 532. National Emergencies Act declaration spending reporting in the 
President’s budget. 
Sec. 533. Disclosure to Congress of presidential emergency action documents. 
Sec. 534. Congressional designations. 
TITLE VI—SECURITY FROM POLITICAL INTERFERENCE IN 
JUSTICE 
Sec. 601. Short title. 
Sec. 602. Definitions. 
Sec. 603. Communications logs. 
Sec. 604. Rule of construction. 
TITLE VII—PROTECTING WHISTLEBLOWERS 
Subtitle A—Whistleblower Protection Improvement 
Sec. 701. Short title. 
Sec. 702. Additional whistleblower protections. 
Sec. 703. Enhancement of whistleblower protections. 
Sec. 704. Classifying certain furloughs as adverse personnel actions. 
Sec. 705. Codification of protections for disclosures of censorship related to re-
search, analysis, or technical information. 
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Sec. 706. Title 5 technical and conforming amendments. 
Subtitle B—Whistleblowers of the Intelligence Community 
Sec. 711. Limitation on sharing of intelligence community whistleblower com-
plaints with persons named in such complaints. 
Sec. 712. Disclosures to Congress. 
Sec. 713. Prohibition against disclosure of whistleblower identity as reprisal 
against whistleblower disclosure by employees and contractors 
in intelligence community. 
TITLE VIII—ACCOUNTABILITY FOR ACTING OFFICIALS 
Sec. 801. Short title. 
Sec. 802. Clarification of Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998. 
TITLE IX—STRENGTHENING HATCH ACT ENFORCEMENT AND 
PENALTIES 
Subtitle A—Strengthening Hatch Act Enforcement and Penalties 
Sec. 901. Short title. 
Sec. 902. Strengthening Hatch Act enforcement and penalties against political 
appointees. 
Sec. 903. Including Executive Office of the President under limitation on nepo-
tism in the civil service. 
Sec. 904. Disclosure of Hatch Act investigations for certain political employees. 
Sec. 905. Clarification on candidates visiting Federal property. 
Sec. 906. Applying Hatch Act to President and Vice President while on Federal 
property. 
Sec. 907. Granting the Office of Special Counsel rulemaking authority. 
Sec. 908. Greater accountability for political appointees. 
Sec. 909. Investigating former political employees. 
Sec. 910. GAO review of reimbursable political events. 
Subtitle B—Strengthening Ethics Enforcement and Penalties for Federal 
Executive Employees 
Sec. 911. Definitions. 
Sec. 912. Ethics pledge. 
Sec. 913. Waivers. 
Sec. 914. Administration. 
Sec. 915. Enforcement. 
Sec. 916. General provisions. 
TITLE X—PRESIDENTIAL AND VICE PRESIDENTIAL TAX 
TRANSPARENCY 
Sec. 1001. Presidential and Vice Presidential tax transparency. 
DIVISION C—MISCELLANEOUS 
TITLE XI—REPORTING FOREIGN INTERFERENCE IN ELECTIONS 
Sec. 1101. Federal campaign reporting of foreign contacts. 
Sec. 1102. Federal campaign foreign contact reporting compliance system. 
Sec. 1103. Criminal penalties. 
Sec. 1104. Report to congressional intelligence committees. 
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Sec. 1105. Rule of construction. 
TITLE XII—ELIMINATING FOREIGN INTERFERENCE IN 
ELECTIONS 
Sec. 1201. Clarification of application of foreign money ban. 
Sec. 1202. Requiring acknowledgment of foreign money ban by political com-
mittees. 
Sec. 1203. Prohibition on contributions and donations by foreign nationals in 
connection with ballot initiatives and referenda. 
TITLE XIII—HONEST ADS 
Sec. 1301. Short title. 
Sec. 1302. Purpose. 
Sec. 1303. Sense of Congress. 
Sec. 1304. Expansion of definition of public communication. 
Sec. 1305. Expansion of definition of electioneering communication. 
Sec. 1306. Application of disclaimer statements to online communications. 
Sec. 1307. Political record requirements for online platforms. 
Sec. 1308. Preventing contributions, expenditures, independent expenditures, 
and disbursements for electioneering communications by for-
eign nationals in the form of online advertising. 
Sec. 1309. Requiring online platforms to display notices identifying sponsors of 
political advertisements and to ensure notices continue to be 
present when advertisements are shared. 
TITLE XIV—PREVENTING A PATRONAGE SYSTEM 
Sec. 1401. Short title. 
Sec. 1402. Limitations on excepting positions from competitive service and 
transferring positions. 
TITLE XV—USE OF FEDERAL PROPERTY; VISITOR RECORDS 
Sec. 1501. Prohibition on use of Federal property for political conventions. 
Sec. 1502. Improving access to influential visitor access records. 
DIVISION D—SEVERABILITY 
TITLE XVI—SEVERABILITY 
Sec. 1601. Severability. 
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DIVISION A—PREVENTING 1
ABUSES OF PRESIDENTIAL 2
POWER 3
TITLE I—ABUSE OF THE PARDON 4
POWER PREVENTION 5
SEC. 101. SHORT TITLE. 6
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Abuse of the Pardon 7
Power Prevention Act’’. 8
SEC. 102. CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT RELATING TO CER-9
TAIN PARDONS. 10
(a) S
UBMISSION OFINFORMATION.—Not later than 11
30 days after the date on which the President grants an 12
individual a pardon for a covered offense, the Attorney 13
General shall submit to the chair and ranking member of 14
each appropriate congressional committee— 15
(1) all materials obtained or produced by the 16
prosecution team, including the Attorney General 17
and any United States Attorney, and all materials 18
obtained or prepared by any investigative agency of 19
the Federal Government, relating to the offense for 20
which the individual was pardoned; and 21
(2) all materials obtained or produced by the 22
Department of Justice in relation to the pardon. 23
(b) T
REATMENT OFINFORMATION.—Rule 6(e) of the 24
Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure may not be con-25
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strued to prohibit the disclosure of information required 1
by subsection (a) of this section. 2
(c) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 3
(1) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COM -4
MITTEE.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-5
mittee’’ means— 6
(A) the Committee on the Judiciary of the 7
Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary of 8
the House of Representatives; and 9
(B) if an investigation relates to intel-10
ligence or counterintelligence matters, the Se-11
lect Committee on Intelligence of the Senate 12
and the Permanent Select Committee on Intel-13
ligence of the House of Representatives. 14
(2) C
OVERED OFFENSE .—The term ‘‘covered 15
offense’’ means— 16
(A) an offense against the United States 17
that arises from an investigation in which a tar-18
get or subject is— 19
(i) the President; 20
(ii) a relative of the President; 21
(iii) any individual who is serving or 22
previously served as a political appointee 23
(as defined in section 1216(f)(6) of title 5, 24
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United States Code, as added by title IX 1
of this Act) under the President; 2
(iv) any individual who was an em-3
ployee of an authorized committee (as de-4
fined in section 301(6) of the Federal 5
Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 6
30101(6))) of the President for any elec-7
tion to the office of President; or 8
(v) in the case of an offense motivated 9
by a direct and significant personal or pe-10
cuniary interest of any individual described 11
in clause (i), (ii), (iii), or (iv), any person 12
or entity; 13
(B) an offense under section 102 of the 14
Revised Statutes of the United States (2 U.S.C. 15
192); or 16
(C) an offense under section 1001, 1505, 17
1512, or 1621 of title 18, United States Code, 18
if the offense occurred in relation to a congres-19
sional proceeding or investigation. 20
(3) P
ARDON.—The term ‘‘pardon’’ includes a 21
commutation of sentence. 22
(4) R
ELATIVE.—The term ‘‘relative’’, with re-23
spect to the President, means— 24
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(A) a family member (as defined in section 1
1635.3(a) of title 29, Code of Federal Regula-2
tions, or any successor regulation) of the Presi-3
dent who is a first-degree relative, second-de-4
gree relative, or third-degree relative (as those 5
terms are defined in such section 1635.3(a) or 6
any successor regulation) of the President; or 7
(B) a spouse of a family member described 8
in subparagraph (A). 9
SEC. 103. BRIBERY IN CONNECTION WITH PARDONS AND 10
COMMUTATIONS. 11
Section 201 of title 18, United States Code, is 12
amended— 13
(1) in subsection (a)— 14
(A) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘, in-15
cluding the President and the Vice President of 16
the United States,’’ after ‘‘or an officer or em-17
ployee or person’’; and 18
(B) in paragraph (3), by inserting before 19
the period at the end the following: ‘‘, including 20
any pardon, commutation, or reprieve, or an 21
offer of any such pardon, commutation, or re-22
prieve’’; and 23
(2) in subsection (b)(3), by inserting ‘‘(includ-24
ing, for purposes of this paragraph, any pardon, 25
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commutation, or reprieve, or an offer of any such 1
pardon, commutation, or reprieve)’’ after ‘‘corruptly 2
gives, offers, or promises anything of value’’. 3
SEC. 104. PROHIBITION ON PRESIDENTIAL SELF-PARDON. 4
The President’s grant of a pardon to himself or her-5
self is void and of no effect, and shall not deprive the 6
courts of jurisdiction, or operate to confer on the Presi-7
dent any legal immunity from investigation or prosecution. 8
TITLE II—ENSURING NO 9
PRESIDENT IS ABOVE THE LAW 10
SEC. 201. SHORT TITLE. 11
This title may be cited as the ‘‘No President Is Above 12
the Law Act’’. 13
SEC. 202. TOLLING OF STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS. 14
(a) O
FFENSESCOMMITTED BY THE PRESIDENT OR 15
V
ICEPRESIDENTDURING ORPRIOR TOTENURE INOF-16
FICE.—Section 3282 of title 18, United States Code, is 17
amended by adding at the end the following: 18
‘‘(c) O
FFENSESCOMMITTED BY THE PRESIDENT OR 19
V
ICEPRESIDENTDURING ORPRIOR TOTENURE INOF-20
FICE.—In the case of any person serving as President or 21
Vice President of the United States, the duration of that 22
person’s tenure in office shall not be considered for pur-23
poses of any statute of limitations applicable to any Fed-24
eral criminal offense committed by that person (including 25
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any offenses committed during any period of time pre-1
ceding such tenure in office).’’. 2
(b) A
PPLICABILITY.—The amendment made by sub-3
section (a) shall apply to any offense committed before the 4
date of enactment of this section, if the statute of limita-5
tions applicable to that offense had not run as of such 6
date. 7
(c) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-8
tion may be construed to preclude the indictment or pros-9
ecution of a President or Vice President, during that 10
President or Vice President’s tenure in office, for viola-11
tions of the criminal laws of the United States. 12
SEC. 203. CONTRACTS BY THE PRESIDENT, THE VICE 13
PRESIDENT, OR A CABINET MEMBER. 14
(a) A
MENDMENT.—Section 431 of title 18, United 15
States Code, is amended— 16
(1) in the section heading, by inserting ‘‘the 17
President, the Vice President, a Cabinet 18
member, or a’’ after ‘‘Contracts by’’; and 19
(2) in the first undesignated paragraph, by in-20
serting ‘‘the President, the Vice President, in a posi-21
tion at level I of the Executive Schedule under sec-22
tion 5312 of title 5,’’ after ‘‘Whoever, being’’. 23
(b) T
ABLE OFSECTIONSAMENDMENT.—The table of 24
sections for chapter 23 of title 18, United States Code, 25
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is amended by striking the item relating to section 431 1
and inserting the following: 2
‘‘431. Contracts by the President, the Vice President, a Cabinet member, or a 
Member of Congress.’’. 
SEC. 204. FORFEITURE OF BENEFITS FOR FORMER PRESI-
3
DENTS CONVICTED OF A FELONY. 4
The first section of the Act entitled ‘‘An Act to pro-5
vide retirement, clerical assistants, and free mailing privi-6
leges to former Presidents of the United States, and for 7
other purposes’’, approved August 25, 1958 (commonly 8
known as the ‘‘Former Presidents Act of 1958’’; 3 U.S.C. 9
102 note), is amended— 10
(1) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘Each former 11
President’’ and inserting ‘‘Subject to subsection (h), 12
each former President’’; 13
(2) in subsection (f), by striking paragraph (2) 14
and inserting: 15
‘‘(2) who has not been impeached by the House 16
of Representatives and convicted by the Senate pur-17
suant to the impeachment; and’’; and 18
(3) by adding at the end the following new sub-19
section: 20
‘‘(h)(1) If a former President is finally convicted of 21
a felony for which every act or omission that is needed 22
to satisfy the elements of the felony is committed during 23
or after the period such former President holds the office 24
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of President, or was finally convicted of such a felony 1
while holding such office— 2
‘‘(A) no monetary allowance under subsection 3
(a) may be provided to such former President; 4
‘‘(B) no funds may be obligated or expended 5
under subsection (g) with respect to such former 6
President except to the extent necessary to maintain 7
the security of such former President, as determined 8
by the Director of the Secret Service; and 9
‘‘(C) such former President shall repay any 10
amounts received under subsection (a) during the 11
period beginning on the date on which such former 12
President is initially convicted of the felony and end-13
ing on the date such former President is finally con-14
victed of the felony. 15
‘‘(2) The term ‘finally convicted’ means a convic-16
tion— 17
‘‘(A) which has not been appealed and is no 18
longer appealable because the time for taking an ap-19
peal has expired; or 20
‘‘(B) which has been appealed and the appeals 21
process for which is completed.’’. 22
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TITLE III—ENFORCEMENT OF 1
THE FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC 2
EMOLUMENTS CLAUSES OF 3
THE CONSTITUTION 4
SEC. 301. SHORT TITLE. 5
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Foreign and Domestic 6
Emoluments Enforcement Act’’. 7
SEC. 302. DEFINITIONS. 8
In this title: 9
(1) The term ‘‘emolument’’ means any profit, 10
gain, or advantage that is received directly or indi-11
rectly from any government of a foreign country, the 12
Federal Government, or any State or local govern-13
ment, or from any instrumentality thereof, including 14
payments arising from commercial transactions at 15
fair market value. 16
(2) The term ‘‘person holding any office of 17
profit or trust under the United States’’ includes the 18
President of the United States and the Vice Presi-19
dent of the United States. 20
(3) The term ‘‘government of a foreign coun-21
try’’ has the meaning given such term in section 1(e) 22
of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as 23
amended (22 U.S.C. 611(e)). 24
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SEC. 303. PROHIBITION ON ACCEPTANCE OF FOREIGN AND 1
DOMESTIC EMOLUMENTS. 2
(a) F
OREIGN.—Except as otherwise provided in sec-3
tion 7342 of title 5, United States Code, it shall be unlaw-4
ful for any person holding an office of profit or trust under 5
the United States to accept from a government of a for-6
eign country, without first obtaining the consent of Con-7
gress, any present or emolument, or any office or title. 8
The prohibition under this subsection applies without re-9
gard to whether the present, emolument, office, or title 10
is— 11
(1) provided directly or indirectly by that gov-12
ernment of a foreign country; or 13
(2) provided to that person or to any private 14
business interest of that person. 15
(b) D
OMESTIC.—It shall be unlawful for the Presi-16
dent to accept from the United States, or any of them, 17
any emolument other than the compensation for his or her 18
services as President provided for by Federal law. The 19
prohibition under this subsection applies without regard 20
to whether the emolument is provided directly or indi-21
rectly, and without regard to whether the emolument is 22
provided to the President or to any private business inter-23
est of the President. 24
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SEC. 304. CIVIL ACTIONS BY CONGRESS CONCERNING FOR-1
EIGN EMOLUMENTS. 2
(a) C
AUSE OFACTION.—The House of Representa-3
tives or the Senate may bring a civil action against any 4
person for a violation of subsection (a) of section 303. 5
(b) S
PECIALRULES.—In any civil action described 6
in subsection (a), the following rules shall apply: 7
(1) The action shall be filed before the United 8
States District Court for the District of Columbia. 9
(2) The action shall be heard by a three-judge 10
court convened pursuant to section 2284 of title 28, 11
United States Code. It shall be the duty of such 12
court to advance on the docket and to expedite to 13
the greatest possible extent the disposition of any 14
such action. Such action shall be reviewable only by 15
appeal directly to the Supreme Court of the United 16
States. Such appeal shall be taken by the filing of 17
a notice of appeal within 10 days, and the filing of 18
a jurisdictional statement within 30 days, of the 19
entry of the final decision. 20
(3) It shall be the duty of the Supreme Court 21
of the United States to advance on the docket and 22
to expedite to the greatest possible extent the dis-23
position of any such action and appeal. 24
(c) R
EMEDY.—If the court determines that a viola-25
tion of subsection (a) of section 303 has occurred, the 26
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court shall issue an order enjoining the course of conduct 1
found to constitute the violation, and such of the following 2
as are appropriate: 3
(1) The disgorgement of the value of any for-4
eign present or emolument. 5
(2) The surrender of the physical present or 6
emolument to the Department of State, which shall, 7
if practicable, dispose of the present or emolument 8
and deposit the proceeds into the United States 9
Treasury. 10
(3) The renunciation of any office or title ac-11
cepted in violation of such subsection. 12
(4) A prohibition on the use or holding of such 13
an office or title. 14
(5) Such other relief as the court determines 15
appropriate. 16
(d) U
SE OFGOVERNMENTFUNDSPROHIBITED.—No 17
appropriated funds, funds provided from any accounts in 18
the United States Treasury, funds derived from the collec-19
tion of fees, or any other Government funds shall be used 20
to pay any disgorgement imposed by the court pursuant 21
to this section. 22
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SEC. 305. DISCLOSURES CONCERNING FOREIGN AND DO-1
MESTIC EMOLUMENTS. 2
(a) D
ISCLOSURES.—Section 13104(a) of title 5, 3
United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 4
following: 5
‘‘(9) F
OREIGN EMOLUMENTS .—Any present, 6
emolument, office, or title received from a govern-7
ment of a foreign country, including the source, 8
date, type, and amount or value of each present or 9
emolument accepted on or before the date of filing 10
during the preceding calendar year. 11
‘‘(10) B
USINESS INTERESTS RECEIVING FOR -12
EIGN EMOLUMENTS .—Each business interest that is 13
reasonably expected to result in the receipt of any 14
present or emolument from a government of a for-15
eign country during the current calendar year. 16
‘‘(11) E
MOLUMENTS FROM UNITED STATES .— 17
In addition, the President shall report— 18
‘‘(A) any emolument received from the 19
United States, or any of them, other than the 20
compensation for his or her services as Presi-21
dent provided for by Federal law; and 22
‘‘(B) any business interest that is reason-23
ably expected to result in the receipt of any 24
emolument from the United States, or any of 25
them.’’. 26
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(b) REPORTING REQUIREMENTS RELATED TO 1
S
POUSES AND DEPENDENT CHILDREN.—Section 2
13104(e)(1) of title 5, United States Code, is amended— 3
(1) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), 4
by inserting ‘‘and paragraphs (9) through (11)’’after 5
‘‘(5)’’; and 6
(2) by inserting after subparagraph (F) the fol-7
lowing: 8
‘‘(G) F
OREIGN EMOLUMENTS .—In the case 9
of items described in paragraphs (9) and (10) 10
of subsection (a), all information required to be 11
reported under these paragraphs. 12
‘‘(H) E
MOLUMENTS FROM UNITED 13
STATES.—In the case of— 14
‘‘(i) items described in paragraph 15
(11)(A) of subsection (a), any such items 16
received by spouse or dependent child of 17
the President other than items related to 18
the President’s services as President pro-19
vided for by Federal law; and 20
‘‘(ii) in the case of items described in 21
paragraph (11)(B) of subsection (a), all in-22
formation required to be reported under 23
that paragraph.’’. 24
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(c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in the 1
amendments made by this section shall be construed to 2
affect the prohibition against the acceptance of presents 3
and emoluments under section 303. 4
SEC. 306. ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITY OF THE DIRECTOR 5
OF THE OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS. 6
(a) G
ENERALAUTHORITY.—Section 13122(a) of title 7
5, United States Code, is amended— 8
(1) by striking ‘‘The Director’’ and inserting 9
the following: 10
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Director’’; and 11
(2) by adding at the end the following: 12
‘‘(2) O
VERALL DIRECTION .—The Director 13
shall— 14
‘‘(A) provide overall direction of executive 15
branch policies related to compliance with the 16
Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Enforce-17
ment Act, and the amendments made by that 18
Act; and 19
‘‘(B) shall have the authority to— 20
‘‘(i) issue administrative fines to indi-21
viduals for violations; 22
‘‘(ii) order individuals to take correc-23
tive action, including disgorgement, divesti-24
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ture, and recusal, as the Director deems 1
necessary; and 2
‘‘(iii) bring civil actions to enforce 3
such fines and orders.’’. 4
(b) S
PECIFICAUTHORITIES.—Section 13122(b) of 5
title 5, United States Code, is amended— 6
(1) in paragraph (14), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 7
end; 8
(2) in paragraph (15), by striking the period at 9
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 10
(3) by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘(16) developing and promulgating rules and 12
regulations to ensure compliance with the Foreign 13
and Domestic Emoluments Enforcement Act, and 14
the amendments made by that Act, including estab-15
lishing— 16
‘‘(A) requirements for reporting and disclo-17
sure; 18
‘‘(B) a schedule of administrative fines 19
that may be imposed by the Director for viola-20
tions; and 21
‘‘(C) a process for referral of matters to 22
the Office of Special Counsel for investigation 23
in compliance with section 1216(d).’’. 24
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SEC. 307. JURISDICTION OF THE OFFICE OF SPECIAL 1
COUNSEL. 2
Section 1216 of title 5, United States Code, is 3
amended— 4
(1) in subsection (a)— 5
(A) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 6
the end; 7
(B) in paragraph (5) by striking the period 8
and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 9
(C) by adding at the end the following: 10
‘‘(6) any violation of section 303 of the Foreign 11
and Domestic Emoluments Enforcement Act or of 12
the amendments made by section 305 of such Act.’’; 13
and 14
(2) by adding at the end the following: 15
‘‘(d) If the Director of the Office of Government Eth-16
ics refers a matter for investigation pursuant to section 17
13122, or if the Special Counsel receives a credible com-18
plaint of a violation referred to in subsection (a)(6), the 19
Special Counsel shall complete an investigation not later 20
than 120 days thereafter. If the Special Counsel inves-21
tigates any violation pursuant to subsection (a)(6), the 22
Special Counsel shall report not later than 7 days after 23
the completion of such investigation to the Director of the 24
Office of Government Ethics and to Congress on the re-25
sults of such investigation.’’. 26
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SEC. 308. RULEMAKING FOR ETHICS REQUIREMENTS FOR 1
LEGAL EXPENSE FUNDS. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 3
date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Office 4
of Government Ethics shall finalize a rule establishing eth-5
ics requirements for the establishment or operation of a 6
legal expense fund for the benefit of the President, the 7
Vice President, or any political appointee, consistent with 8
the requirements of subsection (b). 9
(b) L
IMITATIONS ONACCEPTANCE OFCERTAINPAY-10
MENTS.— 11
(1) I
N GENERAL.—A legal expense fund de-12
scribed in subsection (a) may not accept any con-13
tribution or other payment made by— 14
(A) an individual who is a registered lob-15
byist under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 16
1995 (2 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.); or 17
(B) an agent of a foreign principal. 18
(2) A
PPROPRIATE REMEDIAL ACTION .—In the 19
case of a contribution described in paragraph (1)— 20
(A) the legal expense fund shall take ap-21
propriate remedial action; and 22
(B) the Director of the Office of Govern-23
ment Ethics may assess a fine against the indi-24
vidual or agent of a foreign principal, as de-25
fined in section 1 of the Foreign Agents Reg-26
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istration Act of 1938, as amended (22 U.S.C. 1
611). 2
SEC. 309. LIMITATIONS AND DISCLOSURE OF CERTAIN DO-3
NATIONS TO, AND DISBURSEMENTS BY, INAU-4
GURAL COMMITTEES. 5
(a) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR INAUGURAL COMMIT-6
TEES.—Title III of the Federal Election Campaign Act 7
of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101 et seq.) is amended by adding 8
at the end the following new section: 9
‘‘SEC. 325. INAUGURAL COMMITTEES. 10
‘‘(a) P
ROHIBITEDDONATIONS.— 11
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for— 12
‘‘(A) an Inaugural Committee— 13
‘‘(i) to solicit, accept, or receive a do-14
nation from a person that is not an indi-15
vidual; or 16
‘‘(ii) to solicit, accept, or receive a do-17
nation from a foreign national; 18
‘‘(B) a person— 19
‘‘(i) to make a donation to an Inau-20
gural Committee in the name of another 21
person, or to knowingly authorize his or 22
her name to be used to effect such a dona-23
tion; 24
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‘‘(ii) to knowingly accept a donation 1
to an Inaugural Committee made by a per-2
son in the name of another person; or 3
‘‘(iii) to convert a donation to an In-4
augural Committee to personal use as de-5
scribed in paragraph (2); or 6
‘‘(C) a foreign national to, directly or indi-7
rectly, make a donation, or make an express or 8
implied promise to make a donation, to an In-9
augural Committee. 10
‘‘(2) C
ONVERSION OF DONATION TO PERSONAL 11
USE.—For purposes of paragraph (1)(B)(iii), a do-12
nation shall be considered to be converted to per-13
sonal use if any part of the donated amount is 14
used— 15
‘‘(A) to fulfill a commitment, obligation, or 16
expense of a person that would exist irrespec-17
tive of the responsibilities of the Inaugural 18
Committee; or 19
‘‘(B) to benefit the personal business ven-20
ture of the President or Vice President of the 21
United States, the Inaugural Committee, or an 22
immediate family member of such individuals. 23
‘‘(3) N
O EFFECT ON DISBURSEMENT OF UN -24
USED FUNDS TO NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS .— 25
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Nothing in this subsection may be construed to pro-1
hibit an Inaugural Committee from disbursing un-2
used funds to an organization which is described in 3
section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 4
1986 and is exempt from taxation under section 5
501(a) of such Code. 6
‘‘(b) L
IMITATION ONDONATIONS.— 7
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for an 8
individual to make donations to an Inaugural Com-9
mittee which, in the aggregate, exceed $50,000. 10
‘‘(2) I
NDEXING.—At the beginning of each 11
Presidential election year (beginning with 2028), the 12
amount described in paragraph (1) shall be in-13
creased by the cumulative percent difference deter-14
mined in section 315(c)(1)(A) since the previous 15
Presidential election year. If any amount after such 16
increase is not a multiple of $1,000, such amount 17
shall be rounded to the nearest multiple of $1,000. 18
‘‘(c) D
ISCLOSURE OFCERTAINDONATIONS ANDDIS-19
BURSEMENTS.— 20
‘‘(1) D
ONATIONS OVER $1,000.— 21
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—An Inaugural Com-22
mittee shall file with the Commission a report 23
disclosing any donation by an individual to the 24
committee in an amount of $1,000 or more not 25
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later than 24 hours after the receipt of such do-1
nation. 2
‘‘(B) C
ONTENTS OF REPORT .—A report 3
filed under subparagraph (A) shall contain— 4
‘‘(i) the amount of the donation; 5
‘‘(ii) the date the donation is received; 6
and 7
‘‘(iii) the name and address of the in-8
dividual making the donation. 9
‘‘(2) F
INAL REPORT.—Not later than the date 10
that is 90 days after the date of the Presidential in-11
augural ceremony, the Inaugural Committee shall 12
file with the Commission a report containing the fol-13
lowing information: 14
‘‘(A) For each donation of money or any-15
thing of value made to the committee in an ag-16
gregate amount equal to or greater than 17
$200— 18
‘‘(i) the amount of the donation; 19
‘‘(ii) the date the donation is received; 20
and 21
‘‘(iii) the name and address of the in-22
dividual making the donation. 23
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‘‘(B) The total amount of all disburse-1
ments, and all disbursements in the following 2
categories: 3
‘‘(i) Disbursements made to meet 4
committee operating expenses. 5
‘‘(ii) Repayment of all loans. 6
‘‘(iii) Donation refunds and other off-7
sets to donations. 8
‘‘(iv) Any other disbursements. 9
‘‘(C) The name and address of each per-10
son— 11
‘‘(i) to whom a disbursement in an ag-12
gregate amount or value in excess of $200 13
is made by the committee to meet a com-14
mittee operating expense, together with 15
date, amount, and purpose of such oper-16
ating expense; 17
‘‘(ii) who receives a loan repayment 18
from the committee, together with the date 19
and amount of such loan repayment; 20
‘‘(iii) who receives a donation refund 21
or other offset to donations from the com-22
mittee, together with the date and amount 23
of such disbursement; and 24
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‘‘(iv) to whom any other disbursement 1
in an aggregate amount or value in excess 2
of $200 is made by the committee, to-3
gether with the date and amount of such 4
disbursement. 5
‘‘(d) D
EFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section: 6
‘‘(1) D
ONATION.— 7
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘donation’ 8
includes— 9
‘‘(i) any gift, subscription, loan, ad-10
vance, or deposit of money or anything of 11
value made by any person to the com-12
mittee; or 13
‘‘(ii) the payment by any person of 14
compensation for the personal services of 15
another person which are rendered to the 16
committee without charge for any purpose. 17
‘‘(B) E
XCEPTION.—The term ‘donation’ 18
does not include the value of services provided 19
without compensation by any individual who 20
volunteers on behalf of the committee. 21
‘‘(2) F
OREIGN NATIONAL.—The term ‘foreign 22
national’ has the meaning given that term by section 23
319(b). 24
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‘‘(3) IMMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBER .—The term 1
‘immediate family member’ means a parent, parent- 2
in-law, spouse, adult child, or sibling. 3
‘‘(4) I
NAUGURAL COMMITTEE .—The term ‘In-4
augural Committee’ has the meaning given that 5
term by section 501 of title 36, United States Code. 6
‘‘(e) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-7
tion may be construed to limit the authority of a Federal 8
agency to enforce a Federal law with respect to an Inau-9
gural Committee.’’. 10
(b) C
ONFIRMINGAMENDMENTS RELATED TORE-11
PORTINGREQUIREMENTS.— 12
(1) Section 304 of the Federal Election Cam-13
paign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30104) is amended— 14
(A) by striking subsection (h); and 15
(B) by redesignating subsection (i) as sub-16
section (h). 17
(2) Section 309(a)(4)(C)(iv)(I) is amended by 18
striking ‘‘or (i)’’ and inserting ‘‘or (h)’’. 19
(3) Section 313(c)(4) is amended by striking 20
‘‘section 304(i)(8)(B)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 21
304(h)(8)(B)’’. 22
(c) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENTRELATED TOSTATUS 23
OFCOMMITTEE.—Section 510 of title 36, United States 24
Code, is amended to read as follows: 25
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‘‘§ 510. Disclosure of and prohibition on certain dona-1
tions 2
‘‘A committee shall not be considered to be the Inau-3
gural Committee for purposes of this chapter unless the 4
committee agrees to, and meets, the requirements of sec-5
tion 325 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971.’’. 6
(d) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 7
this section shall apply with respect to Inaugural Commit-8
tees established under chapter 5 of title 36, United States 9
Code, for inaugurations held in 2025 and any succeeding 10
year. 11
DIVISION B—RESTORING 12
CHECKS AND BALANCES, AC-13
COUNTABILITY, AND TRANS-14
PARENCY 15
TITLE IV—ENFORCEMENT OF 16
CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS 17
SEC. 401. SHORT TITLE. 18
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Congressional Sub-19
poena Compliance and Enforcement Act’’. 20
SEC. 402. FINDINGS. 21
The Congress finds as follows: 22
(1) As the Supreme Court of the United States 23
has repeatedly affirmed, including in its July 9, 24
2020, holding in Trump v. Mazars, Congress’s 25
‘‘power of inquiry—with process to enforce it—is an 26
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essential and appropriate auxiliary to the legislative 1
function’’. Congress’s power to obtain information, 2
including through the issuance of subpoenas and the 3
enforcement of such subpoenas, is ‘‘broad and indis-4
pensable’’. 5
(2) Congress ‘‘suffers a concrete and particular-6
ized injury when denied the opportunity to obtain in-7
formation necessary’’ to the exercise of its constitu-8
tional functions, as the United States Court of Ap-9
peals for the District of Columbia Circuit correctly 10
recognized in its August 7, 2020, en banc decision 11
in Committee on the Judiciary of the U.S. House of 12
Representatives v. McGahn. 13
(3) Accordingly, the Constitution secures to 14
each House of Congress an inherent right to enforce 15
its subpoenas in court. Explicit statutory authoriza-16
tion is not required to secure such a right of action, 17
and the contrary holding by a divided panel of the 18
United States Court of Appeals for the District of 19
Columbia Circuit in McGahn, entered on August 31, 20
2020, was in error. 21
SEC. 403. ENFORCEMENT OF CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS. 22
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 85 of title 28, United 23
States Code, is amended by inserting after section 1365 24
the following: 25
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‘‘§ 1365a. Congressional actions against subpoena re-1
cipients 2
‘‘(a) C
AUSE OFACTION.—The Senate, the House of 3
Representatives, or a committee or subcommittee thereof, 4
may bring a civil action against the recipient of a sub-5
poena issued by a congressional committee or sub-6
committee to enforce compliance with the subpoena. 7
‘‘(b) S
PECIALRULES.—In any civil action described 8
in subsection (a), the following rules shall apply: 9
‘‘(1) The action may be filed in a United States 10
district court of competent jurisdiction. 11
‘‘(2) Notwithstanding section 1657(a), it shall 12
be the duty of every court of the United States to 13
expedite to the greatest possible extent the disposi-14
tion of any such action and appeal. Upon a showing 15
by the plaintiff of undue delay, other irreparable 16
harm, or good cause, a court to which an appeal of 17
the action may be taken shall issue any necessary 18
and appropriate writs and orders to ensure compli-19
ance with this paragraph. 20
‘‘(3) If a three-judge court is expressly re-21
quested by the plaintiff in the initial pleading, the 22
action shall be heard by a three-judge court con-23
vened pursuant to section 2284, and shall be review-24
able only by appeal directly to the Supreme Court of 25
the United States. Such appeal shall be taken by the 26
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filing of a notice of appeal within 10 days, and the 1
filing of a jurisdictional statement within 30 days, of 2
the entry of the final decision. 3
‘‘(4) The initial pleading shall be accompanied 4
by certification that the party bringing the action 5
has in good faith conferred or attempted to confer 6
with the recipient of the subpoena to secure compli-7
ance with the subpoena without court action. 8
‘‘(c) P
ENALTIES.— 9
‘‘(1) C
ASES INVOLVING GOVERNMENT AGEN -10
CIES.— 11
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The court may impose 12
monetary penalties directly against each head of 13
a Government agency and the head of each 14
component thereof held to have knowingly failed 15
to comply with any part of a congressional sub-16
poena, unless— 17
‘‘(i) the President instructed the offi-18
cial not to comply; and 19
‘‘(ii) the President, or the head of the 20
agency or component thereof, submits to 21
the court a letter confirming such instruc-22
tion and the basis for such instruction. 23
‘‘(B) P
ROHIBITION ON USE OF GOVERN -24
MENT FUNDS.—No appropriated funds, funds 25
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provided from any accounts in the Treasury, 1
funds derived from the collection of fees, or 2
other Government funds shall be used to pay 3
any monetary penalty imposed by the court 4
pursuant to this paragraph. 5
‘‘(2) L
EGAL FEES.—In addition to any other 6
penalties or sanctions, the court shall require that 7
any defendant, other than a Government agency, 8
held to have willfully failed to comply with any part 9
of a congressional subpoena, pay a penalty in an 10
amount equal to that party’s legal fees, including at-11
torney’s fees, litigation expenses, and other costs. If 12
such defendant is an officer or employee of a Gov-13
ernment agency, such legal fees may be paid from 14
funds appropriated to pay the salary of the defend-15
ant. 16
‘‘(d) W
AIVER.—Any ground for noncompliance as-17
serted by the recipient of a congressional subpoena shall 18
be deemed to have been waived as to any particular infor-19
mation withheld from production if the court finds that 20
the recipient failed in a timely manner to comply with the 21
applicable requirements of section 105(b) of the Revised 22
Statutes of the United States with respect to such infor-23
mation. 24
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‘‘(e) RULES OFPROCEDURE.—The Supreme Court of 1
the United States and the Judicial Conference of the 2
United States shall prescribe rules of procedure to ensure 3
the expeditious treatment of actions described in sub-4
section (a). Such rules shall be prescribed and submitted 5
to the Congress pursuant to sections 2072, 2073, and 6
2074. This shall include procedures for expeditiously con-7
sidering any assertion of constitutional or Federal statu-8
tory privilege made in connection with testimony by any 9
recipient of a subpoena from a congressional committee 10
or subcommittee. The Supreme Court shall transmit such 11
rules to Congress within 6 months after the effective date 12
of this section and then pursuant to section 2074 there-13
after. 14
‘‘(f) D
EFINITION.—For purposes of this section, the 15
term ‘Government agency’ means any office or entity de-16
scribed in sections 105 and 106 of title 3, an executive 17
department listed in section 101 of title 5, an independent 18
establishment, commission, board, bureau, division, or of-19
fice in the executive branch, or any other agency or instru-20
mentality of the Federal Government, including wholly or 21
partly owned Government corporations.’’. 22
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 23
for chapter 85 of title 28, United States Code, is amended 24
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by inserting after the item relating to section 1365 the 1
following: 2
‘‘1365a. Congressional actions against subpoena recipients.’’. 
