[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1603 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1603

To amend the Social Security Act to provide, in the case of any person 
 who is a party in interest with respect to an employee benefit plan, 
   that information requested from the Secretary of Health and Human 
 Services to assist such person with respect to the administration of 
       such plan shall be provided at least once without charge.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 14, 1997

Mr. Kanjorski introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Social Security Act to provide, in the case of any person 
 who is a party in interest with respect to an employee benefit plan, 
   that information requested from the Secretary of Health and Human 
 Services to assist such person with respect to the administration of 
       such plan shall be provided at least once without charge.

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

SECTION 1. CERTAIN INFORMATION TO BE PROVIDED AT LEAST ONCE WITHOUT 
              CHARGE.

    Subsection (c) of section 1106 of the Social Security Act is 
amended to read as follows:
    ``(c) Notwithstanding sections 552 and 552a of title 5, United 
States Code, or any other provision of law, whenever the Secretary 
determines--
            ``(1) that a request for any type of information is made in 
        order to assist a party in interest (as defined in section 3 of 
        the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 
        102)) with respect to the administration of an employee benefit 
        plan (as so defined) and that information of such type has 
        previously been provided by the Secretary pursuant to a request 
        made in order to so assist such party in interest, or
            ``(2) that a request for information is made for any 
        purpose (other than a purpose described in paragraph (1)) which 
        is not directly related to the administration of the program or 
        programs under this Act to which such information relates,
the Secretary may require the requestor to pay the full cost, as 
determined by the Secretary, of providing such information.''.

SEC. 2. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendment made by section 1 shall apply with respect to 
information requested on or after the date of the enactment of this 
Act.

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