Modernizing Congressional Reporting Act of 2018

Modernizing Congressional Reporting Act of 2018

This bill requires federal agencies to submit reports, written communications, and other information to Congress in an electronic format, unless Congress requests a physical document.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3027 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3027

    To save taxpayer money and improve the efficiency and speed of 
       intragovernmental correspondence, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              June 7, 2018

 Mrs. McCaskill (for herself, Mr. Portman, Mr. Peters, Mr. Carper, Ms. 
 Hassan, Mr. Tester, Mr. Hoeven, Ms. Heitkamp, Mr. Jones, Ms. Harris, 
  Mr. Lankford, Mr. Daines, and Mrs. Ernst) introduced the following 
 bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland 
                   Security and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To save taxpayer money and improve the efficiency and speed of 
       intragovernmental correspondence, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Modernizing Congressional Reporting 
Act of 2018''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act--
            (1) the term ``acceptable electronic format'' means a file 
        format and metadata elements authorized by the National 
        Archives and Records Administration for the transfer of 
        permanent electronic records--
                    (A) as set forth in--
                            (i) National Archives and Records 
                        Administration Bulletin 2014-04: Revised Format 
                        Guidance for the Transfer of Permanent 
                        Electronic Records, dated January 31, 2014, or 
                        any successor bulletin; and
                            (ii) National Archives and Records 
                        Administration Bulletin 2015-04: Metadata 
                        Guidance for the Transfer of Permanent 
                        Electronic Records, dated September 15, 2015, 
                        or any successor bulletin; and
                    (B) that complies with the requirements of the 
                Office of Management and Budget Memorandum on the 
                Managing Government Records Directive, dated August 24, 
                2012 (M-12-18), or any successor memorandum;
            (2) the term ``agency'' has the meaning given the term in 
        section 551 of title 5, United States Code;
            (3) the term ``congressional office'' means--
                    (A) an office of any committee or subcommittee of 
                the Senate or the House of Representatives, including 
                any select or special committee;
                    (B) an office of any individual Senator or Member 
                of the House of Representatives; and
                    (C) a leadership office of the Senate or the House 
                of Representatives; and
            (4) the term ``structured data'' has the meaning given the 
        term in National Archives and Records Administration Bulletin 
        2014-04: Revised Format Guidance for the Transfer of Permanent 
        Electronic Records, dated January 31, 2014, or any successor 
        bulletin.

SEC. 3. ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION OF REPORTS.

    (a) In General.--On or after the date that is 30 days after the 
date of enactment of this Act, except as provided in subsection (c) and 
to the extent specifically required otherwise by law--
            (1) any report or written communication required to be 
        submitted to Congress by an agency under any provision of law, 
        and any response from an agency to a request by a congressional 
        office for written information, shall only be transmitted by 
        the agency in an acceptable electronic format; and
            (2) any structured data included in or with any report, 
        written communication, or written information described in 
        paragraph (1) shall be transmitted by the agency in an 
        acceptable electronic format for structured data.
    (b) Format Preference.--
            (1) In general.--In transmitting a report, written 
        communication, or written information described in subsection 
        (a) to a congressional office, an agency shall, to the extent 
        possible, provide the original electronic file or an 
        electronically converted file rather than a scanned document, 
        even if the document includes a signature.
            (2) Searchable scanned documents.--Each scanned document 
        that is transmitted by an agency to a congressional office 
        shall be made searchable via optical character recognition or 
        other means.
    (c) Other Formats.--An agency that transmits a report, written 
communication, or written information described in subsection (a) to a 
congressional office in an acceptable electronic format may, if 
requested by the congressional office, transmit the report, written 
communication, or written information to the congressional office--
            (1) in an electronic format that is not an acceptable 
        electronic format;
            (2) as a physical document; or
            (3) in camera.
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