18 (b) The second sentence of section 554 (d) of title 5, 2 United States Code, is amended to read as follows: "Such 3 employee may not be responsible to or subject to the super4 vision or direction of an employee or agent engaged in the 5 performance of investigative or prosecuting functions for an 6 agency.". 7 (c) Section 551 of title 5, United States Code, is 8 amended 9 10 11 12 233 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 (1) by striking out "and" at the end of paragraph (12); (2) by striking out the "act." at the end of paragraph (13) and inserting in lieu thereof "act; and"; and (3) by adding at the end thereof the following new paragraph: "(14) 'ex parte communication' means an oral or written communication not on the public record with respect to which reasonable prior notice to all parties is not given.". (d) Section 556 (d) of title 5, United States Code, is 21 amended by inserting between the third and fourth sentences 22 22 thereof the following new sentence: "The agency may, to the 23 extent consistent with the interests of justice and the policy 24 of the underlying statutes administered by the agency, con25 sider a violation of section 557 (d) of this title sufficient 19 1 grounds for a decision adverse to a party who has knowingly 2 committed such violation or knowingly caused such violation 3 to occur.". 4 5 SEC. 6. The provisions of this Act shall become effective one hundred and eighty days after the date of its enactment. 94T CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 11007 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DECEMBER 4, 1975 Ms. ABZUG (for herself, Mr. FASCELL, Mr. BROOKS, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. HARRINGTON, Mr. MACDONALD of Massachusetts, Mr. MCCLOSKEY, Mr. MAGUIRE, Mr. MOFFETT, Mr. Moss, and Mr. RYAN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Government Operations A BILL To provide that meetings of Government agencies shall be open to the public, and for other purposes. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3 That this Act may be cited as the "Government in the Sun4 shine Act". 5 SEC. 2. DECLARATION OF POLICY.-It is hereby de6 clared to be the policy of the United States that the public 7 is entitled to the fullest practicable information regarding 8 the decisionmaking processes of the Federal Government. It 9 is the purpose of this Act to provide the public with such I 2 1 information while protecting the rights of individuals and 2 the ability of the Government to carry out its responsibilities. 3 SEC. 3. Title 5, United States Code, is amended by 4 adding after section 552a the following new section: 5 "8552b. Open meetings 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 2235 21 23 "(a) For purposes of this section "(1) the term 'agency' means the Federal Election Commission and any agency, as defined in section 552 (e) of this title, headed by a collegial body composed of two or more individual members, and includes any subdivision thereof composed of or including two or more members and authorized to act on behalf of the agency; "(2) the term 'meeting' means the deliberations of at least the number of individual agency members re quired to take action on behalf of the agency where such deliberations concern the joint conduct or disposition of agency business; and "(3) the term 'member' means an individual who belongs to a collegial body heading an agency and who is appointed to such position by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. "(b) Except as provided in subsection (c), every por 24 tion of every meeting of an agency shall be open to public 25 observation. 1 3 "(c) Except in a case where the agency finds that the 2 public interest requires otherwise, (1) subsection (b) shall 3 not apply to any portion of an agency meeting, and (2) the 4 requirements of subsections (d) and (e) shall not apply to 5 any information pertaining to such meeting otherwise re6 quired by this section to be disclosed to the public, where the 7 agency properly determines that such portion or portions of 8 its meeting or the disclosure of such information is likely to"(1) disclose matters (A) specifically authorized under criteria established by an Executive order to be kept secret in the interests of national defense or foreign policy and (B) are, in fact, properly classified pursuant to such Executive order; 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 "(2) relate solely to the agency's own internal personnel rules and practices; "(3) disclose information of a personal nature where disclosure would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. 19 This paragraph shall not apply to any officer or employee 20 of the United States or any branch, department, agency or 21 establishment thereof with respect to his official duties or 22 employment; 23 24 "(4) involve accusing any person of a crime, or formally censuring any person. 25 This paragraph shall not apply to any officer or employee |