1.
This Act may be cited as the
Restoration of Freedom of Information
Act of 2005
.
2.
Protection of Voluntarily Furnished Confidential
Information
Title II of the Homeland
Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 121 et seq.) is amended by
striking subtitle B and inserting the following:
B
Protection of Voluntarily Furnished Confidential
Information
211.
Protection of Voluntarily Furnished Confidential
Information
(a)
In this section:
(1)
The term critical
infrastructure has the meaning given that term in section 1016(e) of the
USA PATRIOT ACT of 2001 (42 U.S.C. 5195c(e)).
(2)
(A)
The term furnished
voluntarily means a submission of a record that—
(i)
is made to the Department
in the absence of authority of the Department requiring that record to be
submitted; and
(ii)
is not submitted or used to
satisfy any legal requirement or obligation or to obtain any grant, permit,
benefit (such as agency forbearance, loans, or reduction or modifications of
agency penalties or rulings), or other approval from the Government.
(B)
In this paragraph, the term
benefit does not include any warning, alert, or other risk
analysis by the Department.
(b)
Notwithstanding any other
provision of law, a record pertaining to the vulnerability of and threats to
critical infrastructure (such as attacks, response, and recovery efforts) that
is furnished voluntarily to the Department shall not be made available under
section 552 of title 5, United States Code, if—
(1)
the provider would not
customarily make the record available to the public; and
(2)
the record is designated
and certified by the provider, in a manner specified by the Department, as
confidential and not customarily made available to the public.
(c)
Records shared with other agencies
(1)
(A)
An agency in receipt of a
record that was furnished voluntarily to the Department and subsequently shared
with the agency shall, upon receipt of a request under section 552 of title 5,
United States Code, for the record—
(i)
not make the record
available; and
(ii)
refer the request to the
Department for processing and response in accordance with this section.
(B)
Segregable portion of record
Any reasonably segregable
portion of a record shall be provided to the person requesting the record after
deletion of any portion which is exempt under this section.
(2)
Disclosure of independently furnished records
Notwithstanding paragraph
(1), nothing in this section shall prohibit an agency from making available
under section 552 of title 5, United States Code, any record that the agency
receives independently of the Department, regardless of whether or not the
Department has a similar or identical record.
(d)
Withdrawal of confidential designation
The provider of a record
that is furnished voluntarily to the Department under subsection (b) may at any
time withdraw, in a manner specified by the Department, the confidential
designation.
(e)
The Secretary shall
prescribe procedures for—
(1)
the acknowledgment of
receipt of records furnished voluntarily;
(2)
the designation,
certification, and marking of records furnished voluntarily as confidential and
not customarily made available to the public;
(3)
the care and storage of
records furnished voluntarily;
(4)
the protection and
maintenance of the confidentiality of records furnished voluntarily; and
(5)
the withdrawal of the
confidential designation of records under subsection (d).
(f)
Effect on State and local law
Nothing in this section
shall be construed as preempting or otherwise modifying State or local law
concerning the disclosure of any information that a State or local government
receives independently of the Department.
(g)
(1)
Not later than 18 months
after the date of the enactment of the Restoration of Freedom of Information
Act of 2005, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to the
committees of Congress specified in paragraph (2) a report on the
implementation and use of this section, including—
(A)
the number of persons in
the private sector, and the number of State and local agencies, that furnished
voluntarily records to the Department under this section;
(B)
the number of requests for
access to records granted or denied under this section; and
(C)
such recommendations as the
Comptroller General considers appropriate regarding improvements in the
collection and analysis of sensitive information held by persons in the private
sector, or by State and local agencies, relating to vulnerabilities of and
threats to critical infrastructure, including the response to such
vulnerabilities and threats.
(2)
The committees of Congress
specified in this paragraph are—
(A)
the Committees on the
Judiciary and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate;
and
(B)
the Committees on the
Judiciary and Government Reform and Oversight of the House of
Representatives.
(3)
The report shall be
submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex.
.
3.
Technical and conforming amendment
The table of contents for the
Homeland Security Act of 2002 (Public Law 107–296) is amended by
striking the matter relating to subtitle B of title II and inserting the
following:
Subtitle B—Protection of
Voluntarily Furnished Confidential Information
Sec. 211. Protection of
Voluntarily Furnished Confidential
Information.
.