[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5097 Introduced in House (IH)]

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114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5097

To amend the Federal Trade Commission Act to require the termination of 
         inactive investigations after a period of six months.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 28, 2016

Mrs. Brooks of Indiana (for herself, Mr. Lance, Mr. Harper, Mr. Olson, 
 Mr. Pompeo, and Mr. Burgess) introduced the following bill; which was 
            referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Federal Trade Commission Act to require the termination of 
         inactive investigations after a period of six months.

    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 ``Start Taking Action on Lingering 
Liabilities Act'' or the ``STALL Act''.

SEC. 2. TERMINATION OF INACTIVE INVESTIGATIONS.

    Section 20 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 57b-1) is 
amended--
            (1) by redesignating subsection (j) as subsection (k); and
            (2) by inserting after subsection (i) the following new 
        subsection:
    ``(j) Termination of Inactive Investigation.--
            ``(1) In general.--Except as provided in paragraph (2), a 
        covered investigation shall terminate at the expiration of the 
        six-month period beginning on the date on which a covered 
        verifiable written communication is sent by the Commission.
            ``(2) Exception.--Paragraph (1) shall not apply if--
                    ``(A) an additional covered verifiable written 
                communication is sent by the Commission during the 
                period described in paragraph (1); or
                    ``(B) the Commission votes to extend the covered 
                investigation before the expiration of such period.
            ``(3) Definitions.--In this subsection:
                    ``(A) Covered investigation.--The term `covered 
                investigation' means an investigation conducted 
                pursuant to this section in which the Commission has 
                notified the person that is the subject of the 
                investigation by verifiable written communication.
                    ``(B) Covered verifiable written communication.--
                The term `covered verifiable written communication' 
                means a verifiable written communication relating to an 
                investigation conducted pursuant to this section that 
                is sent to the person that is the subject of the 
                investigation.''.
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