16 hibited by this subsection shall place on the public record of the proceeding: "(i) all such written communications; "(ii) memoranda stating the substance of all such oral communications; and "(iii) all written responses, and memoranda stating the substance of all oral responses, to the materials described in clauses (i) and (ii) of this subparagraph; "(D) in the event of a communication prohibited by this subsection and made or caused to be made by a party or interested person, the agency, administrative law judge, or other employee presiding at the hearing may, to the extent consistent with the interests of justice and the policy of the underlying statutes, require the person or party to show cause why his claim or interest in the proceeding should not be dismissed, denied, disregarded, or otherwise adversely affected on account of such violation; and "(E) the prohibitions of this subsection shall apply beginning at such time as the agency may designate, but in no case shall they begin to apply later than the time at which a proceeding is noticed for hearing unless the person responsible for the communication has knowl edge that it will be noticed, in which case the prohibi 17 1 2 3 tions shall apply beginning at the time of his acquisition of such knowledge. "(2) This section does not constitute authority to with 4 hold information from Congress.". 5 (b) Section 551 of title 5, United States Code, is 6 amended 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 (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.". (c) Section 556 (d) of title 5, United States Code, is 19 amended by inserting between the third and fourth sentences 20 thereof the following new sentence: "The agency may, to 21 the extent consistent with the interests of justice and the 22 policy of the underlying statutes administered by the agency, 23 consider a violation of section 557 (d) of this title sufficient 24 grounds for a decision adverse to a person or party who has 25 committed such violation or caused such violation to occur.". 18 1 CONFORMING AMENDMENTS 2 SEC. 5. (a) Section 410 (b) (1) of title 39, United 3 States Code, is amended by inserting after "Section 552 4 (public information)," the words "section 552a (records 5 about individuals), section 552b (open meetings),". 6 (b) Section 552 (b) (3) of title 5, United States Code, 7 is amended to read as follows: 8 9 10 11 12 15 "(3) required to be withheld from the public by any statute establishing particular criteria or referring to particular types of information;". EFFECTIVE DATE SEC. 6. (a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of 13 this section, the provisions of this Act shall take effect one 14 hundred and eighty days after the date of its enactment. (b) Subsection (g) of section 552b of title 5, United States Code, as added by section 3 (a) of this Act, shall take effect upon enactment. 16 17 94TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION Union Calendar No. 496 H. R. 11656 [Report No. 94-880, Part I, Part II] IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 3, 1976 Ms. ABZUG (for herself, Mr. FASCELL, Mr. BROOKS, Mr. Moss, Mr. MACDONALD of Massachusetts, Mr. MOORHEAD of Pennsylvania, Mr. ROSENTHAL, Mr. WRIGHT, Mr. FUQUA, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. JAMES V. STANTON, MS. COLLINS of Illinois, Mr. JOHN L. BURTON, Mr. HARRINGTON, Mr. DRINAN, Mr. MEZVINSKY, MS. JORDAN, Mr. EVANS of Indiana, Mr. MOFFETT, Mr. MAGUIRE, Mr. ASPIN, Mr. GUDE, Mr. MCCLOSKEY, Mr. STEELMAN, and Mr. PRITCHARD) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Government Operations MARCH 8, 1976 Reported with amendments, referred to the Committee on the Judiciary for a period ending not later than April 8, 1976, for consideration of such provisions of the bill as fall within the jurisdiction of that committee under rule X, clause (1) (m), and ordered to be printed [Insert the part printed in italic] APRIL 8, 1976 Reported with amendments, committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed [Omit the part struck through and insert the part printed in boldface] 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 Representa 2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3 That this Act may be cited as the "Government in the 4 Sunshine Act". I 1 2 3 2 DECLARATION OF POLICY SEC. 2. It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States that the public is entitled to the fullest prac4 ticable information regarding the decisionmaking processes 5 of the Federal Government. It is the purpose of this Act 6 to provide the public with such information while protecting the rights of individuals and the ability of the Government 8 to carry out its responsibilities. 7 9 10 OPEN MEETINGS SEC. 3. (a) Title 5, United States Code, is amended 11 by adding after section 552a the following new section: 12 "8552b. Oper. meetings "(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, a majority of whom are appointed to such position by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, and includes any subdivision thereof 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 |