[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 96 (Monday, June 11, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3718-S3719]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SA 2770. Mr. DURBIN (for Ms. Duckworth) submitted an amendment
intended to be proposed by Mr. Durbin to the bill H.R. 5515, to
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2019 for military activities
of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for
defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military
personnel strengths for such fiscal
[[Page S3719]]
year, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as
follows:
At the end of subtitle B of title XI, add the following:
SEC. 1126. DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION REGARDING TRAVEL BY
CERTAIN SENIOR OFFICIALS.
(a) In General.--Section 5707 of title 5, United States
Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(d) Additional Disclosure of Information Regarding Travel
by Certain Senior Officials.--
``(1) Definitions.--In this subsection--
``(A) the term `Administrator' means the Administrator of
General Services;
``(B) the term `covered individual' means--
``(i) the head of an Executive agency; or
``(ii) an individual serving in a position at level I or II
of the Executive Schedule under section 5312 or 5313,
respectively;
``(C) the term `machine-readable form' means a format in
which information or data can be easily processed by a
computer without human intervention while ensuring no
semantic meaning is lost;
``(D) the term `open format' means a technical format based
on an underlying open standard that is--
``(i) not encumbered by restrictions that would impede use
or reuse; and
``(ii) based on an underlying open standard that is
maintained by a standards organization; and
``(E) the term `travel information website' means the
website used by the Administrator to make available
information under paragraph (2)(B)(i).
``(2) Public availability of travel information for covered
individuals.--
``(A) Reporting.--Not later than 30 business days after the
end of each calendar quarter, each Executive agency employing
1 or more covered individuals who performed official travel
during the calendar quarter shall submit to the Administrator
data in machine-readable form and open format regarding the
travel by each such covered individual during the calendar
quarter on a commercial aircraft, privately-owned aircraft,
or Government-owned or Government-leased aircraft, which
shall include--
``(i) the duration of the travel;
``(ii) the destination or destinations of the travel;
``(iii) the individuals in the travel party;
``(iv) the justification for the travel;
``(v) the authorizing official who approved the travel; and
``(vi) the total cost to the Government for--
``(I) the travel as a whole;
``(II) transportation during the travel; and
``(III) lodging accommodations during the travel.
``(B) Public availability.--
``(i) In general.--The Administrator shall make available
online to the public, at no cost to access, the information
provided by Executive agencies to the Administrator under
subparagraph (A).
``(ii) National security information.--
``(I) In general.--An Executive agency may exclude national
security sensitive travel information from the travel
information submitted to the Administrator if the Executive
agency determines public online disclosure of the national
security sensitive travel information would result in harm to
national security interests.
``(II) Justification.--Each Executive agency shall
establish and preserve an accurate record documenting each
instance in which the Executive agency excluded national
security sensitive travel information from submission, as
authorized in subclause (I), which shall include information
explaining how public online disclosure of the national
security sensitive travel information would have resulted in
harm to national security interests.
``(C) Use of existing resources.--To the maximum extent
practicable, the Administrator shall use a website in
existence on the date of enactment of this subsection to
carry out this subsection.
``(3) Requirements.--Not later than 30 business days after
the date on which the Administrator receives information from
an Executive agency regarding travel by a covered individual
under paragraph (2)(A), the Administrator shall make the
information available on the travel information website.
``(4) Classified trips.--
``(A) In general.--Nothing in this subsection shall
preclude an Executive agency from excluding from the
information submitted to the Administrator information
regarding classified travel.
``(B) Maintaining of information.--An Executive agency
shall maintain information relating to classified travel by a
covered employee until the end of the 2-year period beginning
on the date on which the classified travel concludes.
``(5) Auditing.--The Inspector General of each Executive
agency may, as determined appropriate by the Inspector
General--
``(A) conduct and publish an audit of the accuracy and
completeness of information the Executive agency provides to
the Administrator under paragraph (2)(A);
``(B) conduct an audit of determinations by the Executive
agency to exclude information under paragraph (2)(B)(ii) to
ensure each such decision was appropriate and justified in
regard to protecting national security interests from harm
that would have resulted from public online disclosure; and
``(C) provide each committee of Congress with jurisdiction
over the activities of or appropriations for the Executive
agency with written notification if the Inspector General
determines that the Executive agency is improperly
withholding, or failed to justify the withholding of,
information from the Administrator under paragraph
(2)(B)(ii).''.
(b) Relation to Other Reporting Requirements.--Nothing in
the amendment made by subsection (a) shall be construed to
modify or supercede the reporting requirements under the
Federal Travel Regulation (including the requirements
relating to the Senior Federal Travel report, or any
successor thereto) or under any other provision of law.
______