SEC. 404. COMPLIANCE WITH CONGRESSIONAL SUB-
3
POENAS. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 7 of title II of the Re-5
vised Statutes of the United States (2 U.S.C. 191 et seq.) 6
is amended by adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘SEC. 105. RESPONSE TO CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS. 8
‘‘(a) S
UBPOENA BYCONGRESSIONALCOMMITTEE.— 9
Any recipient of any subpoena from a congressional com-10
mittee or subcommittee shall appear and testify, produce, 11
or otherwise disclose information in a manner consistent 12
with the subpoena and this section. 13
‘‘(b) F
AILURETOPRODUCEINFORMATION.— 14
‘‘(1) G
ROUNDS FOR WITHHOLDING INFORMA -15
TION.—Unless required by the Constitution or by 16
Federal statute, no claim of privilege or protection 17
from disclosure shall be a ground for withholding in-18
formation responsive to the subpoena or required by 19
this section. 20
‘‘(2) I
DENTIFICATION OF INFORMATION WITH -21
HELD.—In the case of information that is withheld, 22
in whole or in part, by the subpoena recipient, the 23
subpoena recipient shall, without delay provide a log 24
containing the following: 25
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‘‘(A) An express assertion and description 1
of the ground asserted for withholding the in-2
formation. 3
‘‘(B) The type of information. 4
‘‘(C) The general subject matter. 5
‘‘(D) The date, author, and addressee. 6
‘‘(E) The relationship of the author and 7
addressee to each other. 8
‘‘(F) The custodian of the information. 9
‘‘(G) Any other descriptive information 10
that may be produced or disclosed regarding 11
the information that will enable the congres-12
sional committee or subcommittee issuing the 13
subpoena to assess the ground asserted for 14
withholding the information. 15
‘‘(c) D
EFINITION.—For purposes of this section the 16
term ‘information’ includes any books, papers, documents, 17
data, or other objects requested in a subpoena issued by 18
a congressional committee or subcommittee.’’. 19
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 20
for chapter 7 of title II of the Revised Statutes of the 21
United States is amended by adding at the end the fol-22
lowing: 23
‘‘105. Response to congressional subpoenas.’’. 
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SEC. 405. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 1
Nothing in this title may be interpreted to limit or 2
constrain Congress’ inherent authority or foreclose any 3
other means for enforcing compliance with congressional 4
subpoenas, nor may anything in this title be interpreted 5
to establish or recognize any ground for noncompliance 6
with a congressional subpoena. 7
SEC. 406. ENFORCEMENT OF REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION 8
FROM CERTAIN COMMITTEES OF CONGRESS. 9
Section 2954 of title 5, United States Code, is 10
amended— 11
(1) by striking ‘‘An Executive’’ and inserting 12
‘‘(a) S
UBMITTINGINFORMATION.—An Executive’’; 13
and 14
(2) by adding at the end the following: 15
‘‘(b) F
AILURETOCOMPLY.—For purposes of rem-16
edying any failure to comply with a request under sub-17
section (a), section 1365a of title 28 and section 105 of 18
the Revised Statutes of the United States shall apply to 19
such a request in the same manner as such sections 1365a 20
and 105 apply to a subpoena.’’. 21
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TITLE V—REASSERTING CON-1
GRESSIONAL POWER OF THE 2
PURSE 3
SEC. 500. SHORT TITLE. 4
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Congressional Power 5
of the Purse Act’’. 6
Subtitle A—Strengthening Con-7
gressional Control and Review 8
To Prevent Impoundment 9
SEC. 501. STRENGTHENING CONGRESSIONAL CONTROL. 10
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Part B of the Impoundment Con-11
trol Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 682 et seq.) is amended by 12
adding at the end the following: 13
‘‘
PRUDENT OBLIGATION OF BUDGET AUTHORITY AND 14
SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS FOR EXPIRING BUDGET 15
AUTHORITY 16
‘‘S
EC. 1018. (a) SPECIALMESSAGEREQUIRE-17
MENT.—With respect to budget authority proposed to be 18
rescinded or that is set to be reserved or proposed to be 19
deferred in a special message transmitted under section 20
1012 or 1013, such budget authority— 21
‘‘(1) shall be made available for obligation in 22
sufficient time to be prudently obligated as required 23
under section 1012(b) or 1013; and 24
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‘‘(2) may not be deferred or otherwise withheld 1
from obligation during the 90-day period before the 2
expiration of the period of availability of such budget 3
authority, including, if applicable, the 90-day period 4
before the expiration of an initial period of avail-5
ability for which such budget authority was pro-6
vided. 7
‘‘(b) A
DMINISTRATIVEREQUIREMENT.—With respect 8
to an apportionment of an appropriation (as that term is 9
defined in section 1511 of title 31, United States Code) 10
made pursuant to section 1512 of such title, an appropria-11
tion shall be apportioned— 12
‘‘(1) to make available all amounts for obliga-13
tion in sufficient time to be prudently obligated; and 14
‘‘(2) to make available all amounts for obliga-15
tion, without precondition (including footnotes) that 16
shall be met prior to obligation, not later than 90 17
days before the expiration of the period of avail-18
ability of such appropriation, including, if applicable, 19
90 days before the expiration of an initial period of 20
availability for which such appropriation was pro-21
vided.’’. 22
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 23
of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control 24
Act of 1974 set forth in section 1(b) of such Act is amend-25
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ed by inserting after the item relating to section 1017 the 1
following: 2
‘‘1018. Prudent obligation of budget authority and specific requirements for ex-
piring budget authority.’’. 
SEC. 502. STRENGTHENING CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW. 
3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Part B of the Impoundment Con-4
trol Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 682 et seq.), as amended by 5
section 501(a), is further amended by adding at the end 6
the following: 7
‘‘
REPORTING ON APPORTIONMENT OF APPROPRIATIONS 8
BY DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES 9
‘‘S
EC. 1019. Each department or agency shall— 10
‘‘(1) notify the Committee on the Budget and 11
the Committee on Appropriations of the House of 12
Representatives, the Committee on the Budget and 13
the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate, and 14
any other appropriate congressional committees if— 15
‘‘(A) an apportionment is not made in the 16
required time period provided in section 17
1513(b) of title 31, United States Code; 18
‘‘(B) an approved apportionment received 19
by the department or agency conditions the 20
availability of an appropriation on further ac-21
tion; or 22
‘‘(C) an approved apportionment received 23
by the department or agency may hinder the 24
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prudent obligation of such appropriation or the 1
execution of a program, project, or activity by 2
such department or agency; and 3
‘‘(2) include in each notification under para-4
graph (1) information identifying the bureau, ac-5
count name, appropriation name, and Treasury Ap-6
propriation Fund Symbol or fund account.’’. 7
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 8
of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control 9
Act of 1974 set forth in section 1(b) of such Act, as 10
amended by section 501(b), is further amended by insert-11
ing after the item relating to section 1018 the following: 12
‘‘1019. Reporting on apportionment of appropriations by departments and agen-
cies.’’. 
SEC. 503. UPDATED AUTHORITIES FOR AND REPORTING BY 
13
THE COMPTROLLER GENERAL. 14
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 1015 of the Impoundment 15
Control Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 686) is amended— 16
(1) in subsection (a), in the matter following 17
paragraph (2), by striking the last sentence; and 18
(2) by adding at the end the following: 19
‘‘(c) R
EVIEW.— 20
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Comptroller General 21
shall— 22
‘‘(A) review compliance with this part; and 23
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‘‘(B) submit to the Committee on the 1
Budget, the Committee on Appropriations, and 2
the Committee on Homeland Security and Gov-3
ernmental Affairs of the Senate, the Committee 4
on the Budget, the Committee on Appropria-5
tions, and the Committee on Oversight and Re-6
form of the House of Representatives, and any 7
other appropriate congressional committee of 8
the Senate or the House of Representatives a 9
report, and any relevant information related to 10
the report, on any noncompliance with this 11
part. 12
‘‘(2) I
NFORMATION, DOCUMENTATION, AND 13
VIEWS.—The President or the head of the relevant 14
department or agency of the United States shall pro-15
vide information, documentation, and views to the 16
Comptroller General, as is determined by the Comp-17
troller General to be necessary to determine such 18
compliance, not later than 20 days after the date on 19
which the request from the Comptroller General is 20
received, or if the Comptroller General determines 21
that a shorter or longer period is appropriate based 22
on the specific circumstances, within such shorter or 23
longer period. 24
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‘‘(3) ACCESS.—To carry out the responsibilities 1
of this part, the Comptroller General shall have ac-2
cess to interview the officers, employees, contractors, 3
and other agents and representatives of a depart-4
ment, agency, or office of the United States at any 5
reasonable time as the Comptroller General may re-6
quest.’’. 7
(b) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Section 1001 of the 8
Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 681) is 9
amended— 10
(1) in paragraph (3), by striking the ‘‘or’’ at 11
the end of the paragraph; 12
(2) in paragraph (4), by striking the period at 13
the end and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 14
(3) by adding at the end the following: 15
‘‘(5) affecting or limiting in any way the au-16
thorities provided to the Comptroller General under 17
chapter 7 of title 31, United States Code.’’. 18
SEC. 504. ADVANCE CONGRESSIONAL NOTIFICATION AND 19
LITIGATION. 20
Section 1016 of the Impoundment Control Act of 21
1974 (2 U.S.C. 687) is amended to read as follows: 22
‘‘
SUITS BY COMPTROLLER GENERAL 23
‘‘S
EC. 1016. (a) INGENERAL.—If, under this title, 24
budget authority is required to be made available for obli-25
gation and such budget authority is not made available 26
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for obligation or information, documentation, views, or ac-1
cess are required to be produced and such information, 2
documentation, views, or access are not produced, the 3
Comptroller General is expressly empowered, through at-4
torneys selected by the Comptroller General, to bring a 5
civil action in the United States District Court for the Dis-6
trict of Columbia to require such budget authority to be 7
made available for obligation or such information, docu-8
mentation, views, or access to be produced. 9
‘‘(b) C
OURTAUTHORITY.—In a civil action under 10
subsection (a), the court is expressly empowered to enter, 11
against any department, agency, officer, or employee of 12
the United States, any decree, judgment, or order which 13
may be necessary or appropriate to make such budget au-14
thority available for obligation or compel production of 15
such information, documentation, views, or access. 16
‘‘(c) N
OTICE.—No civil action shall be brought by the 17
Comptroller General to require budget authority be made 18
available under this section until the expiration of 15 cal-19
endar days following the date on which an explanatory 20
statement by the Comptroller General of the cir-21
cumstances giving rise to the action contemplated is filed 22
with the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the 23
President of the Senate, except that expiration of such pe-24
riod shall not be required if the Comptroller General finds 25
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(and incorporates the finding in the explanatory statement 1
filed) that such delay would be contrary to the public in-2
terest.’’. 3
SEC. 505. PENALTIES FOR FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THE 4
IMPOUNDMENT CONTROL ACT OF 1974. 5
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Part B of the Impoundment Con-6
trol Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 682 et seq.), as amended by 7
section 502(a), is further amended by adding at the end 8
the following: 9
‘‘
PENALTIES FOR FAILURE TO COMPLY 10
‘‘S
EC. 1020. (a) ADMINISTRATIVEDISCIPLINE.—An 11
officer or employee of the Executive Branch of the United 12
States Government violating this part shall be subject to 13
appropriate administrative discipline, including, when cir-14
cumstances warrant, suspension from duty without pay or 15
removal from office. 16
‘‘(b) R
EPORTINGVIOLATIONS.— 17
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—In the event of a violation 18
of section 1001, 1012, 1013, or 1018 of this part, 19
or in the case that the Comptroller General issues 20
a legal decision concluding that a department, agen-21
cy, or office of the United States violated this part, 22
the President or the head of the relevant department 23
or agency as the case may be, shall report imme-24
diately to Congress all relevant facts and a state-25
ment of actions taken. A copy of each report shall 26
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also be transmitted to the Comptroller General and 1
the relevant inspector general on the same date the 2
report is transmitted to the Congress. 3
‘‘(2) C
ONTENTS.—Any such report shall include 4
a summary of the facts pertaining to the violation, 5
the title and Treasury Appropriation Fund Symbol 6
of the appropriation or fund account, the amount in-7
volved for each violation, the date on which the vio-8
lation occurred, the position of any individuals re-9
sponsible for the violation, a statement of the admin-10
istrative discipline imposed and any further action 11
taken with respect to any officer or employee in-12
volved in the violation, a statement of any additional 13
action taken to prevent recurrence of the same type 14
of violation, and any written response by any officer 15
or employee identified by position as involved in the 16
violation. In the case that the Comptroller General 17
issues a legal decision concluding that a department, 18
agency, or office of the United States violated this 19
part and the relevant department, agency, or office 20
does not agree that a violation has occurred, the re-21
port provided to Congress, the Comptroller General, 22
and relevant inspector general will explain the posi-23
tion of the department, agency, or office. 24
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‘‘(3) OPPORTUNITY TO RESPOND .—If any such 1
report identifies the position of any officer or em-2
ployee as involved in the violation, such officer or 3
employee shall be provided a reasonable opportunity 4
to respond in writing, and any such response shall 5
be appended to the report.’’. 6
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 7
of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control 8
Act of 1974 set forth in section 1(b) of such Act, as 9
amended by section 502(b), is further amended by insert-10
ing after the item relating to section 1019 the following: 11
‘‘1020. Penalties for failure to comply.’’. 
Subtitle B—Strengthening 12
Transparency and Reporting 13
PART 1—FUNDS MANAGEMENT AND REPORTING 14
TO THE CONGRESS 15
SEC. 511. EXPIRED BALANCE REPORTING IN THE PRESI-16
DENT’S BUDGET. 17
Section 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, is 18
amended by adding at the end the following: 19
‘‘(40) for the budget for each of fiscal years 20
2025 through 2029, a report— 21
‘‘(A) identifying unobligated expired bal-22
ances as of the beginning of the current fiscal 23
year and the beginning of each of the preceding 24
2 fiscal years by agency and the applicable 25
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Treasury Appropriation Fund Symbol or fund 1
account; and 2
‘‘(B) providing explanation of unobligated 3
expired balances in any Treasury Appropriation 4
Fund Symbol or fund account that exceed the 5
lesser of 5 percent of total appropriations made 6
available for that account or $100,000,000.’’. 7
SEC. 512. CANCELLED BALANCE REPORTING IN THE PRESI-8
DENT’S BUDGET. 9
Section 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, as 10
amended by section 511, is further amended by adding 11
at the end the following: 12
‘‘(41) for the budget for each of fiscal years 13
2025 through 2029, a report— 14
‘‘(A) identifying cancelled balances (pursu-15
ant to section 1552(a)) for the preceding 3 fis-16
cal years by agency and Treasury Appropriation 17
Fund Symbol or fund account; 18
‘‘(B) providing explanation of cancelled 19
balances in any Treasury Appropriation Fund 20
Symbol or fund account that exceed the lesser 21
of 5 percent of total appropriations made avail-22
able for that account or $100,000,000; and 23
‘‘(C) including a tabulation, by Treasury 24
Appropriation Fund Symbol or fund account 25
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and appropriation, of all balances of appropria-1
tions available for an indefinite period in an ap-2
propriation account available for an indefinite 3
period that do not meet the criteria for closure 4
under section 1555, but for which either— 5
‘‘(i) the head of the agency concerned 6
or the President has determined that the 7
purposes for which the appropriation was 8
made have been carried out; or 9
‘‘(ii) no disbursement has been made 10
against the appropriation— 11
‘‘(I) in the prior year and the 12
preceding fiscal year; or 13
‘‘(II) in the prior year and which 14
the budget estimates zero disburse-15
ments in the current year.’’. 16
SEC. 513. LAPSE IN APPROPRIATIONS—REPORTING IN THE 17
PRESIDENT’S BUDGET. 18
Section 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, as 19
amended by section 512, is further amended by adding 20
at the end the following: 21
‘‘(42) a report— 22
‘‘(A) identifying any obligation or expendi-23
ture made by a department or agency affected 24
in whole or in part by any lapse in appropria-25
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tions of 5 consecutive days or more during the 1
preceding fiscal year for which amounts were 2
not available; and 3
‘‘(B) with respect to any such obligation or 4
expenditure, providing— 5
‘‘(i) the amount so obligated or ex-6
pended; 7
‘‘(ii) the account affected; 8
‘‘(iii) an explanation of the exception 9
under subchapter III of chapter 13 or sub-10
chapter II of chapter 15 of this title, or 11
another legal authority, that permitted the 12
department or agency, as the case may be, 13
to incur such obligation or expenditure; 14
and 15
‘‘(iv) an explanation of any change in 16
the application of any exception under sub-17
chapter III of chapter 13 or subchapter II 18
of chapter 15 of this title for a program, 19
project, or activity from any explanations 20
previously reported on pursuant to this 21
paragraph.’’. 22
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SEC. 514. TRANSFER AND OTHER REPURPOSING AUTHOR-1
ITY REPORTING IN THE PRESIDENT’S BUDG-2
ET. 3
Section 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, as 4
amended by section 513, is further amended by adding 5
at the end the following: 6
‘‘(43) for the budget for fiscal year 2025, a re-7
port— 8
‘‘(A) identifying any transfer authority or 9
other authority to repurpose appropriations pro-10
vided in a law other than an appropriation act; 11
and 12
‘‘(B) with respect to any such authority, 13
providing the citation to the statute, the list of 14
departments or agencies covered, an expla-15
nation of when such authority may be used, and 16
an explanation on any use of such authority in 17
the preceding 3 fiscal years.’’. 18
SEC. 515. AUTHORIZING CANCELLATIONS IN INDEFINITE 19
ACCOUNTS BY APPROPRIATION. 20
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subchapter IV of chapter 15 of 21
title 31, United States Code, is amended by inserting after 22
section 1555 the following: 23
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‘‘§ 1555a. Cancellation of appropriations available for 1
indefinite periods within an account 2
‘‘Any remaining balance (whether obligated or unobli-3
gated) from an appropriation available for an indefinite 4
period in an appropriation account available for an indefi-5
nite period that does not meet the requirements for closure 6
under section 1555 shall be canceled, and thereafter shall 7
not be available for obligation or expenditure for any pur-8
pose, if— 9
‘‘(1) the head of the agency concerned or the 10
President determines that the purposes for which 11
the appropriation was made have been carried out; 12
and 13
‘‘(2) no disbursement has been made against 14
the appropriation for two consecutive fiscal years.’’. 15
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 16
for subchapter IV of chapter 15 of title 31, United States 17
Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to 18
section 1555 the following: 19
‘‘1555a. Cancellation of appropriations available for indefinite periods within an 
account.’’. 
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PART 2—EMPOWERING CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW 1
THROUGH NONPARTISAN CONGRESSIONAL 2
AGENCIES AND TRANSPARENCY INITIATIVES 3
SEC. 521. REQUIREMENT TO RESPOND TO REQUESTS FOR 4
INFORMATION FROM THE COMPTROLLER 5
GENERAL FOR BUDGET AND APPROPRIA-6
TIONS LAW DECISIONS. 7
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subchapter II of chapter 7 of title 8
31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end 9
the following: 10
‘‘§ 722. Requirement to respond to requests for infor-11
mation from the Comptroller General for 12
budget and appropriations law decisions 13
‘‘(a) If an agency receives a written request for infor-14
mation, documentation, or views from the Comptroller 15
General relating to a decision or opinion on budget or ap-16
propriations law, the agency shall provide the requested 17
information, documentation, or views not later than 20 18
days after receiving the written request, unless such writ-19
ten request specifically provides otherwise. 20
‘‘(b) If an agency fails to provide the requested infor-21
mation, documentation, or views within the time required 22
by subsection (a)— 23
‘‘(1) the Comptroller General shall notify, in 24
writing, the Committee on Homeland Security and 25
Governmental Affairs of the Senate, the Committee 26
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on Oversight and Accountability of the House of 1
Representatives, and any other appropriate congres-2
sional committee of such failure; 3
‘‘(2) the Comptroller General is hereby ex-4
pressly empowered, through attorneys selected by 5
the Comptroller General, to bring a civil action in 6
the United States District Court for the District of 7
Columbia to require such information, documenta-8
tion, or views to be produced; and 9
‘‘(3) the court in a civil action brought under 10
paragraph (2) is expressly empowered to enter 11
against any department, agency, officer, or employee 12
of the United States any decree, judgment, or order 13
which may be necessary or appropriate to require 14
such production. 15
‘‘(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed as af-16
fecting or otherwise limiting the authorities provided to 17
the Comptroller General in section 716 of this title.’’. 18
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 19
for subchapter II of chapter 7 of title 31, United States 20
Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to 21
section 721 the following: 22
‘‘722. Requirement to respond to requests for information from the Comptroller 
General for budget and appropriations law decisions.’’. 
