II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1208
To amend title 5, United States Code, to address records maintained on
individuals, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH31, 2025
Mr. W
YDEN(for himself, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. MERKLEY, and Mr. VANHOL-
LEN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to
the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To amend title 5, United States Code, to address records
maintained on individuals, 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 ‘‘Privacy Act Mod-4
ernization Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. MODERNIZING PRIVACY ACT DEFINITIONS. 6
(a) R
ECORDS.—Section 552a(a) of title 5, United 7
States Code, is amended— 8
(1) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘a citizen of 9
the United States or an alien lawfully admitted for 10
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permanent residence’’ and inserting the following: ‘‘a 1
natural person who is— 2
‘‘(A) a United States person, as defined in 3
section 101 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveil-4
lance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1801); or 5
‘‘(B) in the United States;’’; 6
(2) by striking paragraphs (4) and (5) and in-7
serting the following: 8
‘‘(4) the term ‘record’ means any personally 9
identifiable information processed by an agency; 10
‘‘(5) the term ‘system of records’ means a 11
group of any records maintained by or for, or other-12
wise under the control of, any agency;’’; 13
(3) in paragraph (12), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 14
end; 15
(4) in paragraph (13), by striking the period at 16
the end and inserting a semicolon; and 17
(5) by adding at the end the following: 18
‘‘(14) the term ‘personally identifiable informa-19
tion’ means any information that identifies, or is 20
linked or reasonably linkable, alone or in combina-21
tion with other data, to— 22
‘‘(A) an individual; or 23
‘‘(B) a device that identifies, or is linked 24
or reasonably linkable to, an individual; and 25
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‘‘(15) the term ‘process’, with respect to per-1
sonally identifiable information, means to perform 2
an operation or set of operations on the personally 3
identifiable information, including by storing, ana-4
lyzing, organizing, structuring, using, modifying, or 5
otherwise handling the personally identifiable infor-6
mation, whether or not by automated means.’’. 7
(b) M
ATCHINGPROGRAMS.—Section 552a(a)(8)(A) 8
of title 5, United States Code, is amended— 9
(1) in the matter preceding clause (i), by strik-10
ing ‘‘of’’; 11
(2) in clause (i), in the matter preceding sub-12
clause (I), by striking ‘‘two or more automated sys-13
tems of records or a system of records with non- 14
Federal records’’ and inserting the following: ‘‘in-15
volving any data from 1 or more systems of 16
records’’; and 17
(3) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘two or more’’ and 18
inserting ‘‘of 2 or more’’. 19
(c) G
OVERNMENT CONTRACTORS.—Section 20
552a(m)(1) of title 5, United States Code, is amended by 21
striking ‘‘for the operation by or on behalf of the agency 22
of a system of records to accomplish an agency function’’ 23
and inserting ‘‘or other agreement, including with another 24
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agency, for the operation by or on behalf of the agency 1
of a system of records’’. 2
(d) T
ECHNICALAMENDMENTS.—Section 552a of 3
title 5, United States Code, is amended— 4
(1) in subsection (a)— 5
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘section 6
552(e)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 552(f)’’; and 7
(B) in paragraph (8)(B)— 8
(i) in clause (iv)(III), by striking ‘‘sec-9
tion 404(e), 464, or 1137’’ and inserting 10
‘‘section 464 or 1137’’; and 11
(ii) in clause (x), by striking ‘‘section 12
3(d)(4) of the Achieving a Better Life Ex-13
perience Act of 2014’’ and inserting ‘‘sec-14
tion 529A(d)(4) of the Internal Revenue 15
Code of 1986’’; and 16
(2) in subsection (l), by striking ‘‘National Ar-17
chives of the United States’’ each place that term 18
appears and inserting ‘‘National Archives and 19
Records Administration’’. 20
SEC. 3. STRENGTHENING PROTECTIONS FOR INDIVIDUALS. 21
(a) A
DDITIONALPROTECTIONS FOR COLLECTIONS, 22
U
SES, ANDDISCLOSURES.—Section 552a of title 5, 23
United States Code, is amended— 24
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(1) in subsection (a)(7), by inserting ‘‘and is 1
appropriate and reasonably necessary for the effi-2
cient and effective conduct of the Government’’ be-3
fore the semicolon at the end; 4
(2) in subsection (b)(1), by inserting ‘‘and that 5
disclosure is consistent with, and related to, a pur-6
pose described under subsection (e)(4)(D) of this 7
