[Senate Report 117-106]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                     Calendar No. 363
117th Congress       }                            {          Report
                                 SENATE
 2d Session          }                            {          117-106
_______________________________________________________________________


 
             ACCESS TO CONGRESSIONALLY MANDATED REPORTS ACT

                               __________

                              R E P O R T

                                 of the

                   COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND

                          GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                              to accompany

                                S. 2838

          TO REQUIRE THE DIRECTOR OF THE GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING
           OFFICE TO ESTABLISH AND MAINTAIN AN ONLINE PORTAL
           ACCESSIBLE TO THE PUBLIC THAT ALLOWS THE PUBLIC TO
            OBTAIN ELECTRONIC COPIES OF ALL CONGRESSIONALLY
         MANDATED REPORTS IN ONE PLACE, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES



		[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


                  May 5, 2022.--Ordered to be printed
                  
                  
                  	      __________	
                  	      
                  	      
                  	      
                  	      
                   U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE      

29-010			   WASHINGTON : 2022                   
                  
                  
        COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                   GARY C. PETERS, Michigan, Chairman
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware           ROB PORTMAN, Ohio
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire         RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona              RAND PAUL, Kentucky
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada                  JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma
ALEX PADILLA, California             MITT ROMNEY, Utah
JON OSSOFF, Georgia                  RICK SCOTT, Florida
                                     JOSH HAWLEY, Missouri

                   David M. Weinberg, Staff Director
                    Zachary I. Schram, Chief Counsel
            Lena C. Chang, Director of Governmental Affairs
         Matthew T. Cornelius, Senior Professional Staff Member
                Pamela Thiessen, Minority Staff Director
            Sam J. Mulopulos, Minority Deputy Staff Director
                     Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk

                                                     Calendar No. 363
117th Congress       }                            {          Report
                                 SENATE
 2d Session          }                            {          117-106

======================================================================




             ACCESS TO CONGRESSIONALLY MANDATED REPORTS ACT

                                _______
                                

                  May 5, 2022.--Ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

 Mr. Peters, from the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
                    Affairs, submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                         [To accompany S. 2838]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 2838), to require 
the Director of the Government Publishing Office to establish 
and maintain an online portal accessible to the public that 
allows the public to obtain electronic copies of all 
congressionally mandated reports in one place, and for other 
purposes, reports favorably thereon without amendment and 
recommends that the bill do pass.

                                CONTENTS

                                                                   Page
  I. Purpose and Summary..............................................1
 II. Background and Need for the Legislation..........................2
III. Legislative History..............................................2
 IV. Section-by-Section Analysis of the Bill, as Reported.............2
  V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact..................................4
 VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate........................4
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............5

                         I. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY

    S. 2838, the Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports 
Act, requires the Government Publishing Office (GPO) to create 
and maintain a public online portal that contains electronic 
copies of congressionally mandated reports, with the exception 
of classified reports. The bill also requires agencies to 
submit their congressionally mandated reports to GPO, and GPO 
must track agency submissions and publish them no later than 30 
days after receipt. Agencies must submit the reports to GPO 
within 30 to 45 days after they are submitted to Congress. 
Within 180 days after the bill's enactment, the Office of 
Management and Budget must issue agency guidance on 
implementation. To the extent practicable and within one year 
of enactment, GPO must publish on the portal reports that were 
required to be submitted to Congress before the bill's 
enactment.
    This bill will increase government transparency by 
providing the public easily-accessible information on how 
agencies are accomplishing their policy goals. This bill will 
consolidate information in one database and will help build 
institutional knowledge within congressional staff as well as 
serve as a resource for concerned citizens, students, and 
academics.

              II. BACKGROUND AND THE NEED FOR LEGISLATION

    Congress receives thousands of reports from agencies 
annually but does not compile them in a central place. Agencies 
are not always required to publicly post congressionally-
mandated reports. Without such a requirement, agencies decide 
whether or not to make them accessible to the public. Agencies 
expend taxpayer-funded time and resources to produce these 
reports which are intended to inform legislation or 
congressional oversight of agency operations, yet the general 
public and Congress itself faces obstacles in locating and 
reviewing these reports. In addition, when congressional staff 
who receive a report move on, or there is a transition at a 
committee, historical reports often are lost.
    S. 2838 provides easier public access to congressionally 
mandated reports by requiring all federal agencies to send any 
such reports to the GPO for publication on its website. This 
will help encourage agency compliance with reporting 
requirements and will support timely access to the reports by 
concerned citizens, students, and academics, with the 
additional benefit of decreasing the burden on agencies to 
process Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

                        III. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

    Ranking Member Rob Portman (R-OH) introduced S. 2838, the 
Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act, on September 
23, 2021, with Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Gary Peters (D-
MI), and Margaret Hassan (D-NH). The bill was referred to the 
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
    The Committee considered S. 2838 at a business meeting on 
November 3, 2021. The bill was ordered reported without 
amendment favorably by voice vote en bloc. Senators present 
were Peters, Hassan, Sinema, Rosen, Padilla, Ossoff, Portman, 
Johnson, Lankford, Romney, Scott, and Hawley.