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SEC. 522. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS FOR 1
ANTIDEFICIENCY ACT VIOLATIONS. 2
(a) V
IOLATIONS OFSECTION1341 OR1342.—Sec-3
tion 1351 of title 31, United States Code, is amended— 4
(1) by striking ‘‘If’’ and inserting ‘‘(a) If’’; 5
(2) by inserting ‘‘or if the Comptroller General 6
determines that an officer or employee of an execu-7
tive agency or of the District of Columbia govern-8
ment violated section 1341(a) or 1342,’’ before ‘‘the 9
head of the agency’’; 10
(3) by striking ‘‘the Comptroller General’’ and 11
inserting ‘‘the Comptroller General and the Attorney 12
General’’; and 13
(4) by adding at the end the following: 14
‘‘(b) Any such report shall include a statement of the 15
provision violated, a summary of the facts pertaining to 16
the violation, the title and Treasury Appropriation Fund 17
Symbol of the appropriation or fund account, the amount 18
involved for each violation, the date on which the violation 19
occurred, the position of any officer or employee respon-20
sible for the violation, a statement of the administrative 21
discipline imposed and any further action taken with re-22
spect to any officer or employee involved in the violation, 23
a statement of any additional action taken to prevent re-24
currence of the same type of violation, a statement of any 25
determination that the violation was not knowing and will-26
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ful that has been made by the executive agency or the Dis-1
trict of Columbia government, and any written response 2
by any officer or employee identified by position as in-3
volved in the violation. In the case that the Comptroller 4
General issues a legal decision concluding that section 5
1341(a) or 1342 was violated and the executive agency 6
or the District of Columbia government does not agree 7
that a violation has occurred, the report provided to the 8
President, the Congress, and the Comptroller General will 9
explain the position of the executive agency or the District 10
of Columbia government.’’. 11
(b) V
IOLATIONS OFSECTION1517.—Section 1517 of 12
title 31, United States Code, is amended— 13
(1) in subsection (b)— 14
(A) by inserting ‘‘or if the Comptroller 15
General determines that an officer or employee 16
of an executive agency or of the District of Co-17
lumbia government violated subsection (a),’’ be-18
fore ‘‘the head of the executive agency’’; and 19
(B) by striking ‘‘the Comptroller General’’ 20
and inserting ‘‘the Comptroller General and the 21
Attorney General’’; and 22
(2) by adding at the end the following: 23
‘‘(c) Any such report shall include a statement of the 24
provision violated, a summary of the facts pertaining to 25
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the violation, the title and Treasury Appropriation Fund 1
Symbol of the appropriation or fund account, the amount 2
involved for each violation, the date on which the violation 3
occurred, the position of any officer or employee respon-4
sible for the violation, a statement of the administrative 5
discipline imposed and any further action taken with re-6
spect to any officer or employee involved in the violation, 7
a statement of any additional action taken to prevent re-8
currence of the same type of violation, a statement of any 9
determination that the violation was not knowing and will-10
ful that has been made by the executive agency or the Dis-11
trict of Columbia government, and any written response 12
by any officer or employee identified by position as in-13
volved in the violation. In the case that the Comptroller 14
General issues a legal decision concluding that subsection 15
(a) was violated and the executive agency or the District 16
of Columbia government does not agree that a violation 17
has occurred, the report provided to the President, the 18
Congress, and the Comptroller General will explain the po-19
sition of the executive agency or the District of Columbia 20
government.’’. 21
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SEC. 523. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE REPORTING TO CON-1
GRESS FOR ANTIDEFICIENCY ACT VIOLA-2
TIONS. 3
(a) V
IOLATIONS OFSECTIONS1341 OR1342.—Sec-4
tion 1350 of title 31, United States Code, is amended— 5
(1) by striking ‘‘An officer’’ and inserting ‘‘(a) 6
An officer’’; and 7
(2) by adding at the end the following: 8
‘‘(b)(1) If an executive agency or the District of Co-9
lumbia government reports, under section 1351, a viola-10
tion of section 1341(a) or 1342, the Attorney General 11
shall promptly review such report and investigate to the 12
extent necessary to determine whether there are reason-13
able grounds to believe that the responsible officer or em-14
ployee knowingly and willfully violated such section 15
1341(a) or 1342, as applicable. If the Attorney General 16
determines that there are such reasonable grounds, the 17
Attorney General diligently shall investigate a criminal 18
violation under this section. 19
‘‘(2) The Attorney General shall submit to Congress 20
and the Comptroller General on or before March 31 of 21
each calendar year an annual report detailing separately 22
for each executive agency and for the District of Columbia 23
government— 24
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‘‘(A) the number of reports under section 1351 1
transmitted to the President during the preceding 2
calendar year; 3
‘‘(B) the number of reports reviewed in accord-4
ance with paragraph (1) during the preceding cal-5
endar year; 6
‘‘(C) without identification of any individual of-7
ficer or employee, a description of each investigation 8
undertaken in accordance with paragraph (1) during 9
the preceding calendar year and an explanation of 10
the status of any such investigation; and 11
‘‘(D) without identification of any individual of-12
ficer or employee, an explanation of any update to 13
the status of any review or investigation previously 14
reported pursuant to this paragraph.’’. 15
(b) V
IOLATIONS OFSECTION1517.—Section 1519 of 16
title 31, United States Code, is amended— 17
(1) by striking ‘‘An officer’’ and inserting ‘‘(a) 18
An officer’’; and 19
(2) by adding at the end the following: 20
‘‘(b)(1) If an executive agency or the District of Co-21
lumbia government reports, under section 1517(b), a vio-22
lation of section 1517(a), the Attorney General shall 23
promptly review such report and investigate to the extent 24
necessary to determine whether there are reasonable 25
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grounds to believe that the responsible officer or employee 1
knowingly and willfully violated such section 1517(a). If 2
the Attorney General determines that there are such rea-3
sonable grounds, the Attorney General diligently shall in-4
vestigate a criminal violation under this section. 5
‘‘(2) The Attorney General shall submit to Congress 6
and the Comptroller General on or before March 31 of 7
each calendar year an annual report detailing separately 8
for each executive agency and for the District of Columbia 9
government— 10
‘‘(A) the number of reports under section 11
1517(b) transmitted to the President during the pre-12
ceding calendar year; 13
‘‘(B) the number of reports reviewed in accord-14
ance with paragraph (1) during the preceding cal-15
endar year; 16
‘‘(C) without identification of any individual of-17
ficer or employee, a description of each investigation 18
undertaken in accordance with paragraph (1) during 19
the preceding calendar year and an explanation of 20
the status of any such investigation; and 21
‘‘(D) without identification of any individual of-22
ficer or employee, an explanation of any update to 23
the status of any review or investigation previously 24
reported pursuant to this subsection.’’. 25
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SEC. 524. PUBLICATION OF BUDGET OR APPROPRIATIONS 1
LAW OPINIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUS-2
TICE OFFICE OF LEGAL COUNSEL. 3
(a) S
CHEDULE OF PUBLICATION FOR FINALOLC 4
O
PINIONS.—Each final OLC opinion shall be made avail-5
able on its public website in a manner that is searchable, 6
sortable, and downloadable in its entirety as soon as is 7
practicable, but— 8
(1) not later than 30 days after the opinion is 9
issued or updated if such action takes place on or 10
after the date of enactment of this Act; 11
(2) not later than 1 year after the date of en-12
actment of this Act for an opinion issued on or after 13
January 20, 1993; 14
(3) not later than 2 years after the date of en-15
actment of this Act for an opinion issued on or after 16
January 20, 1981, and before or on January 19, 17
1993; 18
(4) not later than 3 years after the date of en-19
actment of this Act for an opinion issued on or after 20
January 20, 1969, and before or on January 19, 21
1981; and 22
(5) not later than 4 years after the date of en-23
actment of this Act for all other opinions. 24
(b) E
XCEPTIONS AND LIMITATION ON PUBLIC 25
A
VAILABILITY OFFINALOLC OPINIONS.— 26
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(1) IN GENERAL.—A final OLC opinion or part 1
thereof may be withheld only to the extent— 2
(A) information contained in the opinion 3
was— 4
(i) specifically authorized to be kept 5
secret, under criteria established by an Ex-6
ecutive order, in the interest of national 7
defense or foreign policy; 8
(ii) properly classified, including all 9
procedural and marking requirements, pur-10
suant to such Executive order; 11
(iii) the Attorney General determines 12
that the national defense or foreign policy 13
interests protected outweigh the public’s 14
interest in access to the information; and 15
(iv) put through declassification re-16
view within the past two years; 17
(B) information contained in the opinion 18
relates to the appointment of a specific indi-19
vidual not confirmed to Federal office; 20
(C) information contained in the opinion is 21
specifically exempted from disclosure by statute 22
(other than sections 552 and 552b of title 5, 23
United States Code), if such statute— 24
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(i) requires that the material be with-1
held in such a manner as to leave no dis-2
cretion on the issue; or 3
(ii) establishes particular criteria for 4
withholding or refers to particular types of 5
material to be withheld; 6
(D) information in the opinion includes 7
trade secrets and commercial or financial infor-8
mation obtained from a person and privileged 9
or confidential whose disclosure would likely 10
cause substantial harm to the competitive posi-11
tion of the person from whom the information 12
was obtained; 13
(E) the President, in his or her sole and 14
nondelegable determination, formally and per-15
sonally claims in writing that executive privilege 16
prevents the release of the information and dis-17
closure would cause specific identifiable harm to 18
an interest protected by an exception or the dis-19
closure is prohibited by law; or 20
(F) information in the opinion includes 21
personnel and medical files and similar files the 22
disclosure of which would constitute a clearly 23
unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. 24
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(2) DETERMINATION TO WITHHOLD .—Any de-1
termination under this subsection to withhold infor-2
mation contained in a final OLC opinion shall be 3
made by the Attorney General or a designee of the 4
Attorney General. The determination shall be— 5
(A) in writing; 6
(B) made available to the public within the 7
same timeframe as is required of a formal OLC 8
opinion; 9
(C) sufficiently detailed as to inform the 10
public of what kind of information is being 11
withheld and the reason therefore; and 12
(D) effective only for a period of 3 years, 13
subject to review and reissuance, with each 14
reissuance made available to the public. 15
(3) F
INAL OPINIONS.—For final OLC opinions 16
for which the text is withheld in full or in substan-17
tial part, a detailed unclassified summary of the 18
opinion shall be made available to the public, in the 19
same timeframe as required of the final OLC opin-20
ion, that conveys the essence of the opinion, includ-21
ing any interpretations of a statute, the Constitu-22
tion, or other legal authority. A notation shall be in-23
cluded in any published list of final OLC opinions 24
regarding the extent of the withholdings. 25
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(4) NO LIMITATION ON FREEDOM OF INFORMA -1
TION.—Nothing in this subsection shall be construed 2
as limiting the availability of information under sec-3
tion 552 of title 5, United States Code or construed 4
as an exemption under paragraph (3) of subsection 5
(b) of such section. 6
(5) N
O LIMITATION ON RELIEF.—A decision by 7
the Attorney General to release or withhold informa-8
tion pursuant to this title shall not preclude any ac-9
tion or relief conferred by statutory or regulatory re-10
gime that empowers any person to request or de-11
mand the release of information. 12
(6) R
EASONABLY SEGREGABLE PORTIONS OF 13
OPINIONS TO BE PUBLISHED .—Any reasonably seg-14
regable portion of an opinion shall be provided after 15
withholding of the portions which are exempt under 16
this section. The amount of information withheld, 17
and the exemption under which the withholding is 18
made, shall be indicated on the released portion of 19
the opinion, unless including that indication would 20
harm an interest protected by the exemption in this 21
paragraph under which the withholding is made. If 22
technically feasible, the amount of the information 23
withheld, and the exemption under which the with-24
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holding is made, shall be indicated at the place in 1
the opinion where such withholding is made. 2
(c) M
ETHOD OFPUBLICATION.—The Attorney Gen-3
eral shall publish each final OLC opinion to the extent 4
the law permits, including by publishing the opinions on 5
a publicly accessible website that— 6
(1) with respect to each opinion— 7
(A) contains an electronic copy of the opin-8
ion, including any transmittal letter associated 9
with the opinion, in an open format that is plat-10
form independent and that is available to the 11
public without restrictions; 12
(B) provides the public the ability to re-13
trieve an opinion, to the extent practicable, 14
through searches based on— 15
(i) the title of the opinion; 16
(ii) the date of publication or revision; 17
or 18
(iii) the full text of the opinion; 19
(C) identifies the time and date when the 20
opinion was required to be published, and when 21
the opinion was transmitted for publication; 22
and 23
(D) provides a permanent means of access-24
ing the opinion electronically; 25
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(2) includes a means for bulk download of all 1
final OLC opinions or a selection of opinions re-2
trieved using a text-based search; 3
(3) provides free access to the opinions, and 4
does not charge a fee, require registration, or impose 5
any other limitation in exchange for access to the 6
website; and 7
(4) is capable of being upgraded as necessary to 8
carry out the purposes of this section. 9
(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 10
(1) OLC 
OPINION.—The term ‘‘OLC opinion’’ 11
means views on a matter of legal interpretation com-12
municated by the Office of Legal Counsel of the De-13
partment of Justice to any other office or agency, or 14
person in an office or agency, in the Executive 15
Branch, including any office in the Department of 16
Justice, the White House, or the Executive Office of 17
the President, and rendered in accordance with sec-18
tions 511–513 of title 28, United States Code, and 19
relating to— 20
(A) subtitle II, III, V, or VI of title 31, 21
United States Code; 22
(B) the Balanced Budget and Emergency 23
Deficit Control Act of 1985; 24
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(C) the Congressional Budget and Im-1
poundment Control Act of 1974; or 2
(D) any appropriations Act, continuing 3
resolution, or other provision of law providing 4
or governing appropriations or budget author-5
ity. 6
(2) F
INAL OLC OPINION .—The term ‘‘final 7
OLC opinion’’ means an OLC opinion that— 8
(A) the Attorney General, Assistant Attor-9
ney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, or 10
a Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the 11
Office of Legal Counsel, has determined is 12
final; or 13
(B) is cited in another Office of Legal 14
Counsel opinion. 15
SEC. 525. TREATMENT OF REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION 16
FROM MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. 17
Section 552(d) of title 5, United States Code (com-18
monly known as the ‘‘Freedom of Information Act’’), is 19
amended, in the second sentence, by inserting ‘‘or any 20
Member of Congress’’ before the period at the end. 21
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Subtitle C—Strengthening Con-1
gressional Role in and Over-2
sight of Emergency Declarations 3
and Designations 4
SEC. 531. IMPROVING CHECKS AND BALANCES ON THE USE 5
OF THE NATIONAL EMERGENCIES ACT. 6
(a) R
EQUIREMENTS RELATING TO DECLARATION 7
ANDRENEWAL OFNATIONALEMERGENCIES.—Title II of 8
the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1621 et seq.) 9
is amended by striking sections 201 and 202 and inserting 10
the following: 11
‘‘SEC. 201. DECLARATIONS OF NATIONAL EMERGENCIES. 12
‘‘(a) A
UTHORITYTODECLARENATIONALEMER-13
GENCIES.—With respect to Acts of Congress authorizing 14
the exercise, during the period of a national emergency, 15
of any special or extraordinary power, the President is au-16
thorized to declare such a national emergency by procla-17
mation. Such proclamation shall immediately be trans-18
mitted to Congress and published in the Federal Register. 19
‘‘(b) S
PECIFICATION OFPROVISIONS OFLAWTOBE 20
E
XERCISED ANDREPORTING.—No powers or authorities 21
made available by statute for use during the period of a 22
national emergency shall be exercised unless and until the 23
President specifies the provisions of law under which the 24
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President proposes that the President or other officers will 1
act in— 2
‘‘(1) a proclamation declaring a national emer-3
gency under subsection (a); or 4
‘‘(2) one or more Executive orders relating to 5
the emergency published in the Federal Register and 6
transmitted to Congress. 7
‘‘(c) P
ROHIBITION ON SUBSEQUENT ACTIONS IF 8
E
MERGENCIESNOTAPPROVED.— 9
‘‘(1) S
UBSEQUENT DECLARATIONS .—If a joint 10
resolution of approval is not enacted under section 11
203 with respect to a national emergency before the 12
expiration of the period described in section 202(a), 13
or with respect to a national emergency proposed to 14
be renewed under section 202(b), the President may 15
not, during the remainder of the term of office of 16
that President, declare a subsequent national emer-17
gency under subsection (a) with respect to substan-18
tially the same circumstances. 19
‘‘(2) E
XERCISE OF AUTHORITIES .—If a joint 20
resolution of approval is not enacted under section 21
203 with respect to a power or authority specified by 22
the President under subsection (b) with respect to a 23
national emergency, the President may not, during 24
the remainder of the term of office of that Presi-25
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dent, exercise that power or authority with respect 1
to that emergency. 2
‘‘(d) E
FFECT OFFUTURELAWS.—No law enacted 3
after the date of the enactment of the Congressional 4
Power of the Purse Act shall supersede this title unless 5
it does so in specific terms, referring to this title, and de-6
claring that the new law supersedes the provisions of this 7
title. 8
‘‘(e) L
IMITATIONS.— 9
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Any emergency powers in-10
voked by the President pursuant to a national emer-11
gency declared under this section shall relate to the 12
nature of, and may be used only to address, that 13
emergency. 14
‘‘(2) A
UTHORIZATION OR FUNDING WITH -15
HELD.—No authority available to the President dur-16
ing a national emergency declared under this section 17
may be used to provide authorization or funding for 18
any program, project, or activity for which Congress, 19
on or after the date of the events giving rise to the 20
emergency declaration, has withheld authorization or 21
funding. 22
‘‘SEC. 202. EFFECTIVE PERIODS OF NATIONAL EMER-23
GENCIES. 24
‘‘(a) T
EMPORARYEFFECTIVEPERIODS.— 25
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‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Unless previously termi-1
nated pursuant to a proclamation of the President 2
or an Act of Congress under subsection (c), a dec-3
laration of a national emergency shall remain in ef-4
fect for 20 session days, in the case of the Senate, 5
and 20 legislative days, in the case of the House, 6
from the issuance of the proclamation under section 7
201(a) (not counting the day on which the proclama-8
tion was issued) and shall terminate when that pe-9
riod expires unless there is enacted into law a joint 10
resolution of approval under section 203 with re-11
spect to the proclamation. 12
‘‘(2) E
XERCISE OF POWERS AND AUTHORI -13
TIES.—Unless the declaration of national emergency 14
has been terminated pursuant to a proclamation of 15
the President or an Act of Congress under sub-16
section (c), any emergency power or authority made 17
available under a provision of law specified pursuant 18
to section 201(b) may be exercised pursuant to a 19
declaration of a national emergency for 20 session 20
days, in the case of the Senate, and 20 legislative 21
days, in the case of the House, from the issuance of 22
the proclamation or Executive order (not counting 23
the day on which such proclamation or Executive 24
order was issued). That power or authority may not 25
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be exercised after that period expires unless there is 1
enacted into law a joint resolution of approval under 2
section 203 approving— 3
‘‘(A) the proclamation of the national 4
emergency or the Executive order; and 5
‘‘(B) the exercise of the power or authority 6
specified by the President in such proclamation 7
or Executive order. 8
‘‘(b) R
ENEWAL OFNATIONALEMERGENCIES.—A na-9
tional emergency declared by the President under section 10
201(a) or previously renewed under this subsection, and 11
not already terminated pursuant to subsection (a) or (c), 12
shall terminate on the date that is one year after the 13
President transmitted to Congress the proclamation de-14
claring the emergency or the enactment of a previous re-15
newal pursuant to this subsection, unless— 16
‘‘(1) the President publishes in the Federal 17
Register and transmits to Congress an Executive 18
order renewing the emergency; and 19
‘‘(2) there is enacted into law a joint resolution 20
of approval renewing the emergency pursuant to sec-21
tion 203 before the termination of the emergency or 22
previous renewal of the emergency. 23
‘‘(c) T
ERMINATION OFNATIONALEMERGENCIES.— 24
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‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Any national emergency 1
declared by the President under section 201(a) shall 2
terminate on the earliest of— 3
‘‘(A) the date provided for in subsection 4
(a); 5
‘‘(B) the date provided for in subsection 6
(b); 7
‘‘(C) the date specified in an Act of Con-8
gress, including a joint resolution of termi-9
nation under section 203, terminating the emer-10
gency; or 11
‘‘(D) the date specified in a proclamation 12
of the President terminating the emergency. 13
‘‘(2) E
FFECT OF TERMINATION .—Effective on 14
the date of the termination of a national emergency 15
under paragraph (1)— 16
‘‘(A) any powers or authorities exercised 17
by reason of the emergency shall cease to be ex-18
ercised; 19
‘‘(B) any amounts reprogrammed, 20
repurposed, or transferred under any provision 21
of law with respect to the emergency that re-22
main unobligated on that date shall be returned 23
and made available for the purpose for which 24
such amounts were appropriated; and 25
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‘‘(C) any contracts entered into under any 1
provision of law relating to the emergency shall 2
be terminated. 3
‘‘SEC. 203. REVIEW BY CONGRESS OF NATIONAL EMER-4
GENCIES. 5
‘‘(a) J
OINTRESOLUTION OFAPPROVALDEFINED.— 6
In this section, the term ‘joint resolution of approval’ 7
means a joint resolution that does not have a preamble 8
and that contains only the following provisions after its 9
resolving clause: 10
‘‘(1) A provision approving one or more— 11
‘‘(A) proclamations declaring national 12
emergencies under section 201(a); 13
‘‘(B) Executive orders issued under section 14
201(b)(2); or 15
‘‘(C) Executive orders issued under section 16
202(b). 17
‘‘(2) A provision approving a list of all or a por-18
tion of the provisions of law specified by the Presi-19
dent under section 201(b) in the proclamations or 20
Executive orders that are the subject of the joint 21
resolution. 22
‘‘(b) J
OINTRESOLUTION OF TERMINATIONDE-23
FINED.—In this section, the term ‘joint resolution of ter-24
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mination’ means a resolution introduced in the House or 1
Senate to terminate— 2
‘‘(1) a national emergency declared under sec-3
tion 201; or 4
‘‘(2) the exercise of any authorities pursuant to 5
that emergency. 6
‘‘(c) P
ROCEDURES FOR CONSIDERATION OF JOINT 7
R
ESOLUTIONS OF APPROVAL AND JOINTRESOLUTIONS 8
OFTERMINATION.— 9
‘‘(1) I
NTRODUCTION.—After the President 10
transmits to Congress a proclamation declaring a 11
national emergency under section 201(a), or an Ex-12
ecutive order specifying emergency powers or au-13
thorities under section 201(b)(2) or renewing a na-14
tional emergency under section 202(b), a joint reso-15
lution of approval or joint resolution of termination 16
may be introduced in either House of Congress by 17
any member of that House. 18
‘‘(2) C
ONSIDERATION IN SENATE .—In the Sen-19
ate, the following shall apply: 20
‘‘(A) C
OMMITTEE REFERRAL .—A joint res-21
olution of approval or joint resolution of termi-22
nation shall be referred to the appropriate com-23
mittee or committees. 24
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‘‘(B) REPORTING AND DISCHARGE .—If the 1
committee to which a joint resolution of ap-2
proval or joint resolution of termination has 3
been referred has not reported it at the end of 4
10 calendar days after its introduction, that 5
committee shall be discharged from further con-6
sideration of the resolution and it shall be 7
placed on the calendar. 8
‘‘(C) P
ROCEEDING TO CONSIDERATION .— 9
Notwithstanding Rule XXII of the Standing 10
Rules of the Senate, when a committee to which 11
a joint resolution of approval or joint resolution 12
of termination is referred has reported the reso-13
lution, or when that committee is discharged 14
under subparagraph (B) from further consider-15
ation of the resolution, it is at any time there-16
after in order to move to proceed to the consid-17
eration of the joint resolution, and all points of 18
order against the joint resolution (and against 19
the motion to proceed to the consideration of 20
the joint resolution) are waived. The motion to 21
proceed shall be debatable for 4 hours evenly 22
divided between proponents and opponents of 23
the joint resolution of approval or joint resolu-24
tion of termination. The motion is not subject 25
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to amendment, or to a motion to postpone, or 1
to a motion to proceed to the consideration of 2
other business. A motion to reconsider the vote 3
by which the motion is agreed to or disagreed 4
to shall not be in order. If a motion to proceed 5
to the consideration of a joint resolution of ap-6
proval or joint resolution of termination is 7
agreed to, the joint resolution shall remain the 8
unfinished business of the Senate until disposed 9
of. 10
‘‘(D) F
LOOR CONSIDERATION .—There 11
shall be 10 hours of consideration on a joint 12
resolution of approval or joint resolution of ter-13
mination, to be divided evenly between the pro-14
ponents and opponents of the joint resolution. 15
Of that 10 hours, there shall be a total of 2 16
hours of debate on any debatable motions in 17
connection with the joint resolution, to be di-18
vided evenly between the proponents and oppo-19
nents of the joint resolution. 20
‘‘(E) A
MENDMENTS.—No amendments 21
shall be in order with respect to a joint resolu-22
tion of approval or joint resolution of termi-23
nation in the Senate. 24
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‘‘(F) MOTION TO RECONSIDER VOTE ON 1
PASSAGE.—A motion to reconsider a vote on 2
passage of a joint resolution of approval or joint 3
resolution of termination shall not be in order. 4
‘‘(G) A
PPEALS.—Points of order and ap-5
peals from the decision of the Presiding Officer 6
shall be decided without debate. 7
‘‘(3) C
ONSIDERATION IN HOUSE OF REP -8
RESENTATIVES.—In the House of Representatives, 9
the following shall apply: 10
‘‘(A) R
EPORTING AND DISCHARGE .—If any 11
committee to which a joint resolution of ap-12
proval or joint resolution of termination has 13
been referred has not reported it to the House 14
within seven legislative days after the date of 15
referral such committee shall be discharged 16
from further consideration of the joint resolu-17
tion. 18
‘‘(B)(i) P
ROCEEDING TO CONSIDER -19
ATION.—Beginning on the third legislative day 20
after each committee to which a joint resolution 21
of approval or joint resolution of termination 22
has been referred reports it to the House or has 23
been discharged from further consideration 24
thereof, it shall be in order to move to proceed 25
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to consider the joint resolution of approval or 1
joint resolution of termination in the House. All 2
points of order against the motion are waived. 3
Such a motion shall not be in order after the 4
House has disposed of another motion to pro-5
ceed on the joint resolution of approval or joint 6
resolution of termination. The previous question 7
shall be considered as ordered on the motion to 8
its adoption without intervening motion. The 9
motion shall not be debatable. A motion to re-10
