[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5118 Introduced in House (IH)]

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114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5118

To amend the Federal Trade Commission Act to specify certain effects of 
 guidelines, general statements of policy, and similar guidance issued 
                    by the Federal Trade Commission.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 28, 2016

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

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Federal Trade Commission Act to specify certain effects of 
 guidelines, general statements of policy, and similar guidance issued 
                    by the Federal Trade Commission.

    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 ``Solidifying Habitual and 
Institutional Explanations of Liability and Defenses Act'' or the 
``SHIELD Act''.

SEC. 2. EFFECTS OF GUIDELINES, GENERAL STATEMENTS OF POLICY, AND 
              SIMILAR GUIDANCE.

    Section 18(a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 
57a(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(3)(A) No guidelines, general statements of policy, or similar 
guidance issued by the Commission shall confer any rights upon any 
person, State, or locality, nor shall operate to bind the Commission or 
any person, State, or locality to the approach recommended in such 
guidelines, general statements of policy, or similar guidance. In any 
enforcement action, the Commission shall prove a violation of a 
provision of law enforced by the Commission. The Commission may not 
base an enforcement action on, or execute a consent order based on, 
acts or practices that are alleged to be inconsistent with any such 
guidelines, general statements of policy, or similar guidance, unless 
the acts or practices violate a provision of law enforced by the 
Commission.
    ``(B) Compliance with any guidelines, general statement of policy, 
or similar guidance issued by the Commission may be used as evidence of 
compliance with the provision of law under which the guidelines, 
general statement of policy, or guidance was issued.
    ``(C) Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to confer any 
authority upon or negate any authority of the Commission to issue 
guidelines, general statements of policy, or similar guidance.''.
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