section’’ before the semicolon at the end; and 8
(3) in subsection (e)— 9
(A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), 10
by striking ‘‘that maintains a system of 11
records’’; 12
(B) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘under 13
Federal programs’’; 14
(C) in paragraph (4)— 15
(i) by amending subparagraph (D) to 16
read as follows: 17
‘‘(D) any purpose for which the informa-18
tion is intended to be used, including each rou-19
tine use;’’; 20
(ii) in subparagraph (H), by striking 21
‘‘and’’ at the end; 22
(iii) in subparagraph (I), by inserting 23
‘‘and’’ after the semicolon; and 24
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(iv) by adding at the end the fol-1
lowing: 2
‘‘(J) the legal authority for each purpose 3
for which the records contained in the system 4
are used, which shall contain a citation to the 5
applicable law, executive order, or other author-6
ity;’’; 7
(D) in paragraph (11), by striking ‘‘and’’ 8
at the end; 9
(E) in paragraph (12), by striking the pe-10
riod at the end and inserting a semicolon; and 11
(F) by adding at the end the following: 12
‘‘(13) use records only for a legally authorized 13
purpose; and 14
‘‘(14) take reasonable efforts to ensure that a 15
record that is disclosed contains the minimum 16
amount of information necessary to accomplish the 17
purpose of the disclosure.’’. 18
(b) A
DDITIONALPROTECTIONS FORMATCHINGPRO-19
GRAMS.—Section 552a(a)(8)(B) of title 5, United States 20
Code, is amended— 21
(1) by amending clause (ii) to read as follows: 22
‘‘(ii) matches performed to support 23
any research or statistical project, if the 24
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results of the match are not intended to be 1
used, and are not used, to— 2
‘‘(I) make decisions concerning 3
the rights, benefits, or privileges of 4
specific individuals; or 5
‘‘(II) take any adverse financial, 6
personnel, or disciplinary action, or 7
any other adverse action, against Fed-8
eral personnel;’’; 9
(2) in clause (viii), by inserting ‘‘or’’ after the 10
semicolon at the end; 11
(3) by striking clause (ix); and 12
(4) by redesignating clause (x) as clause (ix). 13
(c) A
DDITIONALCIVILREMEDIES.—Section 552a(g) 14
of title 5, United States Code, is amended— 15
(1) in paragraph (1)— 16
(A) by amending subparagraph (D) to read 17
as follows: 18
‘‘(D) fails to comply with any other provi-19
sion of this section, or any rule promulgated 20
thereunder, in such a way as to have, or that 21
could reasonably lead to, an adverse effect on 22
any person (including any State or territory (or 23
any political subdivision of any State or terri-24
tory) or any Indian Tribe),’’; and 25
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(B) in the flush text following subpara-1
graph (D), by inserting ‘‘or person, as applica-2
ble,’’ after ‘‘the individual’’; and 3
(2) by amending paragraph (4) to read as fol-4
lows: 5
‘‘(4) In any suit brought under the provisions of sub-6
section (g)(1)(C) or (D) of this section— 7
‘‘(A) the court may provide such preliminary 8
and other equitable or declaratory relief as may be 9
appropriate; and 10
‘‘(B) if the court determines that the agency 11
acted in a manner that was intentional or willful, the 12
United States shall be liable to the individual or per-13
son, as applicable, in an amount equal to the sum 14
of— 15
‘‘(i) actual damages, including nonpecu-16
niary damages, sustained by the individual or 17
person as a result of the refusal or failure, but 18
in no case shall an individual or person entitled 19
to recovery receive less than the sum of $1,000; 20
‘‘(ii) the costs of the action together with 21
reasonable attorney fees as determined by the 22
court; and 23
‘‘(iii) punitive damages in an amount de-24
termined appropriate by the court.’’. 25
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(d) ADDITIONALCRIMINALPENALTIES.—Section 1
552a(i) of title 5, United States Code, is amended— 2
(1) in paragraph (1), by adding at the end the 3
following: ‘‘A person who commits an offense de-4
scribed in the previous sentence with the intent to 5
sell, transfer, use, or disclose a record described in 6
that sentence for commercial advantage, personal 7
gain, or malicious harm shall be guilty of a felony 8
and fined not more than $250,000, imprisoned for 9
not more than 10 years, or both.’’; and 10
(2) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘misdemeanor 11
and fined not more than $5,000’’ and inserting ‘‘fel-12
ony and fined not more than $100,000’’. 13
SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATES. 14
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 15
(1) A
GENCY; MATCHING PROGRAM ; RECIPIENT 16
AGENCY; RECORD; SOURCE AGENCY ; SYSTEM OF 17
RECORDS.—The terms ‘‘agency’’, ‘‘matching pro-18
gram’’, ‘‘recipient agency’’, ‘‘record’’, ‘‘source agen-19