consider the vote by which the motion is dis-11
posed of shall not be in order. 12
‘‘(ii) M
OTION.—A motion to proceed to the 13
consideration of a joint resolution of approval of 14
an Executive order described in subsection 15
(a)(1) or a list described in subsection (a)(2) 16
shall not be in order before the enactment of a 17
joint resolution of approval of the proclamation 18
described in subsection (a)(1) that is the sub-19
ject of such Executive order or list. 20
‘‘(C) C
ONSIDERATION.—The joint resolu-21
tion of approval or joint resolution of termi-22
nation shall be considered as read. All points of 23
order against the joint resolution of approval or 24
joint resolution of termination and against its 25
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consideration are waived. The previous question 1
shall be considered as ordered on the joint reso-2
lution of approval or joint resolution of termi-3
nation to final passage without intervening mo-4
tion except two hours of debate equally divided 5
and controlled by the sponsor of the joint reso-6
lution of approval or joint resolution of termi-7
nation (or a designee) and an opponent. A mo-8
tion to reconsider the vote on passage of the 9
joint resolution of approval or joint resolution 10
of termination shall not be in order. 11
‘‘(4) C
OORDINATION WITH ACTION BY OTHER 12
HOUSE.— 13
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—If, before the passage 14
by one House of a joint resolution of approval 15
or joint resolution of termination of that House, 16
that House receives from the other House a 17
joint resolution of approval or joint resolution 18
of termination with regard to the same procla-19
mation or Executive order, then the following 20
procedures shall apply: 21
‘‘(i) The joint resolution of approval 22
or joint resolution of termination of the 23
other House shall not be referred to a com-24
mittee. 25
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‘‘(ii) With respect to a joint resolution 1
of approval or joint resolution of termi-2
nation of the House receiving the joint res-3
olution— 4
‘‘(I) the procedure in that House 5
shall be the same as if no joint resolu-6
tion of approval or joint resolution of 7
termination had been received from 8
the other House; but 9
‘‘(II) the vote on passage shall be 10
on the joint resolution of approval or 11
joint resolution of termination of the 12
other House. 13
‘‘(iii) Upon the failure of passage of 14
the joint resolution of approval or joint 15
resolution of termination of the other 16
House, the question shall immediately 17
occur on passage of the joint resolution of 18
approval or joint resolution of termination 19
of the receiving House. 20
‘‘(B) T
REATMENT OF LEGISLATION OF 21
OTHER HOUSE.—If one House fails to introduce 22
a joint resolution of approval or joint resolution 23
of termination under this section, the joint reso-24
lution of approval or joint resolution of termi-25
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nation of the other House shall be entitled to 1
expedited floor procedures under this section. 2
‘‘(C) A
PPLICATION TO REVENUE MEAS -3
URES.—The provisions of this paragraph shall 4
not apply in the House of Representatives to a 5
joint resolution of approval or joint resolution 6
of termination that is a revenue measure. 7
‘‘(5) T
REATMENT OF VETO MESSAGE .—Debate 8
on a veto message in the Senate under this section 9
shall be 1 hour evenly divided between the majority 10
and minority leaders or their designees. 11
‘‘(d) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—The enactment of a 12
joint resolution of approval or joint resolution of termi-13
nation under this section shall not be interpreted to serve 14
as a grant or modification by Congress of statutory au-15
thority for the emergency powers of the President. 16
‘‘(e) R
ULES OF THEHOUSE ANDSENATE.—This sec-17
tion is enacted by Congress— 18
‘‘(1) as an exercise of the rulemaking power of 19
the Senate and the House of Representatives, re-20
spectively, and as such is deemed a part of the rules 21
of each House, respectively, but applicable only with 22
respect to the procedure to be followed in the House 23
in the case of joint resolutions described in this sec-24
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tion, and supersedes other rules only to the extent 1
that it is inconsistent with such other rules; and 2
‘‘(2) with full recognition of the constitutional 3
right of either House to change the rules (so far as 4
relating to the procedure of that House) at any time, 5
in the same manner, and to the same extent as in 6
the case of any other rule of that House. 7
‘‘SEC. 204. EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN NATIONAL EMER-8
GENCIES INVOKING INTERNATIONAL EMER-9
GENCY ECONOMIC POWERS ACT. 10
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—In the case of a national emer-11
gency described in subsection (b), the provisions of the 12
National Emergencies Act, as in effect on the day before 13
the date of the enactment of the Congressional Power of 14
the Purse Act, shall continue to apply on and after such 15
date of enactment. 16
‘‘(b) N
ATIONALEMERGENCYDESCRIBED.— 17
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—A national emergency de-18
scribed in this subsection is a national emergency 19
pursuant to which the President proposes to exercise 20
emergency powers or authorities made available 21
under the International Emergency Economic Pow-22
ers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), supplemented as 23
necessary by a provision of law specified in para-24
graph (2). 25
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‘‘(2) PROVISIONS OF LAW SPECIFIED .—The 1
provisions of law specified in this paragraph are— 2
‘‘(A) the United Nations Participation Act 3
of 1945 (22 U.S.C. 287 et seq.); 4
‘‘(B) section 212(f) of the Immigration 5
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(f)); or 6
‘‘(C) any provision of law that authorizes 7
the implementation, imposition, or enforcement 8
of economic sanctions with respect to a foreign 9
country. 10
‘‘(c) E
FFECT OFADDITIONALPOWERS AND AU-11
THORITIES.—Subsection (a) shall not apply to a national 12
emergency or the exercise of emergency powers and au-13
thorities pursuant to the national emergency if, in addition 14
to the exercise of emergency powers and authorities de-15
scribed in subsection (b), the President proposes to exer-16
cise, pursuant to the national emergency, any emergency 17
powers and authorities under any other provision of law.’’. 18
(b) R
EPORTINGREQUIREMENTS.—Section 401 of the 19
National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1641) is amended 20
by adding at the end the following: 21
‘‘(d) R
EPORT ON EMERGENCIES.—The President 22
shall transmit to Congress, with any proclamation declar-23
ing a national emergency under section 201(a) or any Ex-24
ecutive order specifying emergency powers or authorities 25
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under section 201(b)(2) or renewing a national emergency 1
under section 202(b), a report, in writing, that includes 2
the following: 3
‘‘(1) A description of the circumstances necessi-4
tating the declaration of a national emergency, the 5
renewal of such an emergency, or the use of a new 6
emergency power or authority specified in the Exec-7
utive order, as the case may be. 8
‘‘(2) The estimated duration of the national 9
emergency, or a statement that the duration of the 10
national emergency cannot reasonably be estimated 11
at the time of transmission of the report. 12
‘‘(3) A summary of the actions the President or 13
other officers intend to take, including any re-14
programming or transfer of funds and any contracts 15
anticipated to be entered into, and the statutory au-16
thorities the President and such officers expect to 17
rely on in addressing the national emergency. 18
‘‘(4) In the case of a renewal of a national 19
emergency, a summary of the actions the President 20
or other officers have taken in the preceding one- 21
year period, including any reprogramming or trans-22
fer of funds, to address the emergency. 23
‘‘(e) P
ROVISION OFINFORMATION TO CONGRESS.— 24
The President shall provide to Congress such other infor-25
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mation as Congress may request in connection with any 1
national emergency in effect under title II. 2
‘‘(f) P
ERIODICREPORTS ON STATUS OFEMER-3
GENCIES.—If the President declares a national emergency 4
under section 201(a), the President shall, not less fre-5
quently than every 90 days for the duration of the emer-6
gency, report to Congress on the status of the emergency 7
and the actions the President or other officers have taken 8
and authorities the President and such officers have relied 9
on in addressing the emergency.’’. 10
(c) E
XCLUSION OFIMPOSITION OFDUTIES ANDIM-11
PORTQUOTASFROMPRESIDENTIAL AUTHORITIES 12
U
NDERINTERNATIONAL EMERGENCYECONOMICPOW-13
ERSACT.—Section 203 of the International Emergency 14
Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702) is amended— 15
(1) by redesignating subsection (c) as sub-16
section (d); and 17
(2) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol-18
lowing: 19
‘‘(c)(1) The authority granted to the President by 20
this section does not include the authority to impose duties 21
or tariff-rate quotas or (subject to paragraph (2)) other 22
quotas on articles entering the United States. 23
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‘‘(2) The limitation under paragraph (1) does not 1
prohibit the President from excluding all articles imported 2
from a country from entering the United States.’’. 3
(d) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.— 4
(1) N
ATIONAL EMERGENCIES ACT .—Title III of 5
the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1631) is 6
repealed. 7
(2) I
NTERNATIONAL EMERGENCY ECONOMIC 8
POWERS ACT.—Section 207 of the International 9
Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1706) 10
is amended by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘(c) In this section, the term ‘National Emergencies 12
Act’ means the National Emergencies Act, as in effect on 13
the day before the date of the enactment of the Congres-14
sional Power of the Purse Act.’’. 15
(e) E
FFECTIVEDATE; APPLICABILITY.— 16
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-17
graph (2), this section and the amendments made by 18
this section shall take effect on the date of the en-19
actment of this Act and apply with respect to na-20
tional emergencies declared under section 201 of the 21
National Emergencies Act on or after that date. 22
(2) A
PPLICABILITY TO RENEWALS OF EXISTING 23
EMERGENCIES.—When a national emergency de-24
clared under section 201 of the National Emer-25
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gencies Act before the date of the enactment of this 1
Act would expire or be renewed under section 202(d) 2
of that Act (as in effect on the day before such date 3
of enactment), that national emergency shall be sub-4
ject to the requirements for renewal under section 5
202(b) of that Act, as amended by subsection (a). 6
SEC. 532. NATIONAL EMERGENCIES ACT DECLARATION 7
SPENDING REPORTING IN THE PRESIDENT’S 8
BUDGET. 9
Section 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, as 10
amended by section 514, is further amended by adding 11
at the end the following: 12
‘‘(44)(A) a report on the proposed, planned, 13
and actual obligations and expenditures of funds (for 14
the prior fiscal year, the current fiscal year, and the 15
fiscal years for which the budget is submitted) at-16
tributable to the exercise of powers and authorities 17
made available by statute for each national emer-18
gency declared by the President, currently active or 19
in effect during the applicable fiscal years. 20
‘‘(B) Obligations and expenditures contained in 21
the report under subparagraph (A) shall be orga-22
nized by Treasury Appropriation Fund Symbol or 23
fund account and by program, project, and activity, 24
and include— 25
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‘‘(i) a description of each such program, 1
project, and activity; 2
‘‘(ii) the authorities under which such 3
funding actions are taken; and 4
‘‘(iii) the purpose and progress of such ob-5
ligations and expenditures toward addressing 6
the applicable national emergency. 7
‘‘(C) Such report shall include, with respect to 8
any transfer, reprogramming, or repurposing of 9
funds to address the applicable national emer-10
gency— 11
‘‘(i) the amount of such transfer, re-12
programming, or repurposing; 13
‘‘(ii) the authority authorizing each such 14
transfer, reprogramming, or repurposing; and 15
‘‘(iii) a description of programs, projects, 16
and activities affected by such transfer, re-17
programming, or repurposing, including by a 18
reduction in funding.’’. 19
SEC. 533. DISCLOSURE TO CONGRESS OF PRESIDENTIAL 20
EMERGENCY ACTION DOCUMENTS. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 30 days after the 22
conclusion of the process for approval, adoption, or revi-23
sion of any presidential emergency action document, the 24
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President shall submit that document to the appropriate 1
congressional committees. 2
(b) D
OCUMENTS INEXISTENCEBEFOREDATE OF 3
E
NACTMENT.—Not later than 15 days after the date of 4
the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to 5
the appropriate congressional committees all presidential 6
emergency action documents in existence before such date 7
of enactment. 8
(c) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 9
(1) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -10
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-11
mittees’’, with respect to a presidential emergency 12
action document submitted under subsection (a) or 13
(b), means— 14
(A) the Committee on Homeland Security 15
and Governmental Affairs, the Committee on 16
the Judiciary, and the Select Committee on In-17
telligence of the Senate; 18
(B) the Committee on Oversight and Ac-19
countability, the Committee on the Judiciary, 20
and the Permanent Select Committee on Intel-21
ligence of the House of Representatives; and 22
(C) any other committee of the Senate or 23
the House of Representatives with jurisdiction 24
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over the subject matter addressed in the presi-1
dential emergency action document. 2
(2) P
RESIDENTIAL EMERGENCY ACTION DOCU -3
MENT.—The term ‘‘presidential emergency action 4
document’’ refers to— 5
(A) each of the approximately 56 docu-6
ments described as presidential emergency ac-7
tion documents in the budget justification mate-8
rials for the Office of Legal Counsel of the De-9
partment of Justice submitted to Congress in 10
support of the budget of the President for fiscal 11
year 2018; and 12
(B) any other pre-coordinated legal docu-13
ment in existence before, on, or after the date 14
of the enactment of this Act, that— 15
(i) is designated as a presidential 16
emergency action document; or 17
(ii) is designed to implement a presi-18
dential decision or transmit a presidential 19
request when an emergency disrupts nor-20
mal governmental or legislative processes. 21
SEC. 534. CONGRESSIONAL DESIGNATIONS. 22
Section 251(b)(2)(A) of the Balanced Budget and 23
Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 24
901(b)(2)(A)) is amended— 25
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(1) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘and the President 1
subsequently so designates’’; and 2
(2) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘and the President 3
subsequently so designates’’. 4
TITLE VI—SECURITY FROM PO-5
LITICAL INTERFERENCE IN 6
JUSTICE 7
SEC. 601. SHORT TITLE. 8
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Security From Polit-9
ical Interference in Justice Act of 2023’’. 10
SEC. 602. DEFINITIONS. 11
In this title: 12
(1) C
OMMUNICATIONS LOG .—The term ‘‘com-13
munications log’’ means the log required to be main-14
tained under section 603(a). 15
(2) C
OVERED COMMUNICATION .— 16
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘‘covered 17
communication’’ means any communication re-18
lating to any contemplated or ongoing investiga-19
tion or litigation conducted by the Department 20
of Justice in any civil or criminal matter (re-21
gardless of whether a civil action or criminal in-22
dictment or information has been filed); and 23
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(B) EXCEPTIONS.—The term ‘‘covered 1
communication’’ does not include a communica-2
tion that is any of the following: 3
(i) A communication that involves 4
contact between the President, the Vice 5
President, the Counsel to the President, or 6
the Principal Deputy Counsel to the Presi-7
dent, and the Attorney General, the Dep-8
uty Attorney General, or the Associate At-9
torney General, except to the extent that 10
the communication concerns a con-11
templated or ongoing investigation or liti-12
gation in which a target or subject is one 13
of the following: 14
(I) The President, the Vice Presi-15
dent, or a member of the immediate 16
family of the President or Vice Presi-17
dent. 18
(II) Any individual working in 19
the Executive Office of the President 20
who is compensated at a rate of pay 21
at or above level II of the Executive 22
Schedule under section 5313 of title 23
5, United States Code. 24
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(III) The current or former chair 1
or treasurer of any national campaign 2
committee that sought the election or 3
seeks the reelection of the President, 4
or any officer of such a committee ex-5
ercising authority at the national 6
level, during the tenure in office of the 7
President. 8
(ii) A communication that involves 9
contact between an officer or employee of 10
the Department of Justice and an officer 11
or employee of the Executive Office of the 12
President on a particular matter, if any of 13
the President, the Vice President, the 14
Counsel to the President, or the Principal 15
Deputy Counsel to the President, and if 16
any of the Attorney General, the Deputy 17
Attorney General, or the Associate Attor-18
ney General, have designated a subordinate 19
to carry on such contact, and the person so 20
designating monitors all subsequent com-21
munications and the person designated 22
keeps the designating person informed of 23
each such communication, except to the ex-24
tent that the communication concerns a 25
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contemplated or ongoing investigation or 1
litigation in which a target or subject is 2
one of the following: 3
(I) The President, the Vice Presi-4
dent, or a member of the immediate 5
family of the President or Vice Presi-6
dent. 7
(II) Any individual working in 8
the Executive Office of the President 9
who is compensated at a rate of pay 10
at or above level II of the Executive 11
Schedule under section 5313 of title 12
5, United States Code. 13
(III) The current or former chair 14
or treasurer of any national campaign 15
committee that sought the election or 16
seeks the reelection of the President, 17
or any officer of such a committee ex-18
ercising authority at the national 19
level, during the tenure in office of the 20
President. 21
(iii) A communication that involves 22
contact from or to the Deputy Counsel to 23
the President for National Security Af-24
fairs, the staff of the National Security 25
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Council, or the staff of the Homeland Se-1
curity Council that relates to a national se-2
curity matter, except to the extent that the 3
communication concerns a pending civil or 4
criminal action that may have national se-5
curity implications. 6
(iv) A communication that involves 7
contact between the Office of the Pardon 8
Attorney of the Department of Justice and 9
the Counsel to the President or a Deputy 10
Counsel to the President relating to par-11
don matters. 12
(v) A communication that relates sole-13
ly to policy, appointments, legislation, rule-14
making, budgets, public relations or af-15
fairs, programmatic matters, intergovern-16
mental relations, administrative or per-17
sonnel matters, appellate litigation, or re-18
quests for legal advice. 19
(3) I
MMEDIATE FAMILY OF THE PRESIDENT OR 20
VICE PRESIDENT.—The term ‘‘immediate family of 21
the President or Vice President’’ means the persons 22
to whom the President or Vice President— 23
(A) is related by blood, marriage, or adop-24
tion; or 25
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(B) stands in loco parentis. 1
SEC. 603. COMMUNICATIONS LOGS. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Attorney General shall main-3
tain a log of covered communications. 4
(b) C
ONTENTS.—A communications log shall include, 5
with respect to a covered communication— 6
(1) the name and title of each officer or em-7
ployee of the Department of Justice or the Executive 8
Office of the President who participated in the cov-9
ered communication; 10
(2) the topic of the covered communication; and 11
(3) a statement describing the purpose and ne-12
cessity of the covered communication. 13
(c) O
VERSIGHT.— 14
(1) P
ERIODIC DISCLOSURE OF LOGS .—Not later 15
than January 30, April 30, July 30, and October 30 16
of each year, the Attorney General shall submit to 17
the Office of the Inspector General of the Depart-18
ment of Justice a report containing the communica-19
tions log for the 3-month period preceding that Jan-20
uary, April, July, or October. 21
(2) N
OTICE OF INAPPROPRIATE OR IMPROPER 22
COMMUNICATIONS.—The Office of the Inspector 23
General of the Department of Justice shall— 24
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(A) review each communications log re-1
ceived under paragraph (1); and 2
(B) notify the Committee on the Judiciary 3
of the Senate and the Committee on the Judici-4
ary of the House of Representatives if the In-5
spector General determines that a covered com-6
munication described in the communications 7
log— 8
(i) is inappropriate from a law en-9
forcement perspective; or 10
(ii) raises concerns about improper 11
political interference. 12
(d) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-13
tion may be construed to limit the valid written assertion 14
by the President of presidential communications privilege 15
with regard to any material required to be submitted 16
under this section. 17
SEC. 604. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 18
Nothing in this title may be construed to affect any 19
requirement to report pursuant to title I of this Act or 20
the amendments made by that title. 21
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TITLE VII—PROTECTING 1
WHISTLEBLOWERS 2
Subtitle A—Whistleblower 3
Protection Improvement 4
SEC. 701. SHORT TITLE. 5
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Whistleblower Protec-6
tion Improvement Act of 2023’’. 7
SEC. 702. ADDITIONAL WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTIONS. 8
(a) I
NVESTIGATIONS ASPERSONNELACTIONS.— 9
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 2302(a)(2)(A) of 10
title 5, United States Code, is amended— 11
(A) in clause (xi), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 12
end; 13
(B) by redesignating clause (xii) as clause 14
(xiii); and 15
(C) by inserting after the clause (xi) the 16
following: 17
‘‘(xii) for purposes of subsection 18
(b)(8)— 19
‘‘(I) the commencement, expan-20
sion, or extension of an investigation, 21
but not including any investigation 22
that is ministerial or nondiscretionary 23
(including a ministerial or nondis-24
cretionary investigation described in 25
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•HR 5048 IH
section 1213) or any investigation 1
that is conducted by an Inspector 2
General of an entity of the Govern-3
ment of an employee not employed by 4
the office of that Inspector General; 5
and 6
‘‘(II) a referral to an Inspector 7
General of an entity of the Govern-8
ment, except for a referral that is 9
ministerial or nondiscretionary; and’’. 10
(2) A
PPLICATION.—The amendment made by 11
paragraph (1) shall apply to any investigation com-12
menced, expanded, or extended, or to any referral 13
made, as described in clause (xii) of section 14
2302(a)(2)(A) of title 5, United States Code, as 15
amended by such paragraph, on or after the date of 16
enactment of this Act. 17
(b) R
IGHTTOPETITIONCONGRESS.— 18
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 2302(b)(9) of title 19
5, United States Code, is amended— 20
(A) in subparagraph (C), by striking ‘‘or’’ 21
at the end; 22
(B) in subparagraph (D), by adding ‘‘or’’ 23
after the semicolon at the end; and 24
(C) by adding at the end the following: 25
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‘‘(E) the exercise of any right protected 1
under section 7211;’’. 2
(2) A
PPLICATION.—The amendment made by 3
paragraph (1) shall apply to the exercise of any 4
right described in subparagraph (E) of section 5
2302(b)(9) of title 5, United States Code, as added 6
by that paragraph, occurring on or after the date of 7
enactment of this Act. 8
(c) P
ROHIBITION ON DISCLOSURE OF WHISTLE-9
BLOWERIDENTITY.— 10
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 2302 of title 5, 11
United States Code, is amended by adding at the 12
end the following: 13
‘‘(g)(1) No employee of an agency may willfully com-14
municate or transmit to any individual who is not an offi-15
cer or employee of the Government the identity of, or per-16
sonally identifiable information about, any other employee 17
because that other employee has made, or is suspected to 18
have made, a disclosure protected by subsection (b)(8), 19
unless— 20
‘‘(A) the other employee provides express writ-21
ten consent prior to the communication or trans-22
mission of their identity or personally identifiable in-23
formation; 24
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‘‘(B) the communication or transmission is 1
made in accordance with the provisions of section 2
552a; 3
‘‘(C) the communication or transmission is 4
made to a lawyer for the sole purpose of providing 5
legal advice to an employee accused of whistleblower 6
retaliation; or 7
‘‘(D) the communication or transmission is re-8
quired or permitted by any other provision of law. 9
‘‘(2) In this subsection, the term ‘officer or employee 10
of the Government’ means— 11
‘‘(A) the President; 12
‘‘(B) a Member of Congress; 13
‘‘(C) a member of the uniformed services; 14
‘‘(D) an employee, as that term is defined in 15
section 2105, including an employee of the United 16
States Postal Service, the Postal Regulatory Com-17
mission, or the Department of Veterans Affairs (in-18
cluding any employee appointed pursuant to chapter 19
73 or 74 of title 38); and 20
‘‘(E) any other officer or employee in any 21
branch of the Government of the United States.’’. 22
(2) A
PPLICATION.—The amendment made by 23
paragraph (1) shall apply to any transmission or 24
communication described in subsection (g) of section 25
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•HR 5048 IH
2302 of title 5, United States Code, as added by 1
paragraph (1), made on or after the date of enact-2
ment of this Act. 3
(d) R
IGHTTOPETITIONCONGRESS.— 4
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 7211 of title 5, 5
United States Code, is amended to read as follows: 6
‘‘§ 7211. Employees’ right to petition or furnish infor-7
mation or respond to Congress 8
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—Each officer or employee of the 9
Federal Government, individually or collectively, has a 10
right to— 11
‘‘(1) petition Congress or a Member of Con-12
gress; 13
‘‘(2) furnish information, documents, or testi-14
mony to either House of Congress, any Member of 15
Congress, or any committee or subcommittee of Con-16
gress; or 17
‘‘(3) respond to any request for information, 18
documents, or testimony from either House of Con-19
gress or any Committee or subcommittee of Con-20
gress. 21
‘‘(b) P
ROHIBITEDACTIONS.—No officer or employee 22
of the Federal Government may interfere with or deny the 23
right set forth in subsection (a), including by— 24
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•HR 5048 IH
‘‘(1) prohibiting or preventing, or attempting or 1
threatening to prohibit or prevent, any other officer 2
or employee of the Federal Government from engag-3
ing in activity protected under subsection (a); or 4
‘‘(2) removing, suspending from duty without 5
pay, demoting, reducing in rank, seniority, status, 6
pay, or performance or efficiency rating, denying 7
promotion to, relocating, reassigning, transferring, 8
disciplining, or discriminating in regard to any em-9
ployment right, entitlement, or benefit, or any term 10
or condition of employment of, any other officer or 11
employee of the Federal Government, or attempting 12
or threatening to commit any of the foregoing ac-13
tions, because the other officer or employee engaged 14
in activity protected under subsection (a). 15
‘‘(c) A
PPLICATION.—This section shall not be con-16
strued to authorize disclosure of any information that is— 17
‘‘(1) specifically prohibited from disclosure by 18
any other provision of Federal law; or 19
‘‘(2) specifically required by Executive order to 20
be kept secret in the interest of national defense or 21
the conduct of foreign affairs, unless disclosure is 22
otherwise authorized by law. 23
‘‘(d) D
EFINITION OFOFFICER OREMPLOYEE OF 24
THEFEDERALGOVERNMENT.—For purposes of this sec-25
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•HR 5048 IH
tion, the term ‘officer or employee of the Federal Govern-1
ment’ includes— 2
‘‘(1) the President; 3
‘‘(2) a Member of Congress; 4
‘‘(3) a member of the uniformed services; 5
‘‘(4) an employee (as that term is defined in 6
section 2105); 7
‘‘(5) an employee of the United States Postal 8
Service or the Postal Regulatory Commission; and 9
‘‘(6) an employee appointed under chapter 73 10
or 74 of title 38.’’. 11
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of sec-12
tions for subchapter II of chapter 72 of title 5, 13
United States Code, is amended by striking the item 14
related to section 7211 and inserting the following: 15
‘‘7211. Employees’ right to petition or furnish information or respond to Con-
gress.’’. 
