A bill to amend the Freedom of Information Act to require that information be made available to Congress.

Summary

Requires, under the Freedom of Information Act, that whenever either House of Congress, or, to the extent of matter within its jurisdiction: (1) any committee or subcommittee thereof, requests an agency or the President of the United States to make available information within its possession or under its control, the head of such agency or the President shall make the information available as soon as practicable, but not later than 30 days from the date of receipt of the request, unless the information is ordered withheld by the President in a signed statement that the information will be withheld and such statement sets forth a detailed explanation of the grounds upon which such withholding is based; or (2) an independent regulatory agency to make available information within its possession or under its control, the head of such agency shall make the information available as soon as practicable, but not later than 30 days from the receipt of the request. States that when either House of Congress and its committees, to the extent of matter within their jurisdiction, requests the presence of and information from an officer or employee of a Federal agency, that officer or employee shall appear and shall supply all information requested except information specifically ordered withheld by the President in a signed statement which sets forth a detailed explanation of the grounds upon which such withholding is based. Provides that an officer or employee of an independent requlatory agency shall appear and shall supply all information requested. Empowers either House of Congress and its committees to obtain information withheld by an agency head, the President or a witness in response to a request for information or testimony under the Act, by adopting a resolution stating that the information or testimony is needed for the exercise of a valid legislative or investigative function under the Constitution and that the national interest outweighs the grounds cited by the President for withholding the information or testimony, and authorizing counsel to file a civil suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to obtain the information requested.

This text is taken from the official record. PoliticalRepo does not editorialize.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

1 official file

• Introduced in House

  summary · EN · 31 January 1974

  Open at official source

Sponsors

No sponsors or actors listed by the source.

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.