By opening up governmental processes to the scrutiny of the American public, we can tear down the wall of bureaucratic secrecy and help insure that the Government does indeed exist "for the people.

The concept behind the Government in the Sunshine Act, that of opening meetings of Federal agencies to the public, represents a large step toward restoring the public's confidence in its Government institutions. The Government Information and Individual Rights Subcommittee hearings provided us with a clear picture of how necessary a sunshine law is. At those hearings, David Cohen, president of Common Cause, said:

For too long secrecy, mystery, remoteness have dominated government practices at all levels and in all branches. Let's have our leaders level with us, tell us what's going on, enable us to understand government decisions. Let's act on the recognition that government belongs to its citizens and not a variety of special interests or public officials.

As it now stands, the bill could use an improvement. The decision to drop statements of the reasons and statutory authority for transcript deletions furthers government secrecy and represents a regression from the bill's original intentions. People should be able to know why they are prevented from having information about agency proceedings. The Government Operations Committee's original version of this provision properly balanced the need to keep certain matters secret against the people's right to know.

There have been other attempts to weaken the bill. The movement to drop the verbatim transcript requirement must be defeated, as the change would constitute a further diminution of the people's right to know. During the course of legitimately closed meetings, there will occur discussion that would normally be made available to the public, but will not if the transcript requirement is dropped. By purporting to discuss any legitimately closed business, an agency could keep all of its meetings from being made open to the public. The cost of enforcing the transcript requirement is not enough to justify denying the people information that is rightfully theirs.

I believe that if we can resist attempts to weaken the bill, the Sunshine Act that results will be an outstanding legislative accomplishment. Especially since the Watergate crisis, people have withdrawn from and become distrustful of their Government. Government secrecy can only encourage distrust. Effective citizen participation in Government affairs is essential in a democracy, and for people to participate effectively, they must be informed of what goes on within the Government. In this our Bicentennial Year, let us make sure that the people's Government is in fact the people's Government. Let us reestablish the principle of openness in the affairs of the Federal Government.

Mr. DOWNEY of New York. Madam Chairman, I welcome this opportunity to affirm my support of H.R. 11656, the Government in the Sunshine Act.

This bill would require that meetings of Federal regulatory and other agencies be open to the public. Furthermore, it requires that when an agency closes a meeting under one of the exemptions in the bill, it must make a recording or verbatim transcript of the closed portion, and release to the public any part of the recording or transcript that does not contain exempt information.

To all firm believers of the democratic ideal, the passage of this important bill is obviously long overdue.

The revelations emanating from the Watergate era demonstrate only too clearly that many Federal agencies have been remiss in the honest performance of their delegated responsibilities, particularly when offered the protection of a sanctioned cloak of secrecy. The public often found itself less well served than private interests.

Documented evidence also proved that numerous governmental institutions, acting in a clandestine manner, have been guilty of immoral, unethical, and sometimes blatantly illegal acts that, were it not for some tenacious investigative newspaper reporting, might still be unknown of today.

The "fourth estate" must be commended for a job well done; but it is simply not enough to expect the press to perform this function on an ongoing basis. It is now time for the Congress to officially remove all roadblocks that may be encountered by anyone seeking to monitor their Government's activities. Our dedication to the concept of open government, as effectively espoused by the more "democratic" of our Founding Fathers, demands passage of the "Sunshine" Act.

The idea behind the bill is a simple one-open our Government's heretofore closed doors and "let the Sun shine in." Give the American public the opportunity to view their Government in an unfiltered light.

The consequences of the defeat of this bill would be painfully ob vious the abandonment of the ideals of Jefferson and Franklin; and the possible regression into a pre-Watergate government replete with camouflaged agency operations and lack of citizen participation.

The evidence adduced from Watergate should convince us that a bureaucracy free of public scrutiny is subject to temptations that can often result in violations of our moral and legal codes. The passage of H.R. 11656 will dramatically lessen these temptations.

Therefore, my sense of public responsibility and my faith in our democratic ideals compels me to urge the Members of the House to support the Government in the Sunshine Act. I further urge the rejection of any proposed amendments that seek to weaken this bill. The insertion of any such additions would only create loopholes that might tend to render H.R. 11656 virtually useless. The amendments must be rejected to allow the clear intent of this bill to remain untarnished.

The American public deserves the guarantees presented by this act. It is our duty, as Representatives, to give America the "Sunshine" Act.

Mr. HORTON. Madam Chairman. I have no further requests for time. MS. ABZUG. Madam Chairman, I have no further requests for time. The CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will read.

The Clerk read as follows:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "Government in the Sunshine Act".

AMENDMENT IN THE NATURE OF A SUBSTITUTE OFFERED BY MR. FLOWERS

Mr. FLOWERS. Madam Chairman, I offer an amendment in the nature of a substitute.

The Clerk read as follows:

Amendment in the nature of a substitute offered by Mr. Flowers: Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert in lieu thereof the following:

That this Act may be cited as the "Government in the Sunshine Act”.

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 practicable information regarding the decisionmaking processes of the Federal Government. It is the purpose of this Act to provide the public with such information while protecting the rights of individuals and the ability of the Government to carry out its responsibilities.

OPEN MEETINGS

Sec. 3. (a) Title 5, United States Code, is amended by adding after section 552a the following new section:

"§ 552b. Open 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 an assembly or simultaneous communication concerning the joint conduct or disposition of agency business by two or more, but at least the number of individual agency members required to take action on behalf of the agency, but does not include meetings required or permitted by subsection (d); and

"(3) the term 'member' means an individual who belongs to a collegial body heading an agency.