SEC. 703. ENHANCEMENT OF WHISTLEBLOWER PROTEC-
16
TIONS. 17
(a) D
ISCLOSURESRELATING TOOFFICERS OREM-18
PLOYEES OF ANOFFICE OFINSPECTORGENERAL.—Sec-19
tion 1213(c) of title 5, United States Code, is amended 20
by adding at the end the following: 21
‘‘(3) If the information transmitted under this sub-22
section disclosed a violation of law, rule, or regulation, or 23
gross waste, gross mismanagement, abuse of authority, or 24
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a substantial and specific danger to public health or safe-1
ty, by any officer or employee of an Office of Inspector 2
General, the Special Counsel may refer the matter to the 3
Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Effi-4
ciency, which shall comply with the standards and proce-5
dures applicable to investigations and reports under this 6
subsection.’’. 7
(b) R
ETALIATORYREFERRALS TOINSPECTORSGEN-8
ERAL.—Section 1214(d) of title 5, United States Code, 9
is amended by adding at the end the following: 10
‘‘(3) In any case in which the Special Counsel deter-11
mines that a referral to an Inspector General of an entity 12
of the Federal Government was in retaliation for a disclo-13
sure or protected activity described in section 2302(b)(8) 14
or in retaliation for exercising a right described in section 15
2302(b)(9)(A)(i), the Special Counsel shall transmit that 16
finding in writing to the Inspector General within 7 days 17
of making the finding. The Inspector General shall con-18
sider that finding and make a determination on whether 19
to initiate an investigation or continue an investigation 20
based on the referral that the Special Counsel found to 21
be retaliatory.’’. 22
(c) E
NSURINGTIMELYRELIEF.— 23
(1) I
NDIVIDUAL RIGHT OF ACTION .—Section 24
1221 of title 5, United States Code, is amended by 25
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•HR 5048 IH
striking ‘‘section 2302(b)(8) or section 1
2302(b)(9)(A)(i), (B), (C), or (D),’’ each place it ap-2
pears and inserting ‘‘section 2302(b)(8), section 3
2302(b)(9)(A)(i), (B), (C), (D), or (E), section 4
2302(b)(13), or section 2302(g),’’. 5
(2) S
TAYS.—Section 1221(c)(2) of title 5, 6
United States Code, is amended to read as follows: 7
‘‘(2) Any stay requested under paragraph (1) shall 8
be granted within 10 calendar days (excluding Saturdays, 9
Sundays, and legal holidays) after the date the request 10
is made, if the Board— 11
‘‘(A) determines that there is a substantial like-12
lihood that protected activity was a contributing fac-13
tor to the personnel action involved; or 14
‘‘(B) otherwise determines that such a stay 15
would be appropriate.’’. 16
(3) A
PPEAL OF STAY.—Section 1221(c) of title 17
5, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 18
end the following: 19
‘‘(4) If any stay requested under paragraph (1) is de-20
nied, the employee, former employee, or applicant for em-21
ployment may, within 7 days after receiving notice of the 22
denial, file an appeal for expedited review by the Board. 23
The agency shall have 7 days thereafter to respond. The 24
Board shall provide a decision not later than 21 days after 25
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•HR 5048 IH
receiving the appeal. During the period of appeal, both 1
parties may supplement the record with information un-2
available to them at the time the stay was first re-3
quested.’’. 4
(4) A
CCESS TO DISTRICT COURT ; JURY 5
TRIALS.— 6
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Section 1221(i) of title 7
5, United States Code, is amended— 8
(i) by striking ‘‘(i) Subsections’’ and 9
inserting ‘‘(i)(1) Subsections’’; and 10
(ii) by adding at the end the fol-11
lowing: 12
‘‘(2)(A) If, in the case of an employee, former em-13
ployee, or applicant for employment who seeks corrective 14
action from the Merit Systems Protection Board based on 15
an alleged prohibited personnel practice described in sec-16
tion 2302(b)(8), section 2302(b)(9)(A)(i), (B), (C), (D), 17
or (E), section 2302(b)(13), or section 2302(g), no final 18
order or decision is issued by the Board within 180 days 19
after the date on which a request for such corrective action 20
has been duly submitted to the Board, such employee, 21
former employee, or applicant may, after providing written 22
notice to the Special Counsel and the Board and only with-23
in 20 days after providing such notice, bring an action 24
for review de novo before the appropriate United States 25
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•HR 5048 IH
district court, and such action shall, at the request of ei-1
ther party to such action, be tried before a jury. Upon 2
filing of an action with the appropriate United States dis-3
trict court, any proceedings before the Board shall cease 4
and the employee, former employee, or applicant for em-5
ployment waives any right to refile with the Board. 6
‘‘(B) If the Board certifies (in writing) to the parties 7
of a case that the complexity of such case requires a longer 8
period of review, subparagraph (A) shall be applied by 9
substituting ‘240 days’ for ‘180 days’. 10
‘‘(C) In any such action brought before a United 11
States district court under subparagraph (A), the court— 12
‘‘(i) shall apply the standards set forth in sub-13
section (e); and 14
‘‘(ii) may award any relief that the court con-15
siders appropriate, including any relief described in 16
subsection (g).’’. 17
(B) A
PPLICATION.— 18
(i) I
N GENERAL.—The amendments 19
made by subparagraph (A) shall apply to 20
any corrective action duly submitted to the 21
Merit Systems Protection Board, during 22
the 5-year period preceding the date of en-23
actment of this Act, by an employee, 24
former employee, or applicant for employ-25
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•HR 5048 IH
ment based on an alleged prohibited per-1
sonnel practice described in section 2
2302(b)(8), 2302(b)(9)(A)(i), (B), (C), or 3
(D), or 2302(b)(13) of title 5, United 4
States Code, with respect to which no final 5
order or decision has been issued by the 6
Board. 7
(ii) L
IMITATION.—In the case of an 8
individual described in clause (i) whose 9
duly submitted claim to the Merit Systems 10
Protection Board was made not later than 11
180 days before the date of enactment of 12
this Act, such individual may only bring an 13
action before a United States district court 14
as described in paragraph (2) of section 15
1221(i) of title 5, United States Code, (as 16
added by subparagraph (A)) if that indi-17
vidual— 18
(I) provides written notice to the 19
Office of Special Counsel and the 20
Merit Systems Protection Board not 21
later than 90 days after the date of 22
enactment of this Act; and 23
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•HR 5048 IH
(II) brings such action not later 1
than 20 days after providing such no-2
tice. 3
(d) R
ECIPIENTS OF WHISTLEBLOWER DISCLO-4
SURES.—Section 2302(b)(8)(B) of title 5, United States 5
Code, is amended by striking ‘‘or to the Inspector General 6
of an agency or another employee designated by the head 7
of the agency to receive such disclosures’’ and inserting 8
‘‘the Inspector General of an agency, a supervisor in the 9
employee’s direct chain of command up to and including 10
the head of the employing agency, or to an employee des-11
ignated by any of the aforementioned individuals for the 12
purpose of receiving such disclosures’’. 13
(e) A
TTORNEYFEES.— 14
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 7703(a) of title 5, 15
United States Code, is amended by adding at the 16
end the following: 17
‘‘(3) If an employee, former employee, or appli-18
cant for employment is the prevailing party under a 19
proceeding brought under this section, the employee, 20
former employee, or applicant for employment shall 21
be entitled to attorney fees for all representation 22
carried out pursuant to this section. In such an ac-23
tion for attorney fees, the agency responsible for 24
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•HR 5048 IH
taking the personnel action shall be the respondent 1
and shall be responsible for paying the fees.’’. 2
(2) A
PPLICATION.—In addition to any pro-3
ceeding brought by an employee, former employee, 4
or applicant for employment on or after the date of 5
enactment of this Act in a Federal court under sec-6
tion 7703 of title 5, United States Code, the amend-7
ment made by paragraph (1) shall apply to any pro-8
ceeding brought by an employee, former employee, 9
or applicant for employment under such section be-10
fore the date of enactment of this Act with respect 11
to which the applicable Federal court has not issued 12
a final decision. 13
(f) E
XTENDINGWHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTIONACT 14
TOCERTAINEMPLOYEES.— 15
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 2302(a)(2)(A) of 16
title 5, United States Code, is amended, in the mat-17
ter following clause (xiii), as redesignated by section 18
702(a)(1)(B)— 19
(A) by inserting ‘‘subsection (b)(9)(A)(i), 20
(B), (C), (D), or (E), subsection (b)(13), or 21
subsection (g),’’ after ‘‘subsection (b)(8),’’; and 22
(B) by inserting after ‘‘title 31’’ the fol-23
lowing: ‘‘, a fellow or intern at an agency, a 24
commissioned officer or applicant for employ-25
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ment in the Public Health Service, an officer or 1
applicant for employment in the commissioned 2
officer corps of the National Oceanic and At-3
mospheric Administration, or a noncareer ap-4
pointee in the Senior Executive Service’’. 5
(2) C
ONFORMING AMENDMENTS .—Section 261 6
of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-7
tration Commissioned Officer Corps Act of 2002 (33 8
U.S.C. 3071) is amended— 9
(A) in subsection (a)— 10
(i) by striking paragraph (8); and 11
(ii) by redesignating paragraphs (9) 12
through (26) as paragraphs (8) through 13
(25), respectively; and 14
(B) in subsection (b), by striking the sec-15
ond sentence. 16
(3) A
PPLICATION.— 17
(A) I
N GENERAL.—With respect to an offi-18
cer or applicant for employment in the commis-19
sioned officer corps of the National Oceanic and 20
Atmospheric Administration, the amendments 21
made by paragraphs (1) and (2) shall apply to 22
any personnel action taken against such officer 23
or applicant on or after December 23, 2020, for 24
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making any disclosure protected under section 1
2302(b)(8) of title 5, United States Code. 2
(B) E
XCEPTION.—Subparagraph (A) shall 3
not apply to any personnel action with respect 4
to which an allegation has been submitted pur-5
suant to section 1034 of title 10, United States 6
Code, and a final decision has been made re-7
garding such allegation under subsection (h) of 8
such section. 9
(C) D
EFINITIONS.—In this paragraph, the 10
terms ‘‘disclosure’’ and ‘‘personnel action’’ have 11
the meanings given those terms in section 12
2302(a) of title 5, United States Code. 13
(g) R
ELIEF.— 14
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 7701(b)(2)(A) of 15
title 5, United States Code, is amended, in the mat-16
ter preceding clause (i), by striking ‘‘upon the mak-17
ing of the decision’’ and inserting ‘‘upon the making 18
of the decision, necessary to make the employee 19
whole as if there had been no prohibited personnel 20
practice, including training, seniority, and pro-21
motions consistent with the employee’s prior 22
record’’. 23
(2) A
PPLICATION.—In addition to any appeal 24
made on or after the date of enactment of this Act 25
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to the Merit Systems Protection Board under section 1
7701 of title 5, United States Code, the amendment 2
made by paragraph (1) shall apply to any appeal 3
made under such section before the date of enact-4
ment of this Act with respect to which the Board 5
has not issued a final decision. 6
SEC. 704. CLASSIFYING CERTAIN FURLOUGHS AS ADVERSE 7
PERSONNEL ACTIONS. 8
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 7512 of title 5, United 9
States Code, is amended— 10
(1) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 11
end; and 12
(2) by striking paragraph (5) and inserting the 13
following: 14
‘‘(5) a furlough of more than 14 days but less 15
than 30 days; and 16
‘‘(6) a furlough of 13 days or less that is not 17
due to a lapse in appropriations;’’. 18
(b) A
PPLICATION.—The amendment made by sub-19
section (a) shall apply to any furlough covered by para-20
graph (5) or (6) of section 7512 of title 5, United States 21
Code (as amended by such subsection), occurring on or 22
after the date of enactment of this Act. 23
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SEC. 705. CODIFICATION OF PROTECTIONS FOR DISCLO-1
SURES OF CENSORSHIP RELATED TO RE-2
SEARCH, ANALYSIS, OR TECHNICAL INFOR-3
MATION. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 2302 of title 5, United 5
States Code, as amended by section 702(c)(1), is further 6
amended by adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘(h)(1) In this subsection— 8
‘‘(A) the term ‘applicant’ means an applicant 9
for a covered position; 10
‘‘(B) the term ‘censorship related to research, 11
analysis, or technical information’ means any effort 12
to distort, misrepresent, or suppress research, anal-13
ysis, or technical information; and 14
‘‘(C) the term ‘employee’ means an employee in 15
a covered position in an agency. 16
‘‘(2) Any disclosure of information by an employee 17
or applicant for employment that the employee or appli-18
cant reasonably believes is evidence of censorship related 19
to research, analysis, or technical information— 20
‘‘(A) shall come within the protections of sub-21
section (b)(8)(A) if— 22
‘‘(i) the employee or applicant reasonably 23
believes that the censorship related to research, 24
analysis, or technical information is or will 25
cause— 26
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‘‘(I) any violation of law, rule, or reg-1
ulation; or 2
‘‘(II) gross mismanagement, a gross 3
waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or 4
a substantial and specific danger to public 5
health or safety; and 6
‘‘(ii) such disclosure is not specifically pro-7
hibited by law or such information is not spe-8
cifically required by Executive order to be kept 9
classified in the interest of national defense or 10
the conduct of foreign affairs; and 11
‘‘(B) shall come within the protections of sub-12
section (b)(8)(B) if— 13
‘‘(i) the employee or applicant reasonably 14
believes that the censorship related to research, 15
analysis, or technical information is or will 16
cause— 17
‘‘(I) any violation of law, rule, or reg-18
ulation; or 19
‘‘(II) gross mismanagement, a gross 20
waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or 21
a substantial and specific danger to public 22
health or safety; and 23
‘‘(ii) the disclosure is made to the Special 24
Counsel, or to the Inspector General of an 25
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agency or another person designated by the 1
head of the agency to receive such disclosures, 2
consistent with the protection of sources and 3
methods. 4
‘‘(3) A disclosure shall not be excluded from para-5
graph (2) for any reason described in paragraph (1) or 6
(2) of subsection (f). 7
‘‘(4) Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to 8
imply any limitation on the protections of employees and 9
applicants afforded by any other provision of law, includ-10
ing protections with respect to any disclosure of informa-11
tion believed to be evidence of censorship related to re-12
search, analysis, or technical information.’’. 13
(b) R
EPEAL.— 14
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 110 of the Whistle-15
blower Protection Enhancement Act of 2012 (5 16
U.S.C. 2302 note) is hereby repealed. 17
(2) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing in this 18
section shall be construed to limit or otherwise affect 19
any action under section 110 of the Whistleblower 20
Protection Enhancement Act of 2012 (5 U.S.C. 21
2302 note) commenced before the date of enactment 22
of this Act or any protections afforded by such sec-23
tion with respect to such action. 24
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SEC. 706. TITLE 5 TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMEND-1
MENTS. 2
Title 5, United States Code, is amended— 3
(1) in section 1212(h), by striking ‘‘or (9)’’ 4
each place it appears and inserting ‘‘, (b)(9), 5
(b)(13), or (g)’’; 6
(2) in section 1214— 7
(A) in subsections (a) and (b), by striking 8
‘‘section 2302(b)(8) or section 2302(b)(9)(A)(i), 9
(B), (C), or (D)’’ each place it appears and in-10
serting ‘‘section 2302(b)(8), section 11
2302(b)(9)(A)(i), (B), (C), (D), or (E), section 12
2302(b)(13), or section 2302(g)’’; and 13
(B) in subsection (i), by striking ‘‘section 14
2302(b)(8) or subparagraph (A)(i), (B), (C), or 15
(D) of section 2302(b)(9)’’ and inserting ‘‘sec-16
tion 2302(b)(8), subparagraph (A)(i), (B), (C), 17
(D), or (E) of section 2302(b)(9), section 18
2302(b)(13), or section 2302(g)’’; 19
(3) in section 1215(a)(3)(B), by striking ‘‘sec-20
tion 2302(b)(8), or 2302(b)(9)(A)(i), (B), (C), or 21
(D)’’ each place it appears and inserting ‘‘section 22
2302(b)(8), section 2302(b)(9)(A)(i), (B), (C), (D), 23
or (E), section 2302(b)(13), or section 2302(g)’’; 24
(4) in section 2302— 25
(A) in subsection (a)— 26
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(i) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘or 1
(g)’’ after ‘‘subsection (b)’’; and 2
(ii) in paragraph (2)(C)(i), by striking 3
‘‘subsection (b)(8) or section 4
2302(b)(9)(A)(i), (B), (C), or (D)’’ and in-5
serting ‘‘subsection (b)(8), (b)(9)(A)(i), 6
(B), (C), (D), or (E), (b)(13), or (g)’’; and 7
(B) in subsection (c)(1)(B), by striking 8
‘‘paragraph (8) or subparagraph (A)(i), (B), 9
(C), or (D) of paragraph (9) of subsection (b)’’ 10
and inserting ‘‘subsection (b)(8), subparagraph 11
(A)(i), (B), (C), or (D) of subsection (b)(9), 12
subsection (b)(13), or subsection (g)’’; 13
(5) in section 7515(a)(2), by striking ‘‘para-14
graph (8), (9), or (14) of section 2302(b)’’ and in-15
serting ‘‘paragraph (8), (9), (13), or (14) of section 16
2302(b) or section 2302(g)’’; 17
(6) in section 7701(c)(2)(B), by striking ‘‘sec-18
tion 2302(b)’’ and inserting ‘‘subsection (b) or (g) of 19
section 2302’’; and 20
(7) in section 7703(b)(1)(B), by striking ‘‘sec-21
tion 2302(b)(8), or 2302(b)(9)(A)(i), (B), (C), or 22
(D)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 2302(b)(8), section 23
2302(b)(9)(A)(i), (B), (C), (D), or (E), section 24
2302(b)(13), or section 2302(g)’’. 25
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Subtitle B—Whistleblowers of the 1
Intelligence Community 2
SEC. 711. LIMITATION ON SHARING OF INTELLIGENCE 3
COMMUNITY WHISTLEBLOWER COMPLAINTS 4
WITH PERSONS NAMED IN SUCH COM-5
PLAINTS. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The National Security Act of 7
1947 (50 U.S.C. 3001 et seq.) is amended by adding at 8
the end the following new title: 9
‘‘TITLE XII—MATTERS REGARD-10
ING INSPECTORS GENERAL 11
OF ELEMENTS OF THE INTEL-12
LIGENCE COMMUNITY 13
‘‘SEC. 1202. LIMITATION ON SHARING OF INTELLIGENCE 14
COMMUNITY WHISTLEBLOWER COMPLAINTS 15
WITH PERSONS NAMED IN SUCH COM-16
PLAINTS. 17
‘‘(a) W
HISTLEBLOWER DISCLOSUREINFORMATION 18
D
EFINED.—In this section, the term ‘whistleblower disclo-19
sure information’ means, with respect to a whistleblower 20
disclosure— 21
‘‘(1) the disclosure; 22
‘‘(2) confirmation of the fact of the existence of 23
the disclosure; or 24
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‘‘(3) the identity, or other identifying informa-1
tion, of the whistleblower who made the disclosure. 2
‘‘(b) I
NGENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for any em-3
ployee or officer of the Federal Government to knowingly 4
and willfully share any whistleblower disclosure informa-5
tion with any individual named as a subject of the whistle-6
blower disclosure and alleged in the disclosure to have en-7
gaged in misconduct, unless— 8
‘‘(1) the whistleblower consented, in writing, to 9
such sharing before the sharing occurs; 10
‘‘(2) a covered Inspector General to whom such 11
disclosure is made— 12
‘‘(A) determines that such sharing is nec-13
essary to advance an investigation, audit, in-14
spection, review, or evaluation by the Inspector 15
General; and 16
‘‘(B) notifies the whistleblower of such 17
sharing before the sharing occurs; or 18
‘‘(3) an attorney for the Federal Government— 19
‘‘(A) determines that such sharing is nec-20
essary to advance an investigation by the attor-21
ney; and 22
‘‘(B) notifies the whistleblower of such 23
sharing before the sharing occurs.’’. 24
(b) T
ECHNICAL ANDCLERICALAMENDMENTS.— 25
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(1) TRANSFER.—The National Security Act of 1
1947 (50 U.S.C. 3001 et seq.) is amended as fol-2
lows: 3
(A) Section 1104 (50 U.S.C. 3234) is— 4
(i) transferred to title XII of such 5
Act, as added by subsection (a); 6
(ii) inserted before section 1202 of 7
such Act, as added by such subsection; and 8
(iii) redesignated as section 1201. 9
(B) Section 1106 (50 U.S.C. 3236) is— 10
(i) amended by striking ‘‘section 11
1104’’ each place it appears and inserting 12
‘‘section 1201’’; 13
(ii) transferred to title XII of such 14
Act, as added by subsection (a); 15
(iii) inserted after section 1202 of 16
such Act, as added by such subsection; and 17
(iv) redesignated as section 1203. 18
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENTS .—The table of sec-19
tions at the beginning of the National Security Act 20
of 1947 is amended— 21
(A) by striking the items relating to sec-22
tion 1104 and section 1106; and 23
(B) by adding after the items relating to 24
title XI the end the following new items: 25
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‘‘TITLE XII—MATTERS REGARDING INSPECTORS GENERAL OF 
ELEMENTS OF THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY 
‘‘Sec. 1201. Prohibited personnel practices in the intelligence community. 
‘‘Sec. 1202. Limitation on sharing of intelligence community whistleblower com-
plaints with persons named in such complaints. 
‘‘Sec. 1203. Inspector general external review panel.’’. 
(c) DEFINITIONS.—Section 3 of such Act (50 U.S.C. 1
3003) is amended by adding at the end the following new 2
paragraphs: 3
‘‘(8) The term ‘covered Inspector General’ 4
means each of the following: 5
‘‘(A) The Inspector General of the Intel-6
ligence Community. 7
‘‘(B) The Inspector General of the Central 8
Intelligence Agency. 9
‘‘(C) The Inspector General of the Defense 10
Intelligence Agency. 11
‘‘(D) The Inspector General of the Na-12
tional Reconnaissance Office. 13
‘‘(E) The Inspector General of the Na-14
tional Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. 15
‘‘(F) The Inspector General of the Na-16
tional Security Agency. 17
‘‘(9) The term ‘whistleblower’ means a person 18
who makes a whistleblower disclosure. 19
‘‘(10) The term ‘whistleblower disclosure’ 20
means a disclosure that is protected under section 21
1201 of this Act or section 3001(j)(1) of the Intel-22
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ligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 1
2004 (50 U.S.C. 3341(j)).’’. 2
(d) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENT.—Section 5331 of the 3
Damon Paul Nelson and Matthew Young Pollard Intel-4
ligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2018, 2019, 5
and 2020 (division E of Public Law 116–92; 50 U.S.C. 6
3033 note) is amended by striking ‘‘section 1104 of the 7
National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3234)’’ and in-8
serting ‘‘section 1201 of the National Security Act of 9
1947’’. 10
SEC. 712. DISCLOSURES TO CONGRESS. 11
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Title XII of the National Security 12
Act of 1947, as added by section 711, is further amended 13
by inserting after section 1203, as designated by section 14
711(b), the following new section: 15
‘‘SEC. 1204. PROCEDURES REGARDING DISCLOSURES TO 16
CONGRESS. 17
‘‘(a) G
UIDANCE.— 18
‘‘(1) O
BLIGATION TO PROVIDE SECURITY DI -19
RECTION UPON REQUEST .—Upon the request of a 20
whistleblower, the head of the relevant element of 21
the intelligence community, acting through the cov-22
ered Inspector General for that element, shall fur-23
nish on a confidential basis to the whistleblower in-24
formation regarding how the whistleblower may di-25
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•HR 5048 IH
rectly contact the congressional intelligence commit-1
tees, in accordance with appropriate security prac-2
tices, regarding a complaint or information of the 3
whistleblower pursuant to section 103H(k)(5)(D) or 4
other appropriate provision of law. 5
‘‘(2) N
ONDISCLOSURE.—Unless a whistleblower 6
who makes a request under paragraph (1) provides 7
prior consent, a covered Inspector General may not 8
disclose to the head of the relevant element of the 9
intelligence community— 10
‘‘(A) the identity of the whistleblower; or 11
‘‘(B) the element at which such whistle-12
blower is employed, detailed, or assigned as a 13
contractor employee. 14
‘‘(b) O
VERSIGHT OFOBLIGATION.—If a covered In-15
spector General determines that the head of an element 16
of the intelligence community denied a request by a whis-17
tleblower under subsection (a), directed the whistleblower 18
not to contact the congressional intelligence committees, 19
or unreasonably delayed in providing information under 20
such subsection, the covered Inspector General shall notify 21
the congressional intelligence committees of such denial, 22
direction, or unreasonable delay. 23
‘‘(c) P
ERMANENTSECURITYOFFICER.—The head of 24
each element of the intelligence community may designate 25
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•HR 5048 IH
a permanent security officer in the element to provide to 1
whistleblowers the information under subsection (a).’’. 2
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 3
at the beginning of the National Security Act of 1947 is 4
amended by inserting after the item relating to section 5
1203, as added by section 711(b)(2), the following new 6
item: 7
‘‘Sec. 1204. Procedures regarding disclosures to Congress.’’. 
(c) C ONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 8
103H(k)(5)(D)(i) of the National Security Act of 1947 9
(50 U.S.C. 3033(k)(5)(D)(i)) is amended by adding at the 10
end the following: ‘‘The employee may request information 11
pursuant to section 1204 with respect to contacting such 12
committees.’’. 13
SEC. 713. PROHIBITION AGAINST DISCLOSURE OF WHIS-14
TLEBLOWER IDENTITY AS REPRISAL 15
AGAINST WHISTLEBLOWER DISCLOSURE BY 16
EMPLOYEES AND CONTRACTORS IN INTEL-17
LIGENCE COMMUNITY. 18
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Paragraph (3) of subsection (a) 19
of section 1201 of the National Security Act of 1947, as 20
designated by section 711(b)(1)(A), is amended— 21
(1) in subparagraph (I), by striking ‘‘; or’’ and 22
inserting a semicolon; 23
(2) by redesignating subparagraph (J) as sub-24
paragraph (K); and 25
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(3) by inserting after subparagraph (I) the fol-1
lowing new subparagraph: 2
‘‘(J) a knowing and willful disclosure re-3
vealing the identity or other personally identifi-4
able information of such employee or such con-5
tractor employee without the express written 6
consent of such employee or such contractor 7
employee or if the Inspector General determines 8
such disclosure is necessary for the exclusive 9
purpose of investigating a complaint or infor-10
mation received under section 416 of title 5, 11
United States Code; or’’. 12
(b) A
PPLICABILITY TODETAILEES.—Such subsection 13
is amended by adding at the end the following new para-14
graph: 15
‘‘(5) E
MPLOYEE.—The term ‘employee’, with 16
respect to an agency or a covered intelligence com-17
munity element, includes an individual who has been 18
detailed to such agency or covered intelligence com-19
munity element.’’. 20
(c) P
RIVATERIGHT OFACTION FORUNLAWFULDIS-21
CLOSURE OF WHISTLEBLOWER IDENTITY.—Subsection 22
(f) of such section is amended to read as follows: 23
‘‘(f) E
NFORCEMENT.— 24
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‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as otherwise pro-1
vided in this subsection, the President shall provide 2
for the enforcement of this section. 3
‘‘(2) P
RIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION FOR UNLAW -4
FUL, WILLFUL DISCLOSURE OF WHISTLEBLOWER 5
IDENTITY.—In a case in which an employee of an 6
agency, or other employee or officer of the Federal 7
Government, takes a personnel action described in 8
subsection (a)(3)(J) against an employee of a cov-9
ered intelligence community element as a reprisal in 10
violation of subsection (b) or in a case in which a 11
contractor employee takes a personnel action de-12
scribed in such subsection against another con-13
tractor employee as a reprisal in violation of sub-14
section (c), the employee or contractor employee 15
against whom the personnel action was taken may 16
bring a private action for all appropriate remedies, 17
including injunctive relief and compensatory and pu-18
nitive damages, against the employee or contractor 19
employee who took the personnel action, in a Fed-20
eral district court of competent jurisdiction within 21
180 days of when the employee or contractor em-22
ployee first learned of or should have learned of the 23
violation.’’. 24
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TITLE VIII—ACCOUNTABILITY 1
FOR ACTING OFFICIALS 2
SEC. 801. SHORT TITLE. 3
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Accountability for Act-4
ing Officials Act’’. 5
SEC. 802. CLARIFICATION OF FEDERAL VACANCIES RE-6
FORM ACT OF 1998. 7
(a) E
LIGIBILITYREQUIREMENTS.—Section 3345 of 8
title 5, United States Code, is amended as follows: 9
(1) In subsection (a)— 10
(A) in paragraph (1), by adding before the 11
semicolon at the end the following: ‘‘, but, and 12
except as provided in subsection (e), only if the 13
individual serving in the position of first assist-14
ant has occupied such position for a period of 15
at least 30 days during the 365-day period pre-16
ceding the date of the death, resignation, or be-17
ginning of inability to serve of the applicable of-18
ficer’’; and 19
(B) by striking subparagraph (A) of para-20
graph (3) and inserting the following: 21
‘‘(A) the officer or employee served in a 22
position in such agency for a period of at least 23
1 year preceding the date of death, resignation, 24
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•HR 5048 IH
or beginning of inability to serve of the applica-1
ble officer; and’’. 2
(2) By adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘(d) For purposes of this section, a position shall be 4
considered to be the first assistant to the office with re-5
spect to which a vacancy occurs only if such position has 6
been designated, at least 30 days before the date of the 7
vacancy, by law, rule, or regulation as the first assistant 8
position. The previous sentence shall begin to apply on the 9
date that is 180 days after the date of enactment of the 10
Accountability for Acting Officials Act. 11
‘‘(e) The 30-day service requirement in subsection 12
(a)(1) shall not apply to any individual who is a first as-13
sistant if— 14
‘‘(1)(A) the office of such first assistant is an 15
office for which appointment is required to be made 16
by the President, by and with the advice and consent 17
of the Senate; and 18
‘‘(B) the Senate has approved the appointment 19
of such individual to such office; or 20
‘‘(2) the individual began serving in the position 21
of first assistant during the 180-day period begin-22
ning on a transitional inauguration day (as that 23
term is defined in section 3349a(a)).’’. 24
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(b) QUALIFICATIONS.—Section 3345(b) of title 5, 1
United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 2
following: 3
‘‘(3) Any individual directed to perform the functions 4
and duties of the vacant office temporarily in an acting 5
capacity under subsection (a)(2) or (f) shall possess the 6
qualifications (if any) set forth in law, rule, or regulation 7
that are otherwise applicable to an individual appointed 8
by the President, by and with the advice and consent of 9
the Senate, to occupy such office.’’. 10
(c) A
PPLICATION TOINDIVIDUALSREMOVEDFROM 11
O
FFICE.—Section 3345(c)(2) of title 5, United States 12
Code, is amended by inserting after ‘‘the expiration of a 13
term of office’’ the following: ‘‘, or removal (voluntarily 14
or involuntarily) from office,’’. 15
(d) T
ESTIMONY OFACTINGOFFICIALSBEFORECON-16
GRESS.—Section 3345 of title 5, United States Code, is 17
amended by adding at the end the following: 18
‘‘(f)(1) Any individual serving as an acting officer due 19
to a vacancy to which this section applies, or any indi-20
vidual who has served in such capacity and continues to 21
perform the same or similar duties beyond the time limits 22
described in section 3346, shall appear, at least once dur-23
ing any 60-day period that the individual is so serving, 24
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before the appropriate committees of jurisdiction of the 1
Senate and the House of Representatives. 2
‘‘(2) Paragraph (1) may be waived upon mutual 3
agreement of the chairs and ranking members of the com-4
mittees described in that paragraph.’’. 5
(e) T
IMELIMITATION FORPRINCIPALOFFICES.— 6
Section 3346 of title 5, United States Code, is amended— 7
(1) in subsection (a), in the matter preceding 8
paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘or as provided in sub-9
section (d)’’ after ‘‘sickness’’; and 10
(2) by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘(d) With respect to the vacancy of the position of 12
head of any agency listed in section 901(b) of title 31 (or 13
of any other Executive department) and to which this sec-14
tion applies, subsections (a) through (c) of this section and 15
sections 3348(c), 3349(b), and 3349a(b) shall be applied 16
by substituting ‘120’ for ‘210’ in each instance.’’. 17
(f) E
XCLUSIVITY.—Section 3347 of title 5, United 18
States Code, is amended— 19
(1) by redesignating subsection (b) as sub-20
section (c); and 21
(2) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol-22
lowing: 23
‘‘(b) Notwithstanding subsection (a), any statutory 24
provision covered under paragraph (1) of such subsection 25
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that contains a non-discretionary order or directive to des-1
ignate an officer or employee to perform the functions and 2
duties of a specified office temporarily in an acting capac-3
ity shall be the exclusive means for temporarily author-4
izing an acting official to perform the functions and duties 5
of such office.’’. 6
(g) R
EPORTING OFVACANCIES.— 7
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 3349 of title 5, 8
United States Code, is amended— 9
(A) in subsection (a)— 10
(i) by striking ‘‘immediately upon’’ in 11
each instance and inserting ‘‘not later than 12
7 days after’’; 13
(ii) in paragraph (3), by striking 14
‘‘and’’ at the end; 15
(iii) in paragraph (4), by striking the 16
period at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; 17
and 18
(iv) by adding at the end the fol-19
lowing: 20
‘‘(5) notification of the end of the term of serv-21
ice of any person serving in an acting capacity and 22
the name of any subsequent person serving in an 23
acting capacity and the date the service of such sub-24
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sequent person began not later than 7 days after 1
such date.’’; and 2
(B) in subsection (b), in the matter pre-3
ceding paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘imme-4
diately’’ and inserting ‘‘not later than 14 days 5
after the date of such determination’’. 6
(2) T
ECHNICAL CORRECTIONS .—Paragraphs 7
(1) and (2) of section 3349(b) of title 5, United 8
States Code, are amended to read as follows: 9
‘‘(1) the Committee on Homeland Security and 10
Governmental Affairs of the Senate; 11
‘‘(2) the Committee on Oversight and Account-12
ability of the House of Representatives;’’. 13
(3) V
ACANCIES DURING PRESIDENTIAL INAU -14
GURAL TRANSITIONS.—Section 3349a(b) of title 5, 15
United States Code, is amended to read as follows: 16
‘‘(b) Notwithstanding section 3346 (except as pro-17
vided in paragraph (2) of this subsection) or 3348(c), with 18
respect to any vacancy that exists on a transitional inau-19
guration day, or that arises during the 60-day period be-20
ginning on such day, the person serving as an acting offi-21
cer as described in section 3345 may serve in the office— 22
‘‘(1) for no longer than 300 days beginning on 23
such day; or 24
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‘‘(2) subject to section 3346(b), once a first or 1
second nomination for the office is submitted to the 2
Senate, from the date of such nomination for the pe-3
riod that the nomination is pending in the Senate.’’. 4
TITLE IX—STRENGTHENING 5
HATCH ACT ENFORCEMENT 6
AND PENALTIES 7
Subtitle A—Strengthening Hatch 8
Act Enforcement and Penalties 9
SEC. 901. SHORT TITLE. 10
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Hatch Act Account-11
ability Act’’. 12
SEC. 902. STRENGTHENING HATCH ACT ENFORCEMENT 13
AND PENALTIES AGAINST POLITICAL AP-14
POINTEES. 15
(a) I
NVESTIGATIONS BYOFFICE OFSPECIALCOUN-16
SEL.—Section 1216 of title 5, United States Code, as 17
amended by section 307, is amended— 18
(1) in subsection (c), by striking ‘‘(1),’’; and 19
(2) by adding at the end the following: 20
‘‘(e)(1) In addition to the authority otherwise pro-21
vided in this chapter, the Special Counsel— 22
‘‘(A) shall conduct an investigation with respect 23
to any allegation concerning political activity prohib-24
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ited under subchapter III of chapter 73 (relating to 1
political activities by Federal employees); and 2
‘‘(B) may, regardless of whether the Special 3
Counsel has received an allegation, conduct any in-4
vestigation as the Special Counsel considers nec-5
essary concerning political activity prohibited under 6
subchapter III of chapter 73. 7
‘‘(2) With respect to any investigation under para-8
graph (1), the Special Counsel may seek corrective action 9
under section 1214 and disciplinary action under section 10
1215 in the same way as if a prohibited personnel practice 11
were involved. 12
‘‘(f)(1) Notwithstanding section 1215(b), consistent 13
with paragraph (3) of this subsection, if, after an inves-14
tigation under subsection (d)(1), the Special Counsel de-15
termines that a political appointee has violated section 16
7323 or 7324, the Special Counsel may present a com-17
plaint to the Merit Systems Protection Board under the 18
process provided in section 1215 against such political ap-19
pointee. 20
‘‘(2) Notwithstanding section 7326, a final order of 21
the Board on a complaint of a violation of section 7323 22
or 7324 by a political appointee may impose an assess-23
ment of a civil penalty not to exceed $50,000. 24
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‘‘(3) The Special Counsel may not present a com-1
plaint under paragraph (1) of this subsection— 2
‘‘(A) unless no disciplinary action or civil pen-3
alty has been taken or assessed, respectively, against 4
the political appointee pursuant to section 7326; and 5
‘‘(B) until on or after the date that is 90 days 6
after the date that the complaint regarding the polit-7
ical appointee was presented to the President under 8
section 1215(b), notwithstanding whether the Presi-9
dent submits a written statement pursuant to para-10
graph (4) of this subsection. 11
‘‘(4)(A) Not later than 90 days after receiving from 12
the Special Counsel a complaint recommending discipli-13
nary action under section 1215(b) with respect to a polit-14
ical appointee for a violation of section 7323 or 7324, the 15
President shall provide a written statement to the Special 16
Counsel on whether the President imposed the rec-17
ommended disciplinary action, imposed another form of 18
disciplinary action and the nature of that disciplinary ac-19
tion, or took no disciplinary action against the political 20
appointee. 21
‘‘(B) Not later than 14 days after the date on which 22
the Special Counsel receives a written statement under 23
subparagraph (A) of this paragraph, the Special Counsel 24
shall— 25
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‘‘(i) submit the written statement to the Com-1
mittee on Homeland Security and Governmental Af-2
fairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight 3
and Accountability of the House of Representatives; 4
and 5
‘‘(ii) publish the written statement on the public 6
website of the Office of Special Counsel. 7
‘‘(5) Not later than 14 days after the date on which 8
the Special Counsel determines a political appointee has 9
violated section 7323 or 7324, the Special Counsel shall— 10
‘‘(A) submit a report on the investigation into 11
such political appointee, and any communications 12
sent from the Special Counsel to the President rec-13
ommending discipline of such political appointee, to 14
the Committee on Homeland Security and Govern-15
mental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on 16
Oversight and Accountability of the House of Rep-17
resentatives; and 18
‘‘(B) publish the report and the communica-19
tions described in subparagraph (A) on the public 20
website of the Office of Special Counsel. 21
‘‘(6) In this subsection, the term ‘political appointee’ 22
means any individual, other than the President and the 23
Vice President, employed or holding office— 24
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‘‘(A) in the Executive Office of the President, 1
the Office of the Vice President, or any other office 2
of the White House, but not including any career 3
employee; or 4
‘‘(B) in a confidential, policy-making, policy-de-5
termining, or policy-advocating position appointed by 6
the President, by and with the advice and consent 7
of the Senate (other than an individual in the For-8
eign Service).’’. 9
(b) C
LARIFICATION ONAPPLICATION OFHATCHACT 10
TOEOP ANDOVP EMPLOYEES.—Section 7322(1)(A) of 11
title 5, United States Code, is amended by inserting after 12
‘‘Executive agency’’ the following: ‘‘, including the Execu-13
tive Office of the President, the Office of the Vice Presi-14
dent, and any other office of the White House,’’. 15
(c) C
RIMINALPENALTY.— 16
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subchapter III of chapter 17
73 of title 5, United States Code, is amended by 18
adding at the end the following: 19
‘‘§ 7327. Criminal penalty for Hatch Act violations 20
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—Any person who knowingly vio-21
lates section 7323 or 7324 shall be fined $50,000 (not-22
withstanding section 3571(e) of title 18), imprisoned for 23
not more than 1 year, or both. Notwithstanding section 24
3571(e) of title 18, for each violation after the first, the 25
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fine applicable under this section shall be double the 1
amount of the fine assessed for the previous violation. 2
‘‘(b) A
TTORNEYFEES.—A court may assess against 3
the United States reasonable attorney fees and other liti-4
gation costs reasonably incurred in any case under this 5
section in which an employee has established, by a prepon-6
derance of the evidence, that a superior ordered or other-7
wise coerced the employee into taking any act that re-8
sulted in a violation of section 7323 or 7324.’’. 9
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of sec-10
tions for subchapter III of chapter 73 of title 5, 11
United States Code, is amended by inserting after 12
the item relating to section 7326 the following: 13
‘‘7327. Criminal penalty for Hatch Act violations.’’. 