cy’’, and ‘‘system of records’’ have the meanings 20
given those terms in section 552a of title 5, United 21
States Code, as amended by section 2. 22
(2) S
PECIAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE .—The 23
term ‘‘special Government employee’’ has the mean-24
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ing given the term in section 202(a) of title 18, 1
United States Code. 2
(3) T
EMPORARY OR INTERMITTENT EXPERT OR 3
CONSULTANT.—The term ‘‘temporary or intermit-4
tent expert or consultant’’ means an expert or con-5
sultant or an organization thereof, the services of 6
which are procured pursuant to section 3109 of title 7
5, United States Code. 8
(4) T
EMPORARY TRANSITIONAL SCHEDULE C 9
POSITION.—The term ‘‘temporary transitional 10
Schedule C position’’ means a position established 11
under section 213.3302 of title 5, Code of Federal 12
Regulations, or any successor regulation. 13
(b) G
ENERALEFFECTIVEDATE.—Except as pro-14
vided in subsection (c), the amendments made by sections 15
2 and 3 shall take effect on the date that is 2 years after 16
the date of enactment of this Act. 17
(c) E
XCEPTIONS.—The amendments made by sec-18
tions 2 and 3 shall take effect on the date of enactment 19
of this Act with respect to each of the following: 20
(1) Any use of a record by, any disclosure of a 21
record by or to, any maintenance of a system of 22
records by or for, any control of a system of records 23
by, the taking of any other action that is governed 24
by section 552a of title 5, United States Code (as 25
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amended by this Act) by, or the taking of any of the 1
preceding actions that is caused by any action by 2
any of the following: 3
(A) The United States DOGE Service, or 4
any successor organization. 5
(B) The U.S. DOGE Service Temporary 6
Organization, or any successor organization. 7
(C) Any special Government employee, any 8
temporary or intermittent expert or consultant, 9
or any individual occupying a temporary transi-10
tional Schedule C position. 11
(D) Any agency not described in subpara-12
graph (A) or (B) that is headed by, or subject 13
to the control of— 14
(i) the head of the entity described in 15
subparagraph (A); 16
(ii) the head of the entity described in 17
subparagraph (B); or 18
(iii) any person described in subpara-19
graph (C). 20
(E) Any DOGE Team (as described in Ex-21
ecutive Order 14158 (90 Fed. Reg. 8441), re-22
lating to establishing and implementing the 23
President’s ‘‘Department of Government Effi-24
ciency’’), or any successor organization. 25
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(F) Any agency that is within, or subject 1
to the review of, an entity described in subpara-2
graph (A), (B), (D), or (E). 3
(G) Any officer, employee, expert, consult-4
ant, contractor, volunteer, or other individual, 5
without regard to title or compensation, of, 6
within, or providing services to an entity de-7
scribed in subparagraph (A), (B), (D), (E), or 8
(F). 9
(2) Any matching program in which— 10
(A) an entity or person described in any 11
subparagraph of paragraph (1) is the source 12
agency or recipient agency; or 13
(B) a system of records is maintained by 14
or for, or otherwise under the control of, an en-15
tity or person described in any subparagraph of 16
paragraph (1). 17
(d) A
PPLICABILITY.—If a person described in any 18
subparagraph of paragraph (1) or (2) of subsection (c), 19
outside of the capacity of the person as described in the 20
applicable subparagraph, discloses a record, maintains a 21
system of records, controls a system of records, partici-22
pates in a matching program, takes any other action that 23
is governed by section 552a of title 5, United States Code 24
(as amended by this Act), or causes any other person to 25
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take any of the preceding actions, the exception under sub-1
section (c) shall still apply with respect to that action by 2
that person. 3
SEC. 5. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 4
(a) D
EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘Privacy 5
Act’’ means section 552a of title 5, United States Code, 6
as in effect at any time before the date of enactment of 7
this Act. 8
(b) R
ULE.—Nothing in this Act, or any amendment 9
made by this Act, may be construed to create an inference 10
with respect to the interpretation of any provision of the 11
Privacy Act, any regulation promulgated under the Pri-12
vacy Act, or any application of such a provision or regula-13
tion, including with respect to the scope of activity covered 14
under the Privacy Act, the legality of any activity under 15
the Privacy Act, or the availability of any remedy or award 16
of damages with respect to a violation of the Privacy Act. 17
Æ
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