"(b) (1) Members as described in subsection (a) (2) shall not jointly conduct or dispose of agency business without complying with subsections (b) through (g).

"(2) Except as provided in subsection (c), every portion of every meeting of an agency shall be open to public observation.

"(c) Except in a case where the agency finds that the public interest requires otherwise, subsection (b) shall not apply to any portion of an agency meeting and the requirements of subsection (d) and (e) shall not apply to any information pertaining to such meeting otherwise required by this section to be disclosed to the public, where the agency properly determines that such portion or portions of 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) in fact properly classified pursuant to such Executive order;

"(2) relate solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency; "(3) disclose information required or permitted to be withheld from the public by any statute establishing particular criteria or referring to particular types of information;

"(4) disclose trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential;

“(5) involve accusing any person of a crime, or formally censuring any person; "(6) disclose information of a personal nature where disclosure would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy;

"(7) disclose investigatory records compiled for law enforcement purposes, or information which if written would be contained in such records, but only to the extent that the production of such records or information would (A) interfere with enforcement proceedings, (B) deprive a person of a right to a fair trial or an impartial adjudication, (C) constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, (D) disclose the identity of a confidential source and, in the case of a record compiled by a criminal law enforcement authority in the course of a criminal investigation, or by an agency conducting a lawful national security intelligence investigation, confidential information furnished only by the confidential source, (E) disclose investigative techniques and procedures, or (F) endanger the life or physical safety of law enforcement personnel;

"(8) disclose information contained in or related to examination, operating, or condition reports prepared by, on behalf of, or for the use of any agency responsible for the regulation or supervision of financial institutions;

"(9) disclose information the premature disclosure of which would

"(A) in the case of an agency which regulates currencies, securities, commodities, or financial institutions, be likely to (i) lead to significant financial speculation, or (ii) significantly endanger the stability of any financial institution; or "(B) in the case of any agency, be likely to significantly frustrate implementation of a proposed agency action, except that this subparagraph shall not apply in any instance after the content or nature of the proposed agency action has been disclosed to the public by the agency, unless the agency is required by law to make such disclosure prior to taking final agency action on such proposal, or after the agency publishes or serves a substantive rule pursuant to section 553 (d) of this title; or

"(10) specifically concern the agency's issuance of a subpena, or the agency's participation in a civil action or proceeding, an action in a foreign court or international tribunal, or an arbitration, or the initiation, conduct, or disposition by the agency of a particular case of formal agency adjudication pursuant to the procedures in section 554 of this title or otherwise involving a determination on the record after opportunity for a hearing.

"(d) (1) Action under subsection (c) to close a portion or portions of an agency meeting shall be taken only when a majority of the entire membership of the agency votes to take such action. A separate vote of the agency members shall be taken with respect to each agency meeting a portion or portions of which are proposed to be closed to the public pursuant to subsection (c). A single vote may be taken with respect to a series of portions of meetings which are proposed to be closed to the public, or with respect to any information concerning such series, so long as each portion of a meeting in such series involves the same particular matters, and is scheduled to be held no more than thirty days after the initial portion of a meeting in such series. The vote of each agency member participating in such vote shall be recorded and no proxies shall be allowed.

"(2) Whenever any person whose interests may be directly affected by a portion of a meeting requests that the agency close such portion to the public for any of the reasons referred to in paragraph (5), (6), or (7) of subsection (c), the agency, upon request of any one of its members, shall vote by recorded vote whether to close such meeting.

"(3) Within one day of any vote taken pursuant to paragraph (1) or (2), the agency shall make publicly available a written copy of such vote reflecting the vote of each member on the question. If a portion of a meeting is to be closed to the public, the agency shall, within one day of the vote taken pursuant to paragraph (1) or (2) of this subsection, make publicly available a full written explanation of its action closing the portion together with a list of all persons expected to attend the meeting and their affiliation.

"(4) Any agency, a majority of whose meetings may properly be closed to the public pursuant to paragraph (4), (8), (9) (A), or (10) of subsection (c), or any combination thereof, may provide by regulation for the closing of such meetings or portions thereof in the event that a majority of the members of the agency votes by recorded vote at the beginning of such meeting, or portion thereof, to close the exempt portion or portions of the meeting, and a copy of such vote, reflecting the vote of each member on the question, is made available to the public. The provisions of paragraphs (1), (2), and (3) of this subsection and subsection (e) shall not apply to any portion of a meeting to which such regulations apply: Provided, That the agency shall, except to the extent that such information is exempt from disclosure under the provisions of subsection (c), provide the public with public announcement of the date, place, and subject matter of the meeting and each portion thereof at the earliest practicable time and in no case later than the commencement of the meeting or portion in question.

"(e) In the case of each meeting, the agency shall make public announcement, at least one week before the meeting, of the date, place, and subject matter of the meeting, whether it is to be open or closed to the public, and the name and phone number of the official designated by the agency to respond to requests for information about the meeting. Such announcement shall be made unless a majority of the members of the agency determines by a recorded vote that agency business requires that such meeting be called at an earlier date, in which case the agency shall make public announcement of the date, place, and subject matter of such meeting, and whether open or closed to the public, at the earliest practicable time and in no case later than the commencement of the meeting or portion in question. The time, place, or subject matter of a meeting, or the determination of the agency to open or close a meeting, or portion of a meeting, to the public, may be changed following the public anouncement required by this paragraph only if (1) a majority of the entire membership of the agency determines by a recorded vote that agency business so requires

and that no earlier announcement of the change was possible, and (2) