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1 place of each portion deleted from copies of the transcript 2 made available to the public, the committee or subcommittee 3 shall supply a full written explanation of why such portion 4 was deleted, and a summary of the substance of the deleted 5 portion that does not itself disclose information specified in6 paragraph (1), (2), (3), (4), or (5) of subsection (a). 7 The committee or subcommittee shall maintain a complete 8 copy of the transcript of each meeting (including those por 9 tions deleted from copies made available to the public), for 10 a period of at least one year after such meeting, or until 11 the Congress following the one in which such meeting was 12 held is assembled, whichever occurs later.

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13 "fe) A point of order may be raised in the Senate 14 against any committee or subcommittee vote to close a meet15 ing to the publie pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, 16 or against any committee or subcommittee vote to delete 17 from the publicly available copy a portion of a meeting tran 18 script pursuant to subsection (d) of this section, by com19 mittee or subcommittee members comprising one-fourth or 20 more of the total number of members of such committee-or 21 subcommittee present and voting for or against such action. 22 Any such point of order shall be raised in the Senate within 23 two calendar days after the vote against which the point 24 of order is raised, and such point of order shall be a 25 matter of highest personal privilege. Each such point of

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1 order shall immediately be referred to a Select Committee 2 on Meetings consisting of the President pro tempore, the 3 leader of the majority party, and the leader of the minority 4 party. The select committee shall examine the complete 5 verbatim transcript of the meeting in question and shall rule 6 whether the vote to close the meeting was in accordance 7 with subsection (a) of this section, or whether the vote to 8 delete a portion or portions from publicly available copies 9 of the meeting transcript was in accordance with subsection 10 (d) of this section, as the case may be. The select committee11 shall report to the Senate within five calendar days (ex12 eluding days where the Senate is not in session) a resolu 13 tion containing its findings. If the Senate adopts a resolution14 finding that the committee vote in question was not in 15 accordance with the relevant subsection, it shall direct that 16 there be made publicly available the entire transcript of 17 the meeting improperly closed to the public or the portion 18 or portions of any meeting transcript improperly deleted 19 from the publicly available copy, as the case may be.

20

"(f) The Select Committee on Meetings shall not be 21 subject to the provisions of subsection (a), (b), (e), or 22 (d) of this section."

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(b) Subsection (a) of subsection 212 of the Legislative 24 Reorganization Act of 1970 is repealed.

9

1 fe) Paragraph 7(b) of Rule XXV of the Standing

2 Rules of the Senate is repealed.

3

(d) Title I of the table of contents of the Legislative 4 Reorganization Act of 1946 is amended by inserting imme

5 diately below item 133B the following:

6

"1330. Open Senate committee meetings.".

SEO. 102. Clause 27 (f) (2) of Rule XI of the Rules of

7 the House of Representatives is amended to read as follows: "(2) (A) Each meeting of each standing, select, or

8

9 special committee or subcommittee, including meetings to 10 conduct hearings, shall be open to the public: Provided, That 11 a portion or portions of such meetings may be closed to the 12 publie if the committee or subcommittee, as the case may be, 13 determines by vote of a majority of a quorum of the com 14-mittee or subcommittee present that the matters to be dis 15 eussed or the testimony to be taken at such portion or portions

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17

18

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22 23

"(i) will disclose matters necessary to be kept secret in the interests of national defense or the neeessarily confidential conduct of the foreign policy of the United States;

"(ii) will relate solely to matters of committee staffpersonnel or internal staff management or administra

tion;

80-459 O-77-18

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"(iii) will tend to charge with crime or misconduct, or to disgrace any person, or will represent a clearly unwarranted invasion of the privacy of any individual: Provided, That this paragraph shall not apply to any Government officer or employee with respect to his offi eial duties or employment: And provided further, That as applied to a witness at a meeting, this paragraph shall not apply unless the witness requests in writing that the hearing be closed to the public;

"(iv) will disclose information pertaining to any investigation conducted for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that the disclosure would (A) interfere with enforcement proceedings, (B) deprive a person of a right to a fair trial or an impartial adjudication, (C) disclose the identity of a confidential sourceand, in the case of a record compiled by a criminal law enforcement authority in the course of a criminal investi gation, or by an agency conducting a lawful national security intelligence investigation, confidential informa tion furnished only by the confidential source, (D) dis elose investigative techniques and procedures, or (E) endanger the life or physical safety of law enforcement personnel; or

1

“(v) will disclose information relating to the trade

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3

4

5

7

8

9

10

11

12....

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seerete or financial or commercial information pertain

ing specifically to a given person where

"(I) a Federal statute requires the informationto be kept confidential by Government officers and

employees; or

"(II) the information has been obtained by the Federal Government on a confidential basis other

than through an application by such person for a specific Government financial or other benefit, and the information must be kept secret in order to prevent grave and irreparable injury to the competi tive position of such person.

13 A separate vote of the committee shall be taken with respect 14 to each committee or subcommittee meeting a portion or por15 tions of which are proposed to be closed to the public pur 16 suant to this subsection. The vote of each committee member 17 participating in each such vote shall be recorded and no 18 proxies shall be allowed. Within one day of such vote, the 19 committee shall make publicly available a written copy of 20 such vote and, if a meeting or portion thereof is closed to 21 the public, a full written explanation of its action.

22

"(B) Ench standing, select, or special committee or 23 subcommittee shall make publie announcement of the date, 24 place, and subject matter of each meeting at least one week