        IV. SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS OF THE BILL, AS REPORTED

Section 1. Short title

    This section establishes the short title of the bill as the 
``Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act.''

Section 2. Definitions

    This section defines a congressionally mandated report as 
``a report of a Federal agency that is required by statute to 
be submitted to either House of Congress or any committee of 
Congress or subcommittee thereof.'' Excluded from this 
definition are reports from private and national organizations 
(e.g., the Boy Scouts), inspectors general, congressional 
committees that receive classified information (e.g., the 
Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on Armed 
Services, the Committee on Appropriations, or the Committee on 
Foreign Relations of the Senate; the Permanent Select Committee 
on Intelligence, the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee 
on Appropriations, or the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 
House of Representatives.)

Section 3. Establishment of online portal for congressionally mandated 
        reports

    This section requires the GPO Director to establish an 
online portal for users to access reports issued to Congress. 
The reports must be downloadable individually and in bulk, and 
be capable of retrieval by key terms search (such as submitting 
agency, date, and the law requiring the report). To the extent 
possible, the reports should be in an open format. In addition, 
the website must list all congressionally mandated reports and, 
for each report, whether and when it was submitted by the 
agency.
    This section requires reports to be published on the portal 
30 days after GPO receives the report. It also provides an 
exception for reports submitted to committees or subcommittees 
where the chair has notified the GPO director in writing to 
withhold the report from public display. If this occurs, GPO is 
required to disclose that the report is withheld on the portal.

Section 4. Federal agency responsibilities

    This section stipulates how agencies are to interface with 
GPO and the new reports website. Each agency is responsible for 
submitting to GPO a copy of the report that the agency also 
submits to Congress. This section also directs OMB to issue 
guidance to implement this law.

Section 5. Changing or removing reports

    This section provides that a report can be changed or 
removed from the website if the head of the submitting federal 
agency consults with the congressional committee of 
jurisdiction (regardless of whether the report was submitted to 
the committee directly), and Congress enacts a joint resolution 
authorizing the change to, or removal of, the report.

Section 6. Withholding of information

    This section states that the bill does not require the 
disclosure of information or records that are exempt from 
public disclosure under FOIA. If a report contains specific 
information that cannot be publicly disclosed under FOIA, the 
federal agency shall redact that information before the 
submission of the report to GPO. This section further clarifies 
that nothing in the billrequires the release of any report 
containing information that is classified, or the public 
release of which could harm national security.

Section 7. Implementation

    This section sets a one year deadline after enactment for 
implementation of the bill. For reports due to Congress, or a 
committee thereof, published prior to the date of enactment, 
agencies are not required to submit those historical reports to 
GPO, but rather may do so to the extent practicable.

Section 8. Determination of budgetary effects

    This section ensures compliance with House and Senate 
budget rules.

                   V. EVALUATION OF REGULATORY IMPACT

    Pursuant to the requirements of paragraph 11(b) of rule 
XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has 
considered the regulatory impact of this bill and determined 
that the bill will have no regulatory impact within the meaning 
of the rules. The Committee agrees with the Congressional 
Budget Office's statement that the bill contains no 
intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the 
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would impose no costs 
on state, local, or tribal governments.

             VI. CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE COST ESTIMATE

                                     U.S. Congress,
                               Congressional Budget Office,
                                     Washington, DC, March 9, 2022.
Hon. Gary C. Peters,
Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 
        Washington, DC.
    Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has 
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 2838, the Access to 
Congressional Mandated Reports Act.
    If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be 
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Matthew 
Pickford.
            Sincerely,
                                         Phillip L. Swagel,
                                                          Director.
    Enclosure.

   
   
   [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    

    S. 2838 would require the Government Publishing Office 
(GPO) to establish and maintain a website for the public to 
obtain electronic copies of all Congressionally mandated 
reports. Under the bill, all federal agencies would be required 
to provide GPO with electronic copies of reports required by 
law each year.
    Using information from GPO and federal agencies that 
produce thousands of Congressionally mandated reports, CBO 
estimates that implementing the bill would cost about $400,000 
a year or $2 million over the 2022-2026 period. Those costs 
primarily consist of the salaries and expenses associated with 
four employees who would establish and maintain the website. In 
addition, there would be some costs for the agencies to collect 
and submit reports in the required format. CBO also expects the 
website would primarily contain recent filings and would not 
include many older reports. Any spending would be subject to 
the availability of appropriated funds.
    Enacting S. 2838 could affect direct spending by some 
agencies that are allowed to use fees, receipts from the sale 
of goods, and other collections to cover operating costs. CBO 
estimates that any net changes in direct spending by those 
agencies would be negligible because most of them can adjust 
amounts collected to reflect changes in operating costs.
    On June 14, 2021, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for H.R. 
2485, the Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act, as 
ordered reported by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform 
on May 13, 2021. The two pieces of legislation are similar, and 
the estimated costs are the same.
    The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Matthew 
Pickford. The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, 
Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.

       VII. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED

    Because this legislation would not repeal or amend any 
provision of current law, it would not make changes in existing 
law within the meaning of clauses (a) and (b) of paragraph 12 
of rule XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate.

                                  [all]