[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5116 Introduced in House (IH)]

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114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5116

   To amend the Federal Trade Commission Act to permit a bipartisan 
   majority of Commissioners to hold a meeting that is closed to the 
                  public to discuss official business.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 28, 2016

    Mr. Olson (for himself, Mr. Burgess, Mr. Lance, and Mr. Mullin) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                          Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend the Federal Trade Commission Act to permit a bipartisan 
   majority of Commissioners to hold a meeting that is closed to the 
                  public to discuss official business.

    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 ``Freeing Responsible and Effective 
Exchanges Act'' or the ``FREE Act''.

SEC. 2. NONPUBLIC COLLABORATIVE DISCUSSIONS.

    The Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) is amended 
by inserting after section 26 the following:

``SEC. 27. NONPUBLIC COLLABORATIVE DISCUSSIONS.

    ``(a) In General.--Notwithstanding section 552b of title 5, United 
States Code, a bipartisan majority of Commissioners may hold a meeting 
that is closed to the public to discuss official business if--
            ``(1) a vote or any other agency action is not taken at 
        such meeting;
            ``(2) each person present at such meeting is a Commissioner 
        or an employee of the Commission; and
            ``(3) an attorney from the Office of General Counsel of the 
        Commission is present at such meeting.
    ``(b) Disclosure of Nonpublic Collaborative Discussions.--Not later 
than 2 business days after the conclusion of a meeting held under 
subsection (a), the Commission shall publish on its Internet website a 
disclosure of such meeting, including--
            ``(1) a list of the persons who attended such meeting; and
            ``(2) a summary of the matters discussed at such meeting, 
        except for such matters as the Commission determines may be 
        withheld under section 552b(c) of title 5, United States Code.
    ``(c) Preservation of Open Meetings Requirements for Agency 
Action.--Nothing in this section shall limit the applicability of 
section 552b of title 5, United States Code, with respect to a meeting 
of Commissioners other than that described in subsection (a).
    ``(d) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Agency action.--The term `agency action' has the 
        meaning given such term in section 551 of title 5, United 
        States Code.
            ``(2) Bipartisan majority.--The term `bipartisan majority' 
        means, when used with respect to a group of Commissioners, that 
        such group--
                    ``(A) is a group of 3 or more Commissioners; and
                    ``(B) includes, for each political party of which 
                any Commissioner is a member, at least 1 Commissioner 
                who is a member of such political party, and, if any 
                Commissioner has no political party affiliation, at 
                least one unaffiliated Commissioner.''.
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