I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1515
To increase access to agency guidance documents.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY24, 2025
Mr. C
OMER(for himself and Mr. KHANNA) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
A BILL
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
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Guidance Out Of 4
Darkness Act’’ or the ‘‘GOOD Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6
In this Act: 7
(1) A
GENCY.—The term ‘‘agency’’ has the 8
meaning given the term in section 551 of title 5, 9
United States Code. 10
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(2) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 1
the Director of the Office of Management and Budg-2
et. 3
(3) G
UIDANCE DOCUMENT .— 4
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘‘guidance 5
document’’— 6
(i) means an agency statement of gen-7
eral applicability (other than a rule that 8
has the force and effect of law promul-9
gated in accordance with the notice and 10
comment procedures under section 553 of 11
title 5, United States Code) that— 12
(I) does not have the force and 13
effect of law; and 14
(II) is designated by an agency 15
official as setting forth— 16
(aa) a policy on a statutory, 17
regulatory, or technical issue; or 18
(bb) an interpretation of a 19
statutory or regulatory issue; and 20
(ii) may include— 21
(I) a memorandum; 22
(II) a notice; 23
(III) a bulletin; 24
(IV) a directive; 25
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(V) a news release; 1
(VI) a letter; 2
(VII) a blog post; 3
(VIII) a no-action letter; 4
(IX) a speech by an agency offi-5
cial; and 6
(X) any combination of the items 7
described in subclauses (I) through 8
(IX). 9
(B) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—The term 10
‘‘guidance document’’— 11
(i) shall be construed broadly to effec-12
tuate the purpose and intent of this Act; 13
and 14
(ii) shall not be limited to the items 15
described in subparagraph (A)(ii). 16
SEC. 3. PUBLICATION OF GUIDANCE DOCUMENTS ON THE 17
INTERNET. 18
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subject to section 5, on the date 19
on which an agency issues a guidance document, the agen-20
cy shall publish the guidance document in accordance with 21
the requirements under section 4. 22
(b) P
REVIOUSLYISSUEDGUIDANCEDOCUMENTS.— 23
Subject to section 5, not later than 180 days after the 24
date of enactment of this Act, each agency shall publish, 25
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in accordance with the requirements under section 4, any 1
guidance document issued by that agency that is in effect 2
on that date. 3
SEC. 4. SINGLE LOCATION. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—All guidance documents published 5
under section 3 by an agency shall be published in a single 6
location on an internet website designated by the Director 7
under subsection (d). 8
(b) A
GENCYINTERNETWEBSITES.—Each agency 9
shall, for guidance documents published by the agency 10
under section 3, publish a hyperlink on the internet 11
website of the agency that provides access to the guidance 12
documents at the location described in subsection (a). 13
(c) O
RGANIZATION.— 14
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The guidance documents de-15
scribed in subsection (a) shall be— 16
(A) categorized as guidance documents; 17
and 18
(B) further divided into subcategories as 19
appropriate. 20
(2) A
GENCY INTERNET WEBSITES .—The 21
hyperlinks described in subsection (b) shall be 22
prominently displayed on the internet website of the 23
agency. 24
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(d) DESIGNATION.—Not later than 90 days after the 1
date of enactment of this Act, the Director shall designate 2
an internet website on which guidance documents shall be 3
published under section 3. 4
SEC. 5. DOCUMENTS AND INFORMATION EXEMPT FROM 5
DISCLOSURE UNDER FOIA. 6
If a guidance document issued by an agency is a doc-7
ument that is exempt from disclosure under section 552(b) 8
of title 5, United States Code (commonly known as the 9
‘‘Freedom of Information Act’’), or contains information 10
that is exempt from disclosure under that section, that 11
document or information, as the case may be, shall not 12
be subject to the requirements under this Act. 13
SEC. 6. RESCINDED GUIDANCE DOCUMENTS. 14
On the date on which a guidance document issued 15
by an agency is rescinded, or, in the case of a guidance 16
document that is rescinded pursuant to a court order, not 17
later than the date on which the order is entered, the 18
agency shall, at the location described in section 4(a)— 19
(1) maintain the rescinded guidance document; 20
and 21
(2) indicate— 22
(A) that the guidance document is re-23
scinded; 24
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(B) if the guidance document was re-1
scinded pursuant to a court order, the case 2
number of the case in which the order was en-3
tered; and 4
(C) the date on which the guidance docu-5
ment was rescinded. 6
SEC. 7. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION. 7
(a) V
ALIDITY OFGUIDANCEDOCUMENTS.—Nothing 8
in this Act shall be construed to mean that noncompliance 9
with any provision of this Act affects or otherwise impacts 10
the validity of any guidance document. 11
(b) C
ONGRESSIONALREVIEW OFGUIDANCEDOCU-12
MENTS.—Nothing in this Act shall be construed to affect 13
or otherwise impact whether a guidance document is sub-14
ject to congressional review under chapter 8 of title 5, 15
United States Code. 16
SEC. 8. REPORT ON AGENCY COMPLIANCE. 17
Not later than 5 years after the date of enactment 18
of this Act, the Comptroller General shall submit to the 19
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the 20
House of Representatives and the Committee on Home-21
land Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate a 22
report on agency compliance with this Act. 23
Æ
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