(3) TRAINING.—After the first violation by an 14
individual of section 7323 or 7324 of title 5, United 15
States Code, that individual shall be provided train-16
ing by the employing agency of the individual on 17
how to avoid subsequent violations of either such 18
section. 19
SEC. 903. INCLUDING EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESI-20
DENT UNDER LIMITATION ON NEPOTISM IN 21
THE CIVIL SERVICE. 22
Section 3110(a)(1)(A) of title 5, United States Code, 23
is amended by inserting ‘‘, including the Executive Office 24
of the President’’ after ‘‘Executive agency’’. 25
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SEC. 904. DISCLOSURE OF HATCH ACT INVESTIGATIONS 1
FOR CERTAIN POLITICAL EMPLOYEES. 2
Section 1216 of title 5, United States Code, is 3
amended by adding at the end the following: 4
‘‘(d)(1) With respect to any investigation of an alle-5
gation of prohibited activity under subsection (a)(1) 6
against a political employee, not later than 14 days after 7
the date on which the Special Counsel makes a final deter-8
mination under that investigation with respect to whether 9
a violation occurred, the Special Counsel shall— 10
‘‘(A) publish, on the website of the Office of 11
Special Counsel, that determination and a report on 12
that determination; and 13
‘‘(B) submit the report required under subpara-14
graph (A) to the Committee on Homeland Security 15
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the 16
Committee on Oversight and Accountability of the 17
House of Representatives. 18
‘‘(2) In this subsection, the term ‘political employee’ 19
means any individual occupying any of the following posi-20
tions in the executive branch of Government (including an 21
individual carrying out the duties of such a position in 22
an acting capacity): 23
‘‘(A) Any position required to be filled by an 24
appointment by the President, by and with the ad-25
vice and consent of the Senate. 26
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‘‘(B) Any position in the executive branch of 1
the Government of a confidential or policy-deter-2
mining character under schedule C of subpart C of 3
part 213 of title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, or 4
any successor regulations. 5
‘‘(C) Any position in or under the Executive Of-6
fice of the President. 7
‘‘(D) Any position in or under the Office of the 8
Vice President. 9
‘‘(E) Any position in the Senior Executive Serv-10
ice that is not a career appointee, a limited term ap-11
pointee, or a limited emergency appointee (as those 12
terms are defined in section 3132(a)).’’. 13
SEC. 905. CLARIFICATION ON CANDIDATES VISITING FED-14
ERAL PROPERTY. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 7323 of title 5, United 16
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-17
lowing: 18
‘‘(d) Nothing in this section or section 7324 shall be 19
construed to prohibit an employee from allowing a Mem-20
ber of Congress or any other elected official from visiting 21
Federal facilities for an official purpose, including receiv-22
ing briefings, tours, or other official information.’’. 23
(b) T
ECHNICAL ANDCONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.— 24
Section 7323 of title 5, United States Code, is amended— 25
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(1) in subsection (a)(1), by striking ‘‘his official 1
authority or influence’’ and inserting ‘‘the official 2
authority or influence of the employee’’; and 3
(2) in subsection (c)— 4
(A) by striking ‘‘he’’ and inserting ‘‘the 5
employee’’; and 6
(B) by striking ‘‘his opinion’’ and inserting 7
‘‘the opinion of the employee’’. 8
SEC. 906. APPLYING HATCH ACT TO PRESIDENT AND VICE 9
PRESIDENT WHILE ON FEDERAL PROPERTY. 10
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subchapter III of chapter 73 of 11
title 5, United States Code, as amended by section 902(c), 12
is further amended— 13
(1) by redesignating sections 7326 and 7327 as 14
sections 7327 and 7328, respectively; and 15
(2) by inserting after section 7325 the fol-16
lowing: 17
‘‘§ 7326. Limitations on political activity of President 18
and Vice President while on White House 19
grounds 20
‘‘Notwithstanding section 7322(1), the prohibitions 21
on political activity under sections 7323(a) and 7324 shall 22
apply to the President and Vice President while the Presi-23
dent and Vice President are on or in any part of the White 24
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House, or any part of the White House grounds, that is 1
regularly used in the discharge of official duties.’’. 2
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 3
of subchapter III of chapter 73 of title 5, United States 4
Code, as amended by section 902(c), is further amended 5
by striking the items relating to sections 7326 and 7327 6
and inserting the following: 7
‘‘7326. Limitations on political activity of President and Vice President while 
on Federal property. 
‘‘7327. Penalties. 
‘‘7327. Criminal penalty for Hatch Act violations.’’. 
SEC. 907. GRANTING THE OFFICE OF SPECIAL COUNSEL 
8
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY. 9
Notwithstanding any other law, rule, or regulation, 10
the Office of Special Counsel shall have exclusive authority 11
to promulgate regulations with respect to authority grant-12
ed to the Office under subchapter III of chapter 73 of 13
title 5, United States Code. 14
SEC. 908. GREATER ACCOUNTABILITY FOR POLITICAL AP-15
POINTEES. 16
Section 1204(c) of title 5, United States Code, is 17
amended by adding at the end the following: ‘‘Notwith-18
standing the previous sentences, in the case of contumacy 19
or failure by an individual to obey a subpoena issued under 20
subsection (b)(2)(A) or section 1214(b) with respect to an 21
investigation into any violation of section 7323 or 7324, 22
the Board may issue an order requiring that individual 23
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to appear at any designated place to testify or to produce 1
documentary or other evidence.’’. 2
SEC. 909. INVESTIGATING FORMER POLITICAL EMPLOYEES. 3
(a) D
EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘em-4
ployee’’ has the meaning given the term in section 7322 5
of title 5, United States Code. 6
(b) C
ONTINUATION OF INVESTIGATION.—Notwith-7
standing any other provision of law, the Office of Special 8
Counsel may continue an investigation of a violation of 9
section 7323 or 7324 of title 5, United States Code, of 10
an individual who is a former employee only if that inves-11
tigation commenced while the individual was an employee. 12
SEC. 910. GAO REVIEW OF REIMBURSABLE POLITICAL 13
EVENTS. 14
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 60 days after the 15
date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 16
of the United States shall submit to Congress a report 17
on reimbursable political events held at the White House 18
or on the White House grounds during the period begin-19
ning on January 1, 1997, and ending on the date of enact-20
ment of this Act (referred to in this section as the ‘‘cov-21
ered period’’). 22
(b) C
ONTENTS.—The report required under sub-23
section (a) shall include the following: 24
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(1) Whether, during the covered period, the re-1
quirements in annual appropriations Acts with re-2
spect to reimbursable political events have been fol-3
lowed, including the requirements under the heading 4
‘‘Executive Residence At the White House—Reim-5
bursable Expenses’’ in title II of division D of the 6
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019 (Public Law 7
116–6). 8
(2) An assessment of what constitutes a polit-9
ical event during the covered period. 10
(3) Whether an event that was not classified as 11
a political event during the covered period should 12
have been classified as such an event. 13
(4) A review of any payment made by a political 14
entity under the terms of the requirements described 15
in paragraph (1). 16
(5) Recommendations for Congress on— 17
(A) a definition for the term ‘‘political 18
event’’; 19
(B) how to assess whether presidential ad-20
ministrations are following the requirements de-21
scribed in paragraph (1); and 22
(C) how to hold presidential administra-23
tions accountable if the requirements described 24
in paragraph (1) are not followed. 25
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Subtitle B—Strengthening Ethics 1
Enforcement and Penalties for 2
Federal Executive Employees 3
SEC. 911. DEFINITIONS. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subject to subsection (b), in this 5
subtitle: 6
(1) A
DMINISTRATION.—‘‘Administration’’ 7
means each term of office of the incumbent Presi-8
dent serving at the time of the appointment of an 9
appointee. 10
(2) A
PPOINTEE.—The term ‘‘appointee’’— 11
(A) includes each individual appointed— 12
(i) to a full-time, noncareer position 13
by the President or the Vice President; 14
(ii) to a position on the Executive 15
Schedule under sections 5312 through 16
5316 of title 5, United States Code; 17
(iii) to a position as a noncareer ap-18
pointee in the in the Senior Executive 19
Service, as defined in section 3132(a) of 20
title 5, United States Code, or as a non-21
career appointee under another comparable 22
personnel system for senior personnel; or 23
(iv) to a position in an Executive 24
agency excepted from the competitive serv-25
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ice by reason of being of a confidential or 1
policy-determining character under sched-2
ule C of subpart C of part 213 of title 5, 3
Code of Federal Regulations, or another 4
position excepted from the competitive 5
service under comparable criteria; and 6
(B) does not include any individual ap-7
pointed to a position in the Senior Foreign 8
Service or solely as a uniformed service commis-9
sioned officer. 10
(3) C
OVERED EXECUTIVE BRANCH OFFICIAL ; 11
LOBBYING ACTIVITIES, LOBBYIST.—The terms ‘‘cov-12
ered executive branch official’’, ‘‘lobbying activities’’, 13
and ‘‘lobbyist’’ have the meanings given those terms 14
in section 3 of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 15
(2 U.S.C. 1602). 16
(4) D
IRECTLY AND SUBSTANTIALLY RELATED 17
TO MY FORMER EMPLOYER OR ANY FORMER CLI -18
ENT.—The term ‘‘directly and substantially related 19
to my former employer or any former client’’ means 20
any matter in which the former employer or a 21
former client of an appointee is a party or rep-22
resents a party to the matter. 23
(5) E
XECUTIVE AGENCY.—The term ‘‘Executive 24
agency’’ has the meaning given the term ‘‘Executive 25
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agency’’ in section 105 of title 5, United States 1
Code, except that such term— 2
(A) includes— 3
(i) the Executive Office of the Presi-4
dent; 5
(ii) the United States Postal Service; 6
and 7
(iii) the Postal Regulatory Commis-8
sion; and 9
(B) does not include the Government Ac-10
countability Office. 11
(6) F
ORMER CLIENT.—The term ‘‘former cli-12
ent’’— 13
(A) means any person for whom an ap-14
pointee, during the 2-year period before the 15
date of the appointment of the appointee, 16
served personally as agent, attorney, or consult-17
ant, except that such service as an agent, attor-18
ney, or consultant shall not include any in-19
stance in which the service provided was limited 20
to speeches or similar appearances; and 21
(B) does not include any clients of the 22
former employer of the appointee to whom the 23
appointee did not personally provide services. 24
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(7) FORMER EMPLOYER .—The term ‘‘former 1
employer’’— 2
(A) means any person for whom an ap-3
pointee, during the 2-year period before the 4
date of appointment of the appointee, served as 5
an employee, officer, director, trustee, or gen-6
eral partner; and 7
(B) does not include any Executive agency 8
or other entity of the Federal Government, any 9
State or local government, the government of 10
the District of Columbia, any Tribal govern-11
ment, any government of a United States terri-12
tory or possession, or any international organi-13
zation of which the United States is a member 14
state. 15
(8) G
IFT.—The term ‘‘gift’’— 16
(A) has the meaning given the term in sec-17
tion 2635.203(b) of title 5, Code of Federal 18
Regulations; 19
(B) includes any gift that is indirectly so-20
licited or accepted, as defined under section 21
2635.203(f) of title 5, Code of Federal Regula-22
tions; and 23
(C) does not include any item excepted 24
under subsections (b), (c), (e)(1), (e)(3), (j), or 25
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(l) of section 2635.204 of title 5, Code of Fed-1
eral Regulations. 2
(9) G
OVERNMENT OFFICIAL .—The term ‘‘Gov-3
ernment official’’ means any employee of the execu-4
tive branch of the Government. 5
(10) L
OBBY.—The term ‘‘lobby’’ means to act 6
or have acted as a registered lobbyist. 7
(11) M
ATERIALLY ASSIST.—The term ‘‘materi-8
ally assist’’— 9
(A) means to provide substantive assist-10
ance; and 11
(B) does not include— 12
(i) the provision of background or 13
general education on a matter of law or 14
policy based upon the subject matter ex-15
pertise of an individual; or 16
(ii) any conduct or assistance per-17
mitted under section 207(j) of title 18, 18
United States Code. 19
(12) P
ARTICIPATE.—The term ‘‘participate’’ 20
means to participate personally and substantially. 21
(13) P
ARTICULAR MATTER .—The term ‘‘par-22
ticular matter’’ has the meaning given the term in 23
section 207 of title 18, United States Code, and sec-24
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tion 2635.402(b)(3) of title 5, Code of Federal Reg-1
ulations. 2
(14) P
ARTICULAR MATTER INVOLVING SPECIFIC 3
PARTIES.—The term ‘‘particular matter involving 4
specific parties’’ has the meaning given the term in 5
section 2641.201(h) of title 5, Code of Federal Reg-6
ulations, except that the term shall also include any 7
meeting or other communication relating to the per-8
formance of the official duties of an individual with 9
a former employer or former client of the individual, 10
unless— 11
(A) the communication applies to a par-12
ticular matter of general applicability; and 13
(B) participation in the meeting or other 14
event is open to all interested parties. 15
(15) P
LEDGE.—The term ‘‘pledge’’ means the 16
ethics pledge under section 912. 17
(16) R
EGISTERED LOBBYIST OR LOBBYING OR -18
GANIZATION.—The term ‘‘registered lobbyist or lob-19
bying organization’’ means— 20
(A) any lobbyist or an organization filing a 21
registration pursuant to section 4 of the Lob-22
bying Disclosure Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1603); 23
and 24
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(B) in the case of an organization filing 1
such a registration, includes each of the lobby-2
ists of the organization identified therein. 3
(17) S
ENIOR WHITE HOUSE STAFF .—The term 4
‘‘Senior White House staff’’ means any person ap-5
pointed by— 6
(A) the President to a position under sub-7
paragraph (A) or (B) of section 105(a)(2) of 8
title 3, United States Code; or 9
(B) the Vice President to a position under 10
subparagraph (A) or (B) of section 106(a)(1) of 11
title 3, United States Code. 12
(b) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Any reference to a 13
provision of Federal law, including any regulation, under 14
this subtitle shall be construed to refer to any such provi-15
sion in effect on January 20, 2021. 16
SEC. 912. ETHICS PLEDGE. 17
Each appointee in each Executive agency appointed 18
on or after January 20, 2021, shall sign, and upon signing 19
shall be contractually committed to, an ethics pledge that 20
states the following: 21
‘‘I recognize that this pledge is part of a broader eth-22
ics in Government plan designed to restore and maintain 23
public trust in Government, and I commit myself to con-24
duct consistent with that plan. I commit to decision-mak-25
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ing on the merits and exclusively in the public interest, 1
without regard to private gain or personal benefit. I com-2
mit to conduct that upholds the independence of law en-3
forcement and precludes improper interference with inves-4
tigative or prosecutorial decisions of the Department of 5
Justice. I commit to ethical choices of post-Government 6
employment that do not raise the appearance that I have 7
used my Government service for private gain, including 8
by using confidential information acquired and relation-9
ships established for the benefit of future clients. 10
‘‘Accordingly, as a condition, and in consideration, of 11
my employment in the United States Government in a po-12
sition invested with the public trust, I commit myself to 13
the following obligations, which I understand are binding 14
on me and are enforceable under law: 15
‘‘(1) L
OBBYIST GIFT BAN.—I will not accept 16
any gift from any registered lobbyist or lobbying or-17
ganization for the duration of my service as an ap-18
pointee. 19
‘‘(2) R
EVOLVING DOOR BAN ; ALL APPOINTEES 20
ENTERING GOVERNMENT .—For a period of 2 years 21
beginning on the date of my appointment, I will not 22
participate in any particular matter involving spe-23
cific parties that is directly and substantially related 24
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to my former employer or former clients, including 1
regulations and contracts. 2
‘‘(3) R
EVOLVING DOOR BAN ; LOBBYISTS AND 3
REGISTERED AGENTS ENTERING GOVERNMENT .—If, 4
during the 2 year period before the date of my ap-5
pointment, I was registered under the Lobbying Dis-6
closure Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) or the 7
Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as amend-8
ed, (22 U.S.C. 611 et seq.), in addition to abiding 9
by the limitations of paragraph (2), I will not, for 10
a period of 2 years beginning on the date of my ap-11
pointment— 12
‘‘(A) participate in any particular matter 13
with respect to which I lobbied, or engaged in 14
any activity that would require registration 15
under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 16
1938, as amended (22 U.S.C. 611 et seq.), dur-17
ing the 2-year period before the date of my ap-18
pointment; 19
‘‘(B) participate in the specific issue area 20
involving the particular matter described in 21
subparagraph (A); or 22
‘‘(C) seek or accept employment with any 23
Executive agency with respect to which I lob-24
bied, or engaged in any activity that would re-25
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quire registration under the Foreign Agents 1
Registration Act of 1938, as amended (22 2
U.S.C. 611 et seq.), during the 2-year period 3
before the date of my appointment. 4
‘‘(4) R
EVOLVING DOOR BAN; APPOINTEES LEAV-5
ING GOVERNMENT.—If, upon my departure from the 6
Government, the post-employment restrictions relat-7
ing to communicating with employees of my former 8
Executive agency under section 207(c) of title 18, 9
United States Code, and any implementing regula-10
tions, apply to me, I agree that I will abide by those 11
restrictions for a period of 2 years beginning on the 12
last date of my appointment. I will abide by those 13
same restrictions with respect to communicating 14
with the Senior White House staff. 15
‘‘(5) R
EVOLVING DOOR BAN ; SENIOR AND VERY 16
SENIOR APPOINTEES LEAVING GOVERNMENT .—If, 17
upon my departure from the Government, the post- 18
employment restrictions under subsections (c) or (d) 19
of section 207 of title 18, United States Code, and 20
any implementing regulations, apply to me, I agree 21
that, in addition to abiding by those restrictions, for 22
a period of 1 year beginning on the last date of my 23
appointment, I will not materially assist any other 24
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•HR 5048 IH
person in making any communication or appearance 1
that I am prohibited from undertaking myself by— 2
‘‘(A) holding myself out as being available 3
to engage in lobbying activities in support of 4
any such communication or appearance; or 5
‘‘(B) engaging in any such lobbying activi-6
ties. 7
‘‘(6) R
EVOLVING DOOR BAN; APPOINTEES LEAV-8
ING GOVERNMENT TO LOBBY .—In addition to abid-9
ing by the limitations under paragraph (4), I also 10
agree, upon leaving Government service, not to lobby 11
any covered executive branch official or non-career 12
Senior Executive Service appointee, or engage in any 13
activity on behalf of any foreign government or for-14
eign political party that, if such activity was under-15
taken on January 20, 2021, would require that I 16
register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act 17
of 1938, as amended (22 U.S.C. 611 et seq.), for 18
the remainder of the Administration or the 2-year 19
period beginning on the last date of my appoint-20
ment, whichever is later. 21
‘‘(7) G
OLDEN PARACHUTE BAN .—I have not ac-22
cepted and will not accept, including after entering 23
Government, any salary or other cash payment from 24
my former employer the eligibility for and payment 25
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of which is limited to individuals accepting a position 1
in the United States Government. I also have not ac-2
cepted and will not accept any non-cash benefit from 3
my former employer that is provided in lieu of such 4
a prohibited cash payment. 5
‘‘(8) E
MPLOYMENT QUALIFICATION COMMIT -6
MENT.—I agree that any hiring or other employment 7
decisions I make will be based on the qualifications, 8
competence, and experience of the candidate. 9
‘‘(9) A
SSENT TO ENFORCEMENT .—I acknowl-10
edge that subtitle B of title IX of the Protecting 11
Our Democracy Act, which I have read before sign-12
ing this document, defines certain of the terms ap-13
plicable to the foregoing obligations and sets forth 14
the methods for enforcing them. I expressly accept 15
the provisions of that subtitle as a part of this 16
agreement and as binding on me. I understand that 17
the terms of this pledge are in addition to any statu-18
tory or other legal restrictions applicable to me by 19
virtue of Federal Government service.’’. 20
SEC. 913. WAIVERS. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.— 22
(1) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR WAIVER .—The Direc-23
tor of the Office of Management and Budget, in con-24
sultation with the Counsel to the President, may 25
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•HR 5048 IH
grant to any current or former appointee a written 1
waiver of any restrictions contained in the pledge 2
signed by such appointee if, and to the extent that, 3
the Director of the Office of Management and Budg-4
et certifies in writing— 5
(A) that the literal application of the re-6
striction is inconsistent with the purposes of the 7
restriction; or 8
(B) that, subject to subsection (c), it is in 9
the public interest to grant the waiver. 10
(2) C
ONTENTS.—Any waiver granted under 11
paragraph (1) shall— 12
(A) reflect the basis for the waiver; and 13
(B) in the case of a waiver of the restric-14
tions under subparagraph (B) or (C) of para-15
graph (3) of the pledge, include a discussion of 16
the findings with respect to the considerations 17
set forth in subsection (c)(2) of this section. 18
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE; PUBLICATION.— 19
(1) E
FFECTIVE DATE.—A waiver granted under 20
subsection (a) shall take effect on the date on which 21
the Director of the Office of Management and Budg-22
et signs the waiver. 23
(2) P
UBLICATION.—The Director of the Office 24
of Management and Budget shall make any waiver 25
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granted under subsection (a) public not later than 1
10 days after the waiver is granted. 2
(c) P
UBLICINTEREST.— 3
(1) I
N GENERAL.—With respect to consider-4
ation of the public interest under subsection 5
(a)(2)(B), the public interest shall include exigent 6
circumstances relating to national security, the econ-7
omy, public health, or the environment. 8
(2) S
PECIFIC CONSIDERATIONS .—In deter-9
mining whether it is in the public interest to grant 10
a waiver under subsection (a)(2)(B) of the restric-11
tions under subparagraph (B) or (C) of paragraph 12
(3) of the pledge, the responsible official may con-13
sider the following factors— 14
(A) the need of the Government for the 15
services of the individual, including the exist-16
ence of special circumstances related to national 17
security, the economy, public health, or the en-18
vironment of the United States; 19
(B) the uniqueness of the qualifications of 20
the individual to meet the needs of the Govern-21
ment; 22
(C) the scope and nature of the prior lob-23
bying activities of the individual, including 24
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•HR 5048 IH
whether such activities were de minimis or ren-1
dered on behalf of a nonprofit organization; and 2
(D) the extent to which the purposes of the 3
restriction may be satisfied through other limi-4
tations on the services of the individual, such as 5
those required by paragraph (3)(A) of the 6
pledge. 7
SEC. 914. ADMINISTRATION. 8
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The head of each Executive agen-9
cy shall, in consultation with the Director of the Office 10
of Government Ethics, establish such rules or procedures 11
(conforming as nearly as practicable to the general ethics 12
rules and procedures of the Executive agency, including 13
those relating to designated agency ethics officials) as are 14
necessary or appropriate to ensure— 15
(1) that every appointee in the Executive agen-16
cy signs the pledge upon assuming the appointed of-17
fice or otherwise becoming an appointee; 18
(2) that compliance with paragraph (3) of the 19
pledge is addressed in a written ethics agreement 20
with each appointee to whom it applies, which agree-21
ment shall also be approved by the Counsel to the 22
President prior to the appointee commencing work; 23
(3) that any spousal employment issue or other 24
conflict not expressly addressed by the pledge is ad-25
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dressed in ethics agreements with appointees or, 1
where no such agreements are required, through eth-2
ics counseling; and 3
(4) that the Executive agency generally com-4
plies with this subtitle. 5
(b) E
XECUTIVEOFFICE OF THEPRESIDENT.—With 6
respect to the Executive Office of the President, the duties 7
set forth in subsection (a) shall be the responsibility of 8
the Counsel to the President. 9
(c) D
IRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OFGOVERNMENT 10
E
THICSGENERALRESPONSIBILITIES.—The Director of 11
the Office of Government Ethics shall— 12
(1) ensure that the pledge and a copy of this 13
subtitle are made available for use by each Executive 14
agency in fulfilling the duties of the Executive agen-15
cy under subsection (a); 16
(2) in consultation with the Attorney General or 17
the Counsel to the President, when appropriate, as-18
sist designated agency ethics officials in providing 19
advice to current or former appointees regarding the 20
application of the pledge; and 21
(3) in consultation with the Attorney General 22
and the Counsel to the President, adopt such rules 23
or procedures as are necessary or appropriate— 24
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(A) to carry out the foregoing responsibil-1
ities; 2
(B) to authorize limited exceptions to the 3
lobbyist gift ban under paragraph (1) of the 4
pledge for circumstances that do not implicate 5
the purposes of the ban; 6
(C) to make clear that no individual shall 7
have violated the lobbyist gift ban under para-8
graph (1) of the pledge if the individual prop-9
erly disposes of a gift as provided under section 10
2635.206 of title 5, Code of Federal Regula-11
tions; 12
(D) to ensure that existing rules and pro-13
cedures for Government employees engaged in 14
negotiations for future employment with private 15
businesses that are affected by the official ac-16
tions of the employees do not affect the integ-17
rity of the programs and operations of the Gov-18
ernment; and 19
(E) to ensure, in consultation with the Di-20
rector of the Office of Personnel Management, 21
that the requirement set forth in paragraph (6) 22
of the pledge is honored by every employee of 23
the executive branch; 24
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(4) in consultation with the Director of the Of-1
fice of Management and Budget, submit a report to 2
the President on whether full compliance is being 3
achieved with existing Federal laws and regulations 4
governing executive branch procurement lobbying 5
disclosure, provided that such report shall include— 6
(A) recommendations relating to steps the 7
executive branch can take to expand, to the 8
fullest extent practicable, disclosure of both ex-9
ecutive branch procurement lobbying and of lob-10
bying for presidential pardons; and 11
(B) recommendations relating to both im-12
mediate actions the executive branch can take 13
and, if necessary, recommendations for legisla-14
tion; and 15
(5) provide an annual report on the administra-16
tion of the pledge and this subtitle. 17
(d) R
EVOLVINGDOORBANREPORT.—The Director 18
of the Office of Government Ethics shall, in consultation 19
with the Attorney General, the Counsel to the President, 20
and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, 21
report to the President on steps the executive branch can 22
take to expand to the fullest extent practicable the revolv-23
ing door ban under paragraph (5) of the pledge to all exec-24
utive branch employees who are involved in the procure-25
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ment process such that those employees may not for 2 1
years after leaving Government service lobby any Govern-2
ment official regarding a Government contract that was 3
under the official responsibility of the employee during the 4
last 2 years of Government service of the employee. This 5
report shall include both immediate actions the executive 6
branch can take and, if necessary, recommendations for 7
legislation. 8
(e) F
ILING ANDRETENTION.—Each pledge signed by 9
an appointee, and any waiver granted under section 913 10
with respect thereto, shall be filed with the head of the 11
agency of the relevant appointee for permanent retention 12
in the official personnel folder of the appointee or any 13
equivalent folder. 14
SEC. 915. ENFORCEMENT. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The contractual, fiduciary, and 16
ethical commitments in the pledge provided for herein are 17
solely enforceable by the United States pursuant to this 18
section by any legally available means, including— 19
(1) debarment proceedings within any affected 20
Executive agency; or 21
(2) judicial civil proceedings for declaratory, in-22
junctive, or monetary relief. 23
(b) B
AR ONLOBBYING.— 24
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Any former appointee who is 1
determined, after notice and hearing, by the duly 2
designated authority within any Executive agency, to 3
have violated the pledge signed by the appointee may 4
be barred from lobbying any officer or employee of 5
the Executive agency to which the appointee was ap-6
pointed for not more than 5 years in addition to any 7
other restriction on lobbying under the pledge signed 8
by the appointee. 9
(2) P
ROCEDURES.—The head of each Executive 10
agency shall, in consultation with the Director of the 11
