119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1515
AN ACT
To increase access to agency guidance documents.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Guidance Out Of 2
Darkness Act’’ or the ‘‘GOOD Act’’. 3
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 4
In this Act: 5
(1) A
GENCY.—The term ‘‘agency’’ has the 6
meaning given the term in section 551 of title 5, 7
United States Code. 8
(2) D
IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 9
the Director of the Office of Management and Budg-10
et. 11
(3) G
UIDANCE DOCUMENT .— 12
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘‘guidance 13
document’’— 14
(i) means an agency statement of gen-15
eral applicability (other than a rule that 16
has the force and effect of law promul-17
gated in accordance with the notice and 18
comment procedures under section 553 of 19
title 5, United States Code) that— 20
(I) does not have the force and 21
effect of law; and 22
(II) is designated by an agency 23
official as setting forth— 24
(aa) a policy on a statutory, 25
regulatory, or technical issue; or 26 3
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(bb) an interpretation of a 1
statutory or regulatory issue; and 2
(ii) may include— 3
(I) a memorandum; 4
(II) a notice; 5
(III) a bulletin; 6
(IV) a directive; 7
(V) a news release; 8
(VI) a letter; 9
(VII) a blog post; 10
(VIII) a no-action letter; 11
(IX) a speech by an agency offi-12
cial; and 13
(X) any combination of the items 14
described in subclauses (I) through 15
(IX). 16
(B) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—The term 17
‘‘guidance document’’— 18
(i) shall be construed broadly to effec-19
tuate the purpose and intent of this Act; 20
and 21
(ii) shall not be limited to the items 22
described in subparagraph (A)(ii). 23 4
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SEC. 3. PUBLICATION OF GUIDANCE DOCUMENTS ON THE 1
INTERNET. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subject to section 5, on the date 3
on which an agency issues a guidance document, the agen-4
cy shall publish the guidance document in accordance with 5
the requirements under section 4. 6
(b) P
REVIOUSLYISSUEDGUIDANCEDOCUMENTS.— 7
Subject to section 5, not later than 180 days after the 8
date of enactment of this Act, each agency shall publish, 9
in accordance with the requirements under section 4, any 10
guidance document issued by that agency that is in effect 11
on that date. 12
SEC. 4. SINGLE LOCATION. 13
(a) I
NGENERAL.—All guidance documents published 14
under section 3 by an agency shall be published in a single 15
location on an internet website designated by the Director 16
under subsection (d). 17
(b) A
GENCYINTERNETWEBSITES.—Each agency 18
shall, for guidance documents published by the agency 19
under section 3, publish a hyperlink on the internet 20
website of the agency that provides access to the guidance 21
documents at the location described in subsection (a). 22
(c) O
RGANIZATION.— 23
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The guidance documents de-24
scribed in subsection (a) shall be— 25 5
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(A) categorized as guidance documents; 1
and 2
(B) further divided into subcategories as 3
appropriate. 4
(2) A
GENCY INTERNET WEBSITES .—The 5
hyperlinks described in subsection (b) shall be 6
prominently displayed on the internet website of the 7
agency. 8
(d) D
ESIGNATION.—Not later than 90 days after the 9
date of enactment of this Act, the Director shall designate 10
an internet website on which guidance documents shall be 11
published under section 3. 12
SEC. 5. DOCUMENTS AND INFORMATION EXEMPT FROM 13
DISCLOSURE UNDER FOIA. 14
If a guidance document issued by an agency is a doc-15
ument that is exempt from disclosure under section 552(b) 16
of title 5, United States Code (commonly known as the 17
‘‘Freedom of Information Act’’), or contains information 18
that is exempt from disclosure under that section, that 19
document or information, as the case may be, shall not 20
be subject to the requirements under this Act. 21
SEC. 6. RESCINDED GUIDANCE DOCUMENTS. 22
On the date on which a guidance document issued 23
by an agency is rescinded, or, in the case of a guidance 24
document that is rescinded pursuant to a court order, not 25 6
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later than the date on which the order is entered, the 1
agency shall, at the location described in section 4(a)— 2
(1) maintain the rescinded guidance document; 3
and 4
(2) indicate— 5
(A) that the guidance document is re-6
scinded; 7
(B) if the guidance document was re-8
scinded pursuant to a court order, the case 9
number of the case in which the order was en-10
tered; and 11
(C) the date on which the guidance docu-12
ment was rescinded. 13
SEC. 7. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION. 14
(a) V
ALIDITY OFGUIDANCEDOCUMENTS.—Nothing 15
in this Act shall be construed to mean that noncompliance 16
with any provision of this Act affects or otherwise impacts 17
the validity of any guidance document. 18
(b) C
ONGRESSIONALREVIEW OFGUIDANCEDOCU-19
MENTS.—Nothing in this Act shall be construed to affect 20
or otherwise impact whether a guidance document is sub-21
ject to congressional review under chapter 8 of title 5, 22
United States Code. 23 7
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SEC. 8. REPORT ON AGENCY COMPLIANCE. 1
Not later than 5 years after the date of enactment 2
of this Act, the Comptroller General shall submit to the 3
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the 4
House of Representatives and the Committee on Home-5
land Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate a 6
report on agency compliance with this Act. 7
Passed the House of Representatives March 3,
2025.
Attest:
Clerk. 119
TH
CONGRESS
1
ST
S
ESSION
H. R. 1515
AN ACT
To increase access to agency guidance documents.