[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 150 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 150

To amend section 552 of title 5, United States Code (commonly referred 
  to as the Freedom of Information Act), to provide for disclosure of 
information relating to individuals who committed Nazi war crimes, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 21, 1997

 Mr. Moynihan (for himself, Mr. D'Amato, and Mr. Dodd) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend section 552 of title 5, United States Code (commonly referred 
  to as the Freedom of Information Act), to provide for disclosure of 
information relating to individuals who committed Nazi war crimes, 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 ``War Crimes Disclosure Act''.

SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT FOR DISCLOSURE UNDER FOIA OF INFORMATION RELATING 
              TO INDIVIDUALS WHO COMMITTED NAZI WAR CRIMES.

    (a) In General.--Section 552 of title 5, United States Code, is 
amended--
    (1) by redesignating subsections (d), (e), and (f) as subsections 
(e), (f), and (g), respectively; and
            (2) by inserting after subsection (c) the following new 
        subsection:
    ``(d)(1)(A) Notwithstanding subsection (b), this section shall 
apply to any matter in the possession of a specified agency, that 
relates to any individual as to whom there exists reasonable grounds to 
believe that such individual, during the period beginning on March 23, 
1933, and ending on May 8, 1945, under the direction of or in 
association with--
            (i) the Nazi government of Germany,
            (ii) any government in any area occupied by the military 
        forces to the Nazi government of Germany,
            (iii) any government established with the assistance or 
        cooperation of the Nazi government of Germany, or
            (iv) any government that was an ally of the Nazi government 
        of Germany,
ordered, incited, assisted or otherwise participated in the persecution 
of any person because of race, religion, national origin, or political 
opinion.
    ``(B) For purposes of subparagraph (A), the term `specified agency' 
means the following entities, any predecessors of such an entity, and 
any component of such an entity (or of such a predecessor):
            ``(i) The Central Intelligence Agency.
            ``(ii) The Department of Defense.
            ``(iii) The National Security Agency.
            ``(iv) The National Security Council.
            ``(v) The Department of State.
            ``(vi) The Federal Bureau of Investigation.
            ``(vii) The United States Information Agency.
    ``(2)(A) Except as provided in subparagraph (B), paragraph (1) 
shall not apply to the disclosure of any matter when there is clear and 
convincing evidence that such disclosure would--
            ``(i) reasonably to expected to constitute an unwarranted 
        invasion of personal privacy;
            ``(ii) pose a current threat to military defense, 
        intelligence operations, or the conduct of foreign relations to 
        the United States;
            ``(iii) reveal an intelligence agent whose identity 
        currently requires protection;
            ``(iv) compromise an understanding of confidentiality 
        currently requiring protection between an agent of the 
        Government and a cooperating individual or a foreign 
        government;
            ``(v) constitute a substantial risk of physical harm to a 
        living person who provided confidential information to the 
        United States; or
            ``(vi) compromise an enforcement investigation, inquiry, or 
        prosecution by the Office of Special Investigations of the 
        Department of Justice.
    ``(B) Subparagraph (A) shall only apply to records, information, or 
other relevant matter which is--
    ``(i) properly classified; and
            ``(ii) the protection of which outweighs the public 
        interest in disclosure.
    ``(3) Any reasonably segregable portion of a matter referred to in 
paragraph (2) shall be provided, after deletion of all portions of the 
matter that are referred to in such subparagraph, to any person 
requesting the matter under this section if the reasonably segregable 
portion of the matter would otherwise be required to be disclosed under 
this section.
            ``(4) In the case of a request under this section for any 
        matter required to be disclosed under this subsection, if the 
        agency receiving such request is unable to locate the records 
        so requested, such agency shall promptly supply, to the person 
        making such a request, a description of the steps which were 
        taken by such agency to search the indices and other locator 
        systems of the agency to determine whether such records are in 
        the possession or control of the agency.''.
    (b) Inapplicability of National Security Act of 1947 Exemption.--
Section 701 of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 431) is 
amended--
            (1) by redesignating subsections (e) and (f) as subsections 
        (f) and (g), respectively; and
            (2) by inserting after subsection (d) the following new 
        subsection:
    ``(e) Subsection (a) shall not apply to any operational file, or 
any portion of any operational file, described under section 552(d) of 
title 5, United States Code (Freedom of Information Act).''.

SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendments made by this Act shall apply to requests made after 
the expiration of the 180-day period beginning on the date of the 
enactment of this Act.
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