Office of Government Ethics, establish procedures to 12
implement this subsection, which shall include pro-13
viding for fact-finding and investigation of possible 14
violations of this subtitle and for referrals to the At-15
torney General for consideration pursuant to sub-16
section (c). 17
(c) A
UTHORITY OF THEATTORNEYGENERAL.— 18
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Attorney General 19
may— 20
(A) upon receiving information regarding 21
the possible breach of any commitment in a 22
signed pledge by an appointee, request any ap-23
propriate Federal investigative authority to con-24
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duct an investigation of the alleged breach, as 1
may be appropriate; and 2
(B) upon determining that there is a rea-3
sonable basis to believe that a breach of a com-4
mitment in a signed pledge by an appointee has 5
occurred, will occur, or will continue to occur if 6
not enjoined, commence a civil action against 7
the former employee in any United States Dis-8
trict Court with jurisdiction to consider the 9
matter. 10
(2) C
IVIL RELIEF.—In any civil action com-11
menced under paragraph (1)(B), the Attorney Gen-12
eral may request any and all relief authorized by 13
Federal law, including— 14
(A) such temporary restraining orders and 15
preliminary and permanent injunctions as may 16
be appropriate to restrain future, recurring, or 17
continuing conduct by the former appointee in 18
breach of the commitments in the pledge he or 19
she signed; and 20
(B) establishment of a constructive trust 21
for the benefit of the United States, requiring 22
an accounting and payment to the United 23
States Treasury of all money and other things 24
of value received by, or payable to, the former 25
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employee arising out of any breach or at-1
tempted breach of the pledge signed by the 2
former appointee. 3
SEC. 916. GENERAL PROVISIONS. 4
(a) S
EVERABILITY.—If any provision of this subtitle 5
or the application of such provision is held to be invalid, 6
the remainder of this subtitle and other dissimilar applica-7
tions of such provision shall not be affected. 8
(b) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sub-9
title shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect— 10
(1) the authority granted by Federal law to any 11
Executive agency, or the head thereof; or 12
(2) the functions of the Director of the Office 13
of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, 14
administrative, or legislative proposals. 15
(c) I
MPLEMENTATION.—This subtitle shall be imple-16
mented consistent with applicable law and subject to the 17
availability of appropriations. 18
(d) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—This subtitle is not 19
intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, sub-20
stantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by 21
any party against the United States, its departments, 22
agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or 23
any other person. 24
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TITLE X—PRESIDENTIAL AND 1
VICE PRESIDENTIAL TAX 2
TRANSPARENCY 3
SEC. 1001. PRESIDENTIAL AND VICE PRESIDENTIAL TAX 4
TRANSPARENCY. 5
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 6
(1) The term ‘‘covered candidate’’ means a can-7
didate of a major party in a general election for the 8
office of President or Vice President. 9
(2) The term ‘‘income tax return’’ means, with 10
respect to an individual, any return (as such term is 11
defined in section 6103(b)(1) of the Internal Rev-12
enue Code of 1986, except that such term shall not 13
include declarations of estimated tax) of— 14
(A) such individual, other than information 15
returns issued to persons other than such indi-16
vidual; or 17
(B) of any corporation, partnership, or 18
trust in which such individual holds, directly or 19
indirectly, a significant interest as the sole or 20
principal owner or the sole or principal bene-21
ficial owner (as such terms are defined in regu-22
lations prescribed by the Secretary). 23
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(3) The term ‘‘major party’’ has the meaning 1
given the term in section 9002 of the Internal Rev-2
enue Code of 1986. 3
(4) The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 4
of the Treasury or the delegate of the Secretary. 5
(b) D
ISCLOSURE.— 6
(1) I
N GENERAL.— 7
(A) C
ANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT AND 8
VICE PRESIDENT.—Not later than the date that 9
is 15 days after the date on which an individual 10
becomes a covered candidate, the individual 11
shall submit to the Federal Election Commis-12
sion a copy of the individual’s income tax re-13
turns for the 10 most recent taxable years for 14
which a return has been filed with the Internal 15
Revenue Service. 16
(B) P
RESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT .— 17
With respect to an individual who is the Presi-18
dent or Vice President, not later than the due 19
date for the return of tax for each taxable year, 20
such individual shall submit to the Federal 21
Election Commission a copy of the individual’s 22
income tax returns for the taxable year and for 23
the 9 preceding taxable years. 24
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(C) TRANSITION RULE FOR SITTING PRESI -1
DENTS AND VICE PRESIDENTS .—Not later than 2
the date that is 30 days after the date of enact-3
ment of this section, an individual who is the 4
President or Vice President on such date of en-5
actment shall submit to the Federal Election 6
Commission a copy of the income tax returns 7
for the 10 most recent taxable years for which 8
a return has been filed with the Internal Rev-9
enue Service. 10
(2) F
AILURE TO DISCLOSE .—If any require-11
ment under paragraph (1) to submit an income tax 12
return is not met, the chairman of the Federal Elec-13
tion Commission shall submit to the Secretary a 14
written request that the Secretary provide the Fed-15
eral Election Commission with the income tax re-16
turn. 17
(3) P
UBLICLY AVAILABLE.—The chairman of 18
the Federal Election Commission shall make publicly 19
available each income tax return submitted under 20
paragraph (1) in the same manner as a return pro-21
vided under section 6103(l)(23) of the Internal Rev-22
enue Code of 1986 (as added by this section). 23
(4) T
REATMENT UNDER THE FEDERAL ELEC -24
TION CAMPAIGN ACT OF 1971 .—Section 304(a)(11) 25
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of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 1
U.S.C. 30104(a)(11)) is amended by adding at the 2
end the following: 3
‘‘(E) An income tax return filed under the 4
Protecting Our Democracy Act shall be filed in 5
electronic form accessible by computers and 6
shall be treated as a report filed under and re-7
quired by this Act for purposes of subpara-8
graphs (B) and (C), except that if it would re-9
quire considerable, extensive, and significant 10
time for the Commission to make redactions to 11
such a return, as required under section 12
1001(b)(3) of the Protecting Our Democracy 13
Act or subparagraph (B)(ii) of section 14
6103(l)(23) of the Internal Revenue Code of 15
1986, the Commission may make the return 16
available for public inspection more than 48 17
hours after receipt by the Commission, but in 18
no event later than 30 days after receipt by the 19
Commission.’’. 20
(c) D
ISCLOSURE OFRETURNS OFPRESIDENTS AND 21
V
ICEPRESIDENTS AND CERTAINCANDIDATES FOR 22
P
RESIDENT ANDVICEPRESIDENT.— 23
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 6103(l) of the Inter-1
nal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at 2
the end the following new paragraph: 3
‘‘(23) D
ISCLOSURE OF RETURN INFORMATION 4
OF PRESIDENTS AND VICE PRESIDENTS AND CER -5
TAIN CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESI -6
DENT.— 7
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Upon written request 8
by the chairman of the Federal Election Com-9
mission under section 1001(b)(2) of the Pro-10
tecting Our Democracy Act, not later than the 11
date that is 15 days after the date of such re-12
quest, the Secretary shall provide copies of any 13
return which is so requested to officers and em-14
ployees of the Federal Election Commission 15
whose official duties include disclosure or redac-16
tion of such return under this paragraph. 17
‘‘(B) D
ISCLOSURE TO THE PUBLIC .— 18
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—The chairman of 19
the Federal Election Commission shall 20
make publicly available any return which is 21
provided under subparagraph (A). 22
‘‘(ii) R
EDACTION OF CERTAIN INFOR -23
MATION.—Before making publicly available 24
under clause (i) any return, the chairman 25
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of the Federal Election Commission shall 1
redact such information as the Federal 2
Election Commission and the Secretary 3
jointly determine is necessary for pro-4
tecting against identity theft, such as so-5
cial security numbers.’’. 6
(2) C
ONFORMING AMENDMENTS .—Section 7
6103(p)(4) of such Code is amended— 8
(A) in the matter preceding subparagraph 9
(A) by striking ‘‘or (22)’’ and inserting ‘‘(22), 10
or (23)’’; and 11
(B) in subparagraph (F)(ii) by striking ‘‘or 12
(22)’’ and inserting ‘‘(22), or (23)’’. 13
(3) E
FFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made 14
by this subsection shall apply to disclosures made on 15
or after the date of enactment of this Act. 16
DIVISION C—MISCELLANEOUS 17
TITLE XI—REPORTING FOREIGN 18
INTERFERENCE IN ELECTIONS 19
SEC. 1101. FEDERAL CAMPAIGN REPORTING OF FOREIGN 20
CONTACTS. 21
(a) I
NITIALNOTICE.— 22
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 304 of the Federal 23
Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30104), 24
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as amended by section 309, is amended by adding 1
at the end the following new subsection: 2
‘‘(i) D
ISCLOSURE OFREPORTABLEFOREIGNCON-3
TACTS.— 4
‘‘(1) C
OMMITTEE OBLIGATION TO NOTIFY .— 5
Not later than 1 week after a reportable foreign con-6
tact, each political committee shall notify the Fed-7
eral Bureau of Investigation and the Commission of 8
the reportable foreign contact and provide a sum-9
mary of the circumstances with respect to such re-10
portable foreign contact. The Federal Bureau of In-11
vestigation, not later than 1 week after receiving a 12
notification from a political committee under this 13
paragraph, shall submit to the political committee, 14
the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of 15
the House of Representatives, and the Select Com-16
mittee on Intelligence of the Senate written or elec-17
tronic confirmation of receipt of the notification. 18
‘‘(2) I
NDIVIDUAL OBLIGATION TO NOTIFY .— 19
Not later than 3 days after a reportable foreign con-20
tact— 21
‘‘(A) each candidate and each immediate 22
family member of a candidate shall notify the 23
treasurer or other designated official of the 24
principal campaign committee of such candidate 25
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of the reportable foreign contact and provide a 1
summary of the circumstances with respect to 2
such reportable foreign contact; and 3
‘‘(B) each official, employee, or agent of a 4
political committee shall notify the treasurer or 5
other designated official of the committee of the 6
reportable foreign contact and provide a sum-7
mary of the circumstances with respect to such 8
reportable foreign contact. 9
‘‘(3) R
EPORTABLE FOREIGN CONTACT .—In this 10
subsection: 11
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘reportable 12
foreign contact’ means any direct or indirect 13
contact or communication that— 14
‘‘(i) is between— 15
‘‘(I) a candidate, an immediate 16
family member of the candidate, a po-17
litical committee, or any official, em-18
ployee, or agent of such committee; 19
and 20
‘‘(II) an individual that the per-21
son described in subclause (I) knows, 22
has reason to know, or reasonably be-23
lieves is a covered foreign national; 24
and 25
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‘‘(ii) the person described in clause 1
(i)(I) knows, has reason to know, or rea-2
sonably believes involves— 3
‘‘(I) an offer or other proposal 4
for a contribution, donation, expendi-5
ture, disbursement, or solicitation de-6
scribed in section 319; or 7
‘‘(II) coordination or collabora-8
tion with, an offer or provision of in-9
formation or services to or from, or 10
persistent and repeated contact with, 11
a covered foreign national in connec-12
tion with an election. 13
‘‘(B) E
XCEPTIONS.— 14
‘‘(i) C
ONTACTS IN OFFICIAL CAPACITY 15
AS ELECTED OFFICIAL.—The term ‘report-16
able foreign contact’ shall not include any 17
contact or communication with a covered 18
foreign national by an elected official or an 19
employee of an elected official solely in an 20
official capacity as such an official or em-21
ployee. 22
‘‘(ii) C
ONTACTS FOR PURPOSES OF 23
ENABLING OBSERVATION OF ELECTIONS 24
BY INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS .—The 25
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term ‘reportable foreign contact’ shall not 1
include any contact or communication with 2
a covered foreign national by any person 3
which is made for purposes of enabling the 4
observation of elections in the United 5
States by a foreign national or the obser-6
vation of elections outside of the United 7
States by a candidate, political committee, 8
or any official, employee, or agent of such 9
committee. 10
‘‘(iii) E
XCEPTIONS NOT APPLICABLE 11
IF CONTACTS OR COMMUNICATIONS IN -12
VOLVE PROHIBITED DISBURSEMENTS .—A 13
contact or communication by an elected of-14
ficial or an employee of an elected official 15
shall not be considered to be made solely 16
in an official capacity for purposes of 17
clause (i), and a contact or communication 18
shall not be considered to be made for pur-19
poses of enabling the observation of elec-20
tions for purposes of clause (ii), if the con-21
tact or communication involves a contribu-22
tion, donation, expenditure, disbursement, 23
or solicitation described in section 319. 24
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‘‘(C) COVERED FOREIGN NATIONAL DE -1
FINED.— 2
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—In this paragraph, 3
the term ‘covered foreign national’ 4
means— 5
‘‘(I) a foreign principal (as de-6
fined in section 1(b) of the Foreign 7
Agents Registration Act of 1938 (22 8
U.S.C. 611(b))) that is a government 9
of a foreign country or a foreign polit-10
ical party; 11
‘‘(II) any person who acts as an 12
agent, representative, employee, or 13
servant, or any person who acts in 14
any other capacity at the order, re-15
quest, or under the direction or con-16
trol, of a foreign principal described in 17
subclause (I) or of a person any of 18
whose activities are directly or indi-19
rectly supervised, directed, controlled, 20
financed, or subsidized in whole or in 21
major part by a foreign principal de-22
scribed in subclause (I); or 23
‘‘(III) any person included in the 24
list of specially designated nationals 25
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and blocked persons maintained by 1
the Office of Foreign Assets Control 2
of the Department of the Treasury 3
pursuant to authorities relating to the 4
imposition of sanctions relating to the 5
conduct of a foreign principal de-6
scribed in subclause (I). 7
‘‘(ii) C
LARIFICATION REGARDING AP -8
PLICATION TO CITIZENS OF THE UNITED 9
STATES.—In the case of a citizen of the 10
United States, subclause (II) of clause (i) 11
applies only to the extent that the person 12
involved acts within the scope of that per-13
son’s status as the agent of a foreign prin-14
cipal described in subclause (I) of clause 15
(i). 16
‘‘(4) I
MMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBER .—In this 17
subsection, the term ‘immediate family member’ 18
means, with respect to a candidate, a parent, parent- 19
in-law, spouse, adult child, or sibling.’’. 20
(2) E
FFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made 21
by paragraph (1) shall apply with respect to report-22
able foreign contacts which occur on or after the 23
date of the enactment of this Act. 24
(b) I
NFORMATIONINCLUDED ONREPORT.— 25
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 304(b) of such Act 1
(52 U.S.C. 30104(b)) is amended— 2
(A) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of para-3
graph (7); 4
(B) by striking the period at the end of 5
paragraph (8) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 6
(C) by adding at the end the following new 7
paragraph: 8
‘‘(9) for any reportable foreign contact (as de-9
fined in subsection (i)(3))— 10
‘‘(A) the date, time, and location of the 11
contact; 12
‘‘(B) the date and time of when a des-13
ignated official of the committee was notified of 14
the contact; 15
‘‘(C) the identity of individuals involved; 16
and 17
‘‘(D) a description of the contact, including 18
the nature of any contribution, donation, ex-19
penditure, disbursement, or solicitation involved 20
and the nature of any activity described in sub-21
section (i)(3)(A)(ii)(II) involved.’’. 22
(2) E
FFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made 23
by paragraph (1) shall apply with respect to reports 24
filed on or after the expiration of the 60-day period 25
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which begins on the date of the enactment of this 1
Act. 2
SEC. 1102. FEDERAL CAMPAIGN FOREIGN CONTACT RE-3
PORTING COMPLIANCE SYSTEM. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 302 of the Federal Elec-5
tion Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30102) is amended 6
by adding at the end the following new subsection: 7
‘‘(j) R
EPORTABLEFOREIGNCONTACTSCOMPLIANCE 8
P
OLICY.— 9
‘‘(1) R
EPORTING.—Each political committee 10
shall establish a policy that requires all officials, em-11
ployees, and agents of such committee to notify the 12
treasurer or other appropriate designated official of 13
the committee of any reportable foreign contact (as 14
defined in section 304(i)) not later than 3 days after 15
such contact was made. 16
‘‘(2) R
ETENTION AND PRESERVATION OF 17
RECORDS.—Each political committee shall establish 18
a policy that provides for the retention and preserva-19
tion of records and information related to reportable 20
foreign contacts (as so defined) for a period of not 21
less than 3 years. 22
‘‘(3) C
ERTIFICATION.— 23
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Upon filing its state-24
ment of organization under section 303(a), and 25
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with each report filed under section 304(a), the 1
treasurer of each political committee (other 2
than an authorized committee) shall certify 3
that— 4
‘‘(i) the committee has in place poli-5
cies that meet the requirements of para-6
graphs (1) and (2); 7
‘‘(ii) the committee has designated an 8
official to monitor compliance with such 9
policies; and 10
‘‘(iii) not later than 1 week after the 11
beginning of any formal or informal affili-12
ation with the committee, all officials, em-13
ployees, and agents of such committee 14
will— 15
‘‘(I) receive notice of such poli-16
cies; 17
‘‘(II) be informed of the prohibi-18
tions under section 319; and 19
‘‘(III) sign a certification affirm-20
ing their understanding of such poli-21
cies and prohibitions. 22
‘‘(B) A
UTHORIZED COMMITTEES .—With 23
respect to an authorized committee, the can-24
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didate shall make the certification required 1
under subparagraph (A).’’. 2
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.— 3
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The amendment made by 4
subsection (a) shall apply with respect to political 5
committees which file a statement of organization 6
under section 303(a) of the Federal Election Cam-7
paign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30103(a)) on or after 8
the date of the enactment of this Act. 9
(2) T
RANSITION RULE FOR EXISTING COMMIT -10
TEES.—Not later than 30 days after the date of the 11
enactment of this Act, each political committee 12
under the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 13
shall file a certification with the Federal Election 14
Commission that the committee is in compliance 15
with the requirements of section 302(j) of such Act 16
(as added by subsection (a)). 17
SEC. 1103. CRIMINAL PENALTIES. 18
Section 309(d)(1) of the Federal Election Campaign 19
Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30109(d)(1)) is amended by add-20
ing at the end the following new subparagraphs: 21
‘‘(E) Any person who knowingly and will-22
fully commits a violation of subsection (i) or 23
(b)(9) of section 304 or section 302(j) shall be 24
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fined not more than $500,000, imprisoned not 1
more than 5 years, or both. 2
‘‘(F) Any person who knowingly and will-3
fully conceals or destroys any materials relating 4
to a reportable foreign contact (as defined in 5
section 304(i)) shall be fined not more than 6
$1,000,000, imprisoned not more than 5 years, 7
or both.’’. 8
SEC. 1104. REPORT TO CONGRESSIONAL INTELLIGENCE 9
COMMITTEES. 10
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 11
date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, 12
the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall 13
submit to the congressional intelligence committees a re-14
port relating to notifications received by the Federal Bu-15
reau of Investigation under section 304(i)(1) of the Fed-16
eral Election Campaign Act of 1971 (as added by section 17
1101(a) of this Act). 18
(b) E
LEMENTS.—Each report under subsection (a) 19
shall include, at a minimum, the following with respect 20
to notifications described in subsection (a): 21
(1) The number of such notifications received 22
from political committees during the year covered by 23
the report. 24
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(2) A description of protocols and procedures 1
developed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation re-2
lating to receipt and maintenance of records relating 3
to such notifications. 4
(3) With respect to such notifications received 5
during the year covered by the report, a description 6
of any subsequent actions taken by the Director re-7
sulting from the receipt of such notifications. 8
(c) C
ONGRESSIONAL INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEES 9
D
EFINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘congressional intel-10
ligence committees’’ has the meaning given that term in 11
section 3 of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 12
3003). 13
SEC. 1105. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 14
Nothing in this title or the amendments made by this 15
title shall be construed— 16
(1) to impede legitimate journalistic activities; 17
or 18
(2) to impose any additional limitation on the 19
right to express political views or to participate in 20
public discourse of any individual who— 21
(A) resides in the United States; 22
(B) is not a citizen of the United States or 23
a national of the United States, as defined in 24
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section 101(a)(22) of the Immigration and Na-1
tionality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(22)); and 2
(C) is not lawfully admitted for permanent 3
residence, as defined by section 101(a)(20) of 4
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 5
1101(a)(20)). 6
TITLE XII—ELIMINATING FOR-7
EIGN INTERFERENCE IN 8
ELECTIONS 9
SEC. 1201. CLARIFICATION OF APPLICATION OF FOREIGN 10
MONEY BAN. 11
(a) C
LARIFICATION OFTREATMENT OF PROVISION 12
OFCERTAININFORMATION ASCONTRIBUTION ORDONA-13
TION OF ATHING OFVALUE.—Section 319 of the Federal 14
Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30121) is 15
amended by adding at the end the following new sub-16
section: 17
‘‘(c) C
LARIFICATION OFTREATMENT OF PROVISION 18
OFCERTAININFORMATION ASCONTRIBUTION ORDONA-19
TION OF ATHING OFVALUE.—For purposes of this sec-20
tion, a ‘contribution or donation of money or other thing 21
of value’ includes the provision of opposition research, 22
polling, or other non-public information relating to a can-23
didate for election for a Federal, State, or local office for 24
the purpose of influencing the election, regardless of 25
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whether such research, polling, or information has mone-1
tary value, except that nothing in this subsection shall be 2
construed to treat the mere provision of an opinion about 3
a candidate as a thing of value for purposes of this sec-4
tion.’’. 5
(b) C
LARIFICATION OF APPLICATION OFFOREIGN 6
M
ONEYBAN TOALLCONTRIBUTIONS AND DONATIONS 7
OFTHINGS OFVALUE AND TO ALLSOLICITATIONS OF 8
C
ONTRIBUTIONS AND DONATIONS OF THINGS OF 9
V
ALUE.—Section 319(a) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 10
30121(a)) is amended— 11
(1) in paragraph (1)(A), by striking ‘‘promise 12
to make a contribution or donation’’ and inserting 13
‘‘promise to make such a contribution or donation’’; 14
(2) in paragraph (1)(B), by striking ‘‘donation’’ 15
and inserting ‘‘donation of money or other thing of 16
value, or to make an express or implied promise to 17
make such a contribution or donation,’’; and 18
(3) by amending paragraph (2) to read as fol-19
lows: 20
‘‘(2) a person to solicit, accept, or receive (di-21
rectly or indirectly) a contribution or donation de-22
scribed in subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph 23
(1), or to solicit, accept, or receive (directly or indi-24
rectly) an express or implied promise to make such 25
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a contribution or donation, from a foreign na-1
tional.’’. 2
(c) E
NHANCED PENALTY FOR CERTAINVIOLA-3
TIONS.— 4
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 309(d)(1) of such 5
Act (52 U.S.C. 30109(d)(1)), as amended by section 6
1103, is further amended by adding at the end the 7
following new subparagraph: 8
‘‘(G)(i) Any person who knowingly and 9
willfully commits a violation of section 319 10
which involves a foreign national which is a 11
government of a foreign country or a foreign 12
political party, or which involves a thing of 13
value consisting of the provision of opposition 14
research, polling, or other non-public informa-15
tion relating to a candidate for election for a 16
Federal, State, or local office for the purpose of 17
influencing the election, shall be fined under 18
title 18, United States Code, or imprisoned for 19
not more than 5 years, or both. 20
‘‘(ii) In clause (i), each of the terms ‘gov-21
ernment of a foreign country’ and ‘foreign polit-22
ical party’ has the meaning given such term in 23
section 1 of the Foreign Agents Registration 24
Act of 1938, as Amended (22 U.S.C. 611).’’. 25
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(2) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made 1
by paragraph (1) shall apply with respect to viola-2
tions committed on or after the date of the enact-3
ment of this Act. 4
SEC. 1202. REQUIRING ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF FOREIGN 5
MONEY BAN BY POLITICAL COMMITTEES. 6
(a) P
ROVISION OFINFORMATION BYFEDERALELEC-7
TIONCOMMISSION.—Section 303 of the Federal Election 8
Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30103) is amended by 9
adding at the end the following new subsection: 10
‘‘(e) A
CKNOWLEDGMENT OF FOREIGNMONEY 11
B
AN.— 12
‘‘(1) N
OTIFICATION BY COMMISSION .—Not later 13
than 30 days after a political committee files its 14
statement of organization under subsection (a), and 15
biennially thereafter until the committee terminates, 16
the Commission shall provide the committee with a 17
written explanation of section 319. 18
‘‘(2) A
CKNOWLEDGMENT BY COMMITTEE .— 19
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 30 20
days after receiving the written explanation of 21
section 319 under paragraph (1), the committee 22
shall transmit to the Commission a signed cer-23
tification that the committee has received such 24
written explanation and has provided a copy of 25
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the explanation to all members, employees, con-1
tractors, and volunteers of the committee. 2
‘‘(B) P
ERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR SIGNA -3
TURE.—The certification required under sub-4
paragraph (A) shall be signed— 5
‘‘(i) in the case of an authorized com-6
mittee of a candidate, by the candidate; or 7
‘‘(ii) in the case of any other political 8
committee, by the treasurer of the com-9
mittee.’’. 10
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE; TRANSITION FOREXISTING 11
C
OMMITTEES.— 12
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The amendment made by 13
subsection (a) shall apply with respect to political 14
committees which file statements of organization 15
under section 303 of the Federal Election Campaign 16
Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30103) on or after the date 17
of the enactment of this Act. 18
(2) T
RANSITION FOR EXISTING COMMITTEES .— 19
(A) N
OTIFICATION BY FEDERAL ELECTION 20
COMMISSION.—Not later than 90 days after the 21
date of the enactment of this Act, the Federal 22
Election Commission shall provide each political 23
committee under such Act with the written ex-24
planation of section 319 of such Act, as re-25
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quired under section 303(e)(1) of such Act (as 1
added by subsection (a)). 2
(B) A
CKNOWLEDGMENT BY COMMITTEE .— 3
Not later than 30 days after receiving the writ-4
ten explanation under subparagraph (A), each 5
political committee under such Act shall trans-6
mit to the Federal Election Commission the 7
signed certification, as required under section 8
303(e)(2) of such Act (as added by subsection 9
(a)). 10
SEC. 1203. PROHIBITION ON CONTRIBUTIONS AND DONA-11
TIONS BY FOREIGN NATIONALS IN CONNEC-12
TION WITH BALLOT INITIATIVES AND 13
REFERENDA. 14
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 319(a)(1)(A) of the Fed-15
eral Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 16
30121(a)(1)(A)) is amended by striking ‘‘State, or local 17
election’’ and inserting the following: ‘‘State, or local elec-18
tion, including a State or local ballot initiative or ref-19
erendum’’. 20
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendment made by 21
this section shall apply with respect to elections held in 22
2024 or any succeeding year. 23
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TITLE XIII—HONEST ADS 1
SEC. 1301. SHORT TITLE. 2
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Honest Ads Act’’. 3
SEC. 1302. PURPOSE. 4
The purpose of this title is to enhance the integrity 5
of American democracy and national security by improving 6
disclosure requirements for online political advertisements 7
in order to uphold the Supreme Court’s well-established 8
standard that the electorate bears the right to be fully in-9
formed. 10
SEC. 1303. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 11
It is the sense of Congress that— 12
(1) the dramatic increase in digital political ad-13
vertisements, and the growing centrality of online 14
platforms in the lives of Americans, requires the 15
Congress and the Federal Election Commission to 16
take meaningful action to ensure that laws and reg-17
ulations provide the accountability and transparency 18
that is fundamental to our democracy; 19
(2) free and fair elections require both trans-20
parency and accountability which give the public a 21
right to know the true sources of funding for polit-22
ical advertisements, be they foreign or domestic, in 23
order to make informed political choices and hold 24
elected officials accountable; and 25
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(3) transparency of funding for political adver-1
tisements is essential to enforce other campaign fi-2
nance laws, including the prohibition on campaign 3
spending by foreign nationals. 4
SEC. 1304. EXPANSION OF DEFINITION OF PUBLIC COMMU-5
NICATION. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Paragraph (22) of section 301 of 7
the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 8
30101(22)) is amended by striking ‘‘or satellite commu-9
nication’’ and inserting ‘‘satellite, paid internet, or paid 10
digital communication’’. 11
(b) T
REATMENT OFCONTRIBUTIONS AND EXPENDI-12
TURES.—Section 301 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 30101) is 13
amended— 14
(1) in paragraph (8)(B)(v), by striking ‘‘on 15
broadcasting stations, or in newspapers, magazines, 16
or similar types of general public political adver-17
tising’’ and inserting ‘‘in any public communica-18
tion’’; and 19
(2) in paragraph (9)(B)— 20
(A) by amending clause (i) to read as fol-21
lows: 22
‘‘(i) any news story, commentary, or 23
editorial distributed through the facilities 24
of any broadcasting station or any print, 25
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online, or digital newspaper, magazine, 1
publication, periodical, blog, or platform, 2
unless such broadcasting, print, online, or 3
digital facilities are owned or controlled by 4
any political party, political committee, or 5
candidate;’’; and 6
(B) in clause (iv), by striking ‘‘on broad-7
casting stations, or in newspapers, magazines, 8
or similar types of general public political ad-9
vertising’’ and inserting ‘‘in any public commu-10
nication’’. 11
(c) D
ISCLOSURE AND DISCLAIMERSTATEMENTS.— 12
Subsection (a) of section 318 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 13
30120) is amended— 14
(1) by striking ‘‘financing any communication 15
through any broadcasting station, newspaper, maga-16
zine, outdoor advertising facility, mailing, or any 17
other type of general public political advertising’’ 18
and inserting ‘‘financing any public communication’’; 19
and 20
(2) by striking ‘‘solicits any contribution 21
through any broadcasting station, newspaper, maga-22
zine, outdoor advertising facility, mailing, or any 23
other type of general public political advertising’’ 24
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and inserting ‘‘solicits any contribution through any 1
public communication’’. 2
(d) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 3
this section shall take effect on the date of the enactment 4
of this Act and shall take effect without regard to whether 5
or not the Federal Election Commission has promulgated 6
the final regulations necessary to carry out this part and 7
the amendments made by this part by the deadline set 8
forth in subsection (e). 9
(e) R
EGULATION.—Not later than 1 year after the 10
date of the enactment of this Act, the Federal Election 11
Commission shall promulgate regulations on what con-12
stitutes a paid internet or paid digital communication for 13
purposes of paragraph (22) of section 301 of the Federal 14
Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101(22)), 15
as amended by subsection (a), except that such regulation 16
shall not define a paid internet or paid digital communica-17
tion to include communications for which the only pay-18
ment consists of internal resources, such as employee com-19
pensation, of the entity paying for the communication. 20
SEC. 1305. EXPANSION OF DEFINITION OF ELECTION-21
EERING COMMUNICATION. 22
(a) E
XPANSION TOONLINECOMMUNICATIONS.— 23
(1) A
PPLICATION TO QUALIFIED INTERNET AND 24
DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS .— 25
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(A) IN GENERAL.—Subparagraph (A) of 1
section 304(f)(3) of the Federal Election Cam-2
paign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30104(f)(3)(A)) 3
is amended by striking ‘‘or satellite communica-4
tion’’ each place it appears in clauses (i) and 5
(ii) and inserting ‘‘satellite, or qualified internet 6
or digital communication’’. 7
(B) Q
UALIFIED INTERNET OR DIGITAL 8
COMMUNICATION.—Paragraph (3) of section 9
304(f) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 30104(f)) is 10
amended by adding at the end the following 11
new subparagraph: 12
‘‘(D) Q
UALIFIED INTERNET OR DIGITAL 13
COMMUNICATION.—The term ‘qualified internet 14
or digital communication’ means any commu-15
nication which is placed or promoted for a fee 16
on an online platform (as defined in subsection 17
(j)(3)).’’. 18
(2) N
ONAPPLICATION OF RELEVANT ELEC -19
TORATE TO ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS .—Section 20
304(f)(3)(A)(i)(III) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21
30104(f)(3)(A)(i)(III)) is amended by inserting ‘‘any 22
broadcast, cable, or satellite’’ before ‘‘communica-23
tion’’. 24
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(3) N EWS EXEMPTION .—Section 1
304(f)(3)(B)(i) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 2
30104(f)(3)(B)(i)) is amended to read as follows: 3
‘‘(i) a communication appearing in a 4
news story, commentary, or editorial dis-5
tributed through the facilities of any 6
broadcasting station or any online or dig-7
ital newspaper, magazine, publication, peri-8
odical, blog, or platform, unless such 9
broadcasting, online, or digital facilities are 10
owned or controlled by any political party, 11
political committee, or candidate;’’. 12
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 13
this section shall apply with respect to communications 14
made on or after January 1, 2024, and shall take effect 15
without regard to whether or not the Federal Election 16
Commission has promulgated regulations to carry out 17
such amendments. 18
SEC. 1306. APPLICATION OF DISCLAIMER STATEMENTS TO 19
ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS. 20
(a) C
LEAR ANDCONSPICUOUSMANNERREQUIRE-21
MENT.—Subsection (a) of section 318 of the Federal Elec-22
tion Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30120(a)) is 23
amended— 24
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(1) by striking ‘‘shall clearly state’’ each place 1
it appears in paragraphs (1), (2), and (3) and in-2
serting ‘‘shall state in a clear and conspicuous man-3
ner’’; and 4
(2) by adding at the end the following flush 5
sentence: ‘‘For purposes of this section, a commu-6
nication does not make a statement in a clear and 7
conspicuous manner if it is difficult to read or hear 8
or if the placement is easily overlooked.’’. 9
(b) S
PECIALRULES FORQUALIFIEDINTERNET OR 10
D
IGITALCOMMUNICATIONS.— 11
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 318 of such Act (52 12
U.S.C. 30120) is amended by adding at the end the 13
following new subsection: 14
‘‘(e) S
PECIALRULES FORQUALIFIEDINTERNET OR 15
D
IGITALCOMMUNICATIONS.— 16
‘‘(1) S
PECIAL RULES WITH RESPECT TO STATE -17
MENTS.—In the case of any qualified internet or 18
digital communication (as defined in section 19
304(f)(3)(D)) which is disseminated through a me-20
dium in which the provision of all of the information 21
specified in this section is not possible, the commu-22
nication shall, in a clear and conspicuous manner— 23
‘‘(A) state the name of the person who 24
paid for the communication; and 25
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‘‘(B) provide a means for the recipient of 1
the communication to obtain the remainder of 2
the information required under this section with 3
minimal effort and without receiving or viewing 4
any additional material other than such re-5
quired information. 6
‘‘(2) S
AFE HARBOR FOR DETERMINING CLEAR 7
AND CONSPICUOUS MANNER .—A statement in quali-8
fied internet or digital communication (as defined in 9
section 304(f)(3)(D)) shall be considered to be made 10
in a clear and conspicuous manner as provided in 11
subsection (a) if the communication meets the fol-12
lowing requirements: 13
‘‘(A) T
EXT OR GRAPHIC COMMUNICA -14
TIONS.—In the case of a text or graphic com-15
munication, the statement— 16
‘‘(i) appears in letters at least as large 17
as the majority of the text in the commu-18
nication; and 19
‘‘(ii) meets the requirements of para-20
graphs (2) and (3) of subsection (c). 21
‘‘(B) A
UDIO COMMUNICATIONS .—In the 22
case of an audio communication, the statement 23
is spoken in a clearly audible and intelligible 24
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•HR 5048 IH
manner at the beginning or end of the commu-1
nication and lasts at least 3 seconds. 2
‘‘(C) V
IDEO COMMUNICATIONS .—In the 3
case of a video communication which also in-4
cludes audio, the statement— 5
‘‘(i) is included at either the beginning 6
or the end of the communication; and 7
‘‘(ii) is made both in— 8
‘‘(I) a written format that meets 9
the requirements of subparagraph (A) 10
and appears for at least 4 seconds; 11
and 12
‘‘(II) an audible format that 13
meets the requirements of subpara-14
graph (B). 15
‘‘(D) O
THER COMMUNICATIONS .—In the 16
case of any other type of communication, the 17
statement is at least as clear and conspicuous 18
as the statement specified in subparagraph (A), 19
(B), or (C).’’. 20
(2) N
ONAPPLICATION OF CERTAIN EXCEP -21
TIONS.—The exceptions provided in section 22
110.11(f)(1)(i) and (ii) of title 11, Code of Federal 23
Regulations, or any successor to such rules, shall 24
have no application to qualified internet or digital 25
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communications (as defined in section 304(f)(3)(D) 1
of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971). 2
(c) M
ODIFICATION OFADDITIONALREQUIREMENTS 3
FORCERTAINCOMMUNICATIONS.—Section 318(d) of such 4
Act (52 U.S.C. 30120(d)) is amended— 5
(1) in paragraph (1)(A)— 6
(A) by striking ‘‘which is transmitted 7
through radio’’ and inserting ‘‘which is in an 8
audio format’’; and 9
(B) by striking ‘‘B
Y RADIO’’ in the heading 10
and inserting ‘‘A
UDIO FORMAT’’; 11
(2) in paragraph (1)(B)— 12
(A) by striking ‘‘which is transmitted 13
through television’’ and inserting ‘‘which is in 14
video format’’; and 15
(B) by striking ‘‘B
Y TELEVISION’’ in the 16
heading and inserting ‘‘V
IDEO FORMAT’’; and 17
(3) in paragraph (2)— 18
(A) by striking ‘‘transmitted through radio 19
or television’’ and inserting ‘‘made in audio or 20
video format’’; and 21
(B) by striking ‘‘through television’’ in the 22
second sentence and inserting ‘‘in video for-23
mat’’. 24
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(d) EFFECTIVEDATE.—The amendment made by 1
subsection (a) shall take effect on the date of the enact-2
ment of this Act and shall take effect without regard to 3
whether or not the Federal Election Commission has pro-4
mulgated regulations to carry out such amendments. 5
SEC. 1307. POLITICAL RECORD REQUIREMENTS FOR ON-6
LINE PLATFORMS. 7
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 304 of the Federal Elec-8
tion Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30104), as amend-9
ed by sections 309 and 1101, is amended by adding at 10
the end the following new subsection: 11
‘‘(j) D
ISCLOSURE OFCERTAINONLINEADVERTISE-12
MENTS.— 13
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.— 14
‘‘(A) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR ONLINE PLAT -15
FORMS.— 16
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—An online plat-17
form shall maintain, and make available 18
for online public inspection in machine 19
readable format, a complete record of any 20
qualified political advertisement which is 21
purchased by a person whose aggregate 22
purchases of qualified political advertise-23
ments on such online platform during the 24
calendar year exceeds $500. 25
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‘‘(ii) REQUIREMENT RELATING TO PO -1
LITICAL ADS SOLD BY THIRD -PARTY AD-2
VERTISING VENDORS.—An online platform 3
that displays a qualified political advertise-4
ment sold by a third-party advertising ven-5
dor shall include on its own platform— 6
‘‘(I) an easily accessible and 7
identifiable link to the records main-8
tained by the third-party advertising 9
vendor under clause (i) regarding 10
such qualified political advertisement; 11
or 12
‘‘(II) in any case in which the 13
third-party advertising vendor does 14
not make such records available, a 15
statement that no records from the 16
third-party advertising vendors 17
records are available. 18
‘‘(B) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR ADVER -19
TISERS.—Any person who purchases a qualified 20
political advertisement on an online platform 21
shall provide the online platform with such in-22
formation as is necessary for the online plat-23
form to comply with the requirements of sub-24
paragraph (A). 25
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‘‘(2) CONTENTS OF RECORD .—A record main-1
tained under paragraph (1)(A) shall contain— 2
‘‘(A) a digital copy of the qualified political 3
advertisement; 4
‘‘(B) a description of the audience that re-5
ceived the advertisement, the number of views 6
generated from the advertisement, and the date 7
and time that the advertisement is first dis-8
played and last displayed; and 9
‘‘(C) information regarding— 10
‘‘(i) the total cost of the advertise-11
ment (which may be rounded to the near-12
est $100); 13
‘‘(ii) the name of the candidate to 14
which the advertisement refers and the of-15
fice to which the candidate is seeking elec-16
tion, the election to which the advertise-17
ment refers, or the national legislative 18
issue to which the advertisement refers (as 19
applicable); 20
‘‘(iii) in the case of a request made 21
by, or on behalf of, a candidate, the name 22
of the candidate, the authorized committee 23
of the candidate, and the treasurer of such 24
committee; and 25
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‘‘(iv) in the case of any request not 1
described in clause (iii), the name of the 2
person purchasing the advertisement, the 3
name and address of a contact person for 4
such person, and a list of the chief execu-5
tive officers or members of the executive 6
committee or of the board of directors of 7
such person. 8
‘‘(3) O
NLINE PLATFORM.— 9
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—For purposes of this 10
subsection, subject to subparagraph (B), the 11
term ‘online platform’ means any public-facing 12
website, web application, or digital application 13
(including a social network, ad network, or 14
search engine) which— 15
‘‘(i)(I) sells qualified political adver-16
tisements; and 17
‘‘(II) has 50,000,000 or more unique 18
monthly United States visitors or users for 19
a majority of months during the preceding 20
12 months; or 21
‘‘(ii) is a third-party advertising ven-22
dor that has 50,000,000 or more unique 23
monthly United States visitors in the ag-24
gregate on any advertisement space that it 25
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•HR 5048 IH
has sold or bought for a majority of 1
months during the preceding 12 months, 2
as measured by an independent digital rat-3
ings service accredited by the Media Rat-4
ings Council (or its successor). 5
‘‘(B) E
XEMPTION.—Such term shall not 6
include any online platform that is a distribu-7
tion facility of any broadcasting station or 8
newspaper, magazine, blog, publication, or peri-9
odical. 10
‘‘(C) T
HIRD-PARTY ADVERTISING VENDOR 11
DEFINED.—For purposes of this subsection, the 12
term ‘third-party advertising vendor’ includes 13
any third-party advertising vendor network, ad-14
vertising agency, advertiser, or third-party ad-15
vertisement serving company that buys and 16
sells advertisement space on behalf of unaffili-17
ated third-party websites, search engines, dig-18
ital applications, or social media sites. 19
‘‘(4) Q
UALIFIED POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT .— 20
For purposes of this subsection, the term ‘qualified 21
political advertisement’ means any advertisement 22
(including search engine marketing, display adver-23
tisements, video advertisements, native advertise-24
ments, and sponsorships) that— 25
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‘‘(A) is made by or on behalf of a can-1
didate; or 2
‘‘(B) communicates a message relating to 3
any political matter of national importance, in-4
cluding— 5
‘‘(i) a candidate; 6
‘‘(ii) any election to Federal office; or 7
‘‘(iii) a national legislative issue of 8
public importance. 9
‘‘(5) T
IME TO MAINTAIN FILE .—The informa-10
tion required under this subsection shall be made 11
available as soon as possible and shall be retained by 12
the online platform for a period of not less than 4 13
years. 14
‘‘(6) S
PECIAL RULE.—For purposes of this sub-15
section, multiple versions of an advertisement that 16
contain no material differences (such as versions 17
that differ only because they contain a recipient’s 18
name, or differ only in size, color, font, or layout) 19
may be treated as a single qualified political adver-20
tisement. 21
‘‘(7) P
ENALTIES.—For penalties for failure by 22
online platforms, and persons requesting to purchase 23
a qualified political advertisement on online plat-24
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forms, to comply with the requirements of this sub-1
section, see section 309.’’. 2
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 3
this section shall take effect on the date of the enactment 4
of this Act and shall take effect without regard to whether 5
or not the Federal Election Commission has promulgated 6
the final regulations necessary to carry out this part and 7
the amendments made by this part by the deadline set 8
forth in subsection (c). 9
(c) R
ULEMAKING.—Not later than 120 days after the 10
date of the enactment of this Act, the Federal Election 11
Commission shall establish rules— 12
(1) for determining whether an advertisement 13
communicates a national legislative issue for pur-14
poses of section 304(j) of the Federal Election Cam-15
paign Act of 1971 (as added by subsection (a)); 16
(2) requiring common data formats for the 17
record required to be maintained under such section 18
304(j) so that all online platforms submit and main-19
tain data online in a common, machine-readable and 20
publicly accessible format; and 21
(3) establishing search interface requirements 22
relating to such record, including searches by can-23
didate name, issue, purchaser, and date. 24
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(d) REPORTING.—Not later than 2 years after the 1
date of the enactment of this Act, and biannually there-2
after, the Chairman of the Federal Election Commission 3
shall submit a report to Congress on— 4
(1) matters relating to compliance with and the 5
enforcement of the requirements of section 304(j) of 6
the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as 7
added by subsection (a); 8
(2) recommendations for any modifications to 9
such section to assist in carrying out its purposes; 10
and 11
(3) identifying ways to bring transparency and 12
accountability to political advertisements distributed 13
online for free. 14
SEC. 1308. PREVENTING CONTRIBUTIONS, EXPENDITURES, 15
INDEPENDENT EXPENDITURES, AND DIS-16
BURSEMENTS FOR ELECTIONEERING COM-17
MUNICATIONS BY FOREIGN NATIONALS IN 18
THE FORM OF ONLINE ADVERTISING. 19
Section 319 of the Federal Election Campaign Act 20
of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30121), as amended by section 1201, 21
is amended by redesignating subsections (b) and (c) as 22
subsections (c) and (d), respectively, and by inserting after 23
subsection (a) the following new subsection: 24
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‘‘(b) RESPONSIBILITIES OFBROADCASTSTATIONS, 1
P
ROVIDERS OFCABLE ANDSATELLITETELEVISION, AND 2
O
NLINEPLATFORMS.— 3
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Each television or radio 4
broadcast station, provider of cable or satellite tele-5
vision, or online platform (as defined in section 6
304(j)(3)) shall make reasonable efforts to ensure 7
that communications described in section 318(a) and 8
made available by such station, provider, or platform 9
are not purchased by a foreign national, directly or 10
indirectly. 11
‘‘(2) R
EGULATIONS.—Not later than 1 year 12
after the date of the enactment of this subsection, 13
the Commission shall promulgate regulations on 14
what constitutes reasonable efforts under paragraph 15
(1).’’. 16
SEC. 1309. REQUIRING ONLINE PLATFORMS TO DISPLAY 17
NOTICES IDENTIFYING SPONSORS OF POLIT-18
ICAL ADVERTISEMENTS AND TO ENSURE NO-19
TICES CONTINUE TO BE PRESENT WHEN AD-20
VERTISEMENTS ARE SHARED. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 304 of the Federal Elec-22
tion Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30104), as amend-23
ed by sections 309, 1101, and 1307(a), is amended by 24
adding at the end the following new subsection: 25
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‘‘(k) ENSURINGDISPLAY ANDSHARING OFSPONSOR 1
I
DENTIFICATION IN ONLINEPOLITICALADVERTISE-2
MENTS.— 3
‘‘(1) R
EQUIREMENT.—Any online platform that 4
displays a qualified political advertisement (regard-5
less of whether such qualified political advertisement 6
was purchased directly from the online platform) 7
shall— 8
‘‘(A) display with the advertisement a visi-9
ble notice identifying the sponsor of the adver-10
tisement (or, if it is not practical for the plat-11
form to display such a notice, a notice that the 12
advertisement is sponsored by a person other 13
than the platform); and 14
‘‘(B) ensure that the notice will continue to 15
be displayed if a viewer of the advertisement 16
shares the advertisement with others on that 17
platform. 18
‘‘(2) S
AFE HARBOR.—An online platform shall 19
not be treated as having failed to comply with the 20
requirements of paragraph (1)(A) for the 21
misidentification of a person as the sponsor of the 22
advertisement if— 23
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‘‘(A) the person placing the online adver-1
tisement designated the person displayed in the 2
advertisement as the sponsor; and 3
‘‘(B) the online platform relied on such 4
designation in good faith. 5
‘‘(3) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection— 6
‘‘(A) the term ‘online platform’ has the 7
meaning given such term in subsection (j)(3); 8
‘‘(B) the term ‘‘qualified political adver-9
tisement’ has the meaning given such term in 10
subsection (j)(4); and 11
‘‘(C) the term ‘sponsor’ means the person 12
purchasing the advertisement.’’. 13
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendment made by 14
subsection (a) shall apply with respect to advertisements 15
displayed on or after the 120-day period which begins on 16
the date of the enactment of this Act and shall take effect 17
without regard to whether or not the Federal Election 18
Commission has promulgated regulations to carry out 19
such amendments. 20
TITLE XIV—PREVENTING A 21
PATRONAGE SYSTEM 22
SEC. 1401. SHORT TITLE. 23
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Saving the Civil Serv-24
ice Act’’. 25
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SEC. 1402. LIMITATIONS ON EXCEPTING POSITIONS FROM 1
COMPETITIVE SERVICE AND TRANSFERRING 2
POSITIONS. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—A position in the competitive serv-4
ice may not be excepted from the competitive service un-5
less such position is placed— 6
(1) in any of the schedules A through E as de-7
scribed in section 6.2 of title 5, Code of Federal 8
Regulations, as in effect on September 30, 2020; 9
and 10
(2) under the terms and conditions under part 11
6 of such title as in effect on such date. 12
(b) T
RANSFERS.— 13
(1) W
ITHIN EXCEPTED SERVICE .—A position in 14
the excepted service may not be transferred to any 15
schedule other than a schedule described in sub-16
section (a)(1). 17
(2) OPM 
CONSENT REQUIRED .—An agency 18
may not transfer any occupied position from the 19
competitive service or excepted service into schedule 20
C of subpart C of part 213 of title 5, Code of Fed-21
eral Regulations, without the prior consent of the 22
Director. 23
(3) L
IMIT DURING PRESIDENTIAL TERM .—Dur-24
ing any 4-year presidential term, an agency may not 25
transfer from the competitive service into the ex-26
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cepted service a total number of employees that is 1
more than 1 percent of the total number of employ-2
ees at such agency as of the first day of such term, 3
or 5 employees, whichever is greater. 4
(4) E
MPLOYEE CONSENT REQUIRED .—Notwith-5
standing any other provision of this section— 6
(A) an employee who occupies a position in 7
the excepted service may not be transferred to 8
an excepted service schedule other than the 9
schedule in which such position is located with-10
out the prior written consent of the employee; 11
and 12
(B) an employee who occupies a position in 13
the competitive service may not be transferred 14
to the excepted service without the employee’s 15
prior written consent. 16
(c) O
THERMATTERS.— 17
(1) A
PPLICATION.—Notwithstanding section 18
7425(b) of title 38, United States Code, this section 19
shall apply to positions under chapters 73 and 74 of 20
such title. 21
(2) R
EGULATIONS.—The Director shall issue 22
regulations to implement this section. 23
(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 24
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(1) the term ‘‘agency’’ means any department, 1
agency, or instrumentality of the Federal Govern-2
ment; 3
(2) the term ‘‘competitive service’’ has the 4
meaning given that term in section 2102 of title 5, 5
United States Code; 6
(3) the term ‘‘Director’’ means the Director of 7
the Office of Personnel Management; and 8
(4) the term ‘‘excepted service’’ has the mean-9
ing given that term in section 2103 of title 5, United 10
States Code. 11
TITLE XV—USE OF FEDERAL 12
PROPERTY; VISITOR RECORDS 13
SEC. 1501. PROHIBITION ON USE OF FEDERAL PROPERTY 14
FOR POLITICAL CONVENTIONS. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 29 of title 18, United 16
States Code, is amended by inserting after section 611 the 17
following: 18
‘‘§ 612. Prohibition on use of Federal property for 19
certain political activities 20
‘‘(a) A convention of a national political party held 21
to nominate a candidate for the office of President or Vice 22
President may not be held on or in any Federal property. 23
‘‘(b) Any candidate or the authorized committee of 24
the candidate under the Federal Election Campaign Act 25
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of 1971 which was responsible for a convention in violation 1
of subsection (a) shall be subject to an assessment of a 2
civil penalty equal to the fair market value of the cost of 3
the convention or $50,000, whichever is greater, or impris-4
oned not more than five years, or both. 5
‘‘(c) In this section, the term ‘Federal property’ 6
means any building, land, or other real property owned, 7
leased, or occupied by any department, agency, or instru-8
mentality of the United States, including the White House 9
grounds and the White House (including the Old Execu-10
tive Office Building, the West Wing, the East Wing, the 11
Rose Garden, and the Executive Residence, but not includ-12
ing the second floor of the Executive Residence).’’. 13
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 14
for such chapter is amended by inserting after the item 15
relating to section 611 the following: 16
‘‘612. Prohibition on use of Federal property for certain political activities.’’. 
(c) APPLICATION.— 17
(1) I
N GENERAL.—This Act and the amend-18
ments made by this Act shall apply to any conven-19
tion described in section 612(a) of title 18, United 20
States Code, as added by subsection (a), occurring 21
on or after the date of enactment of this Act. 22
(2) T
RAVEL.—Nothing in this Act or the 23
amendments made by this Act shall be construed to 24
limit or otherwise prevent the President or Vice 25
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President from using vehicles (including aircraft) 1
owned or leased by the Government for travel to or 2
from any such convention. 3
SEC. 1502. IMPROVING ACCESS TO INFLUENTIAL VISITOR 4
ACCESS RECORDS. 5
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 6
(1) C
OVERED LOCATION .—The term ‘‘covered 7
location’’ means— 8
(A) the White House; 9
(B) the residence of the Vice President; 10
and 11
(C) any other location at which the Presi-12
dent or the Vice President regularly conducts 13
official business. 14
(2) C
OVERED RECORDS .—The term ‘‘covered 15
records’’ means information relating to a visit at a 16
covered location, which shall include— 17
(A) the name of each visitor at the covered 18
location; 19
(B) the name of each individual with whom 20
each visitor described in subparagraph (A) met 21
at the covered location; and 22
(C) the purpose of the visit. 23
(b) R
EQUIREMENT.—Except as provided in sub-24
section (c), not later than 90 days after the date of enact-25
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ment of this Act, the President shall establish and update, 1
every 90 days thereafter, a publicly available database that 2
contains covered records for the preceding 90-day period, 3
on a publicly available website in an easily searchable and 4
downloadable format. 5
(c) E
XCEPTIONS.— 6
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The President shall not in-7
clude in the database established under subsection 8
(b) any covered record— 9
(A) the posting of which would implicate 10
personal privacy or law enforcement concerns or 11
threaten national security; 12
(B) relating to a purely personal guest at 13
a covered location; or 14
(C) that reveals the social security number, 15
taxpayer identification number, birth date, 16
home address, or personal phone number of an 17
individual, the name of an individual who is less 18
than 18 years old, or a financial account num-19
ber. 20
(2) S
ENSITIVE MEETINGS.—With respect to a 21
particularly sensitive meeting at a covered location, 22
the President shall— 23
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(A) include the number of visitors at the 1
covered location in the database established 2
under subsection (b); 3
(B) post the applicable covered records in 4
the database established under subsection (b) 5
when the President determines that release of 6
the covered records is no longer sensitive; and 7
(C) post any reasonably segregable portion 8
that is not covered by an exception described in 9
subsection (c) of any such excepted record on 10
the website described under subsection (b). 11
DIVISION D—SEVERABILITY 12
TITLE XVI—SEVERABILITY 13
SEC. 1601. SEVERABILITY. 14
If any provision of this Act or any amendment made 15
by this Act, or the application of a provision of this Act 16
or an amendment made by this Act to any person or cir-17
cumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder 18
of this Act, and the application of the provisions to any 19
person or circumstance, shall not be affected by the hold-20
ing. 21
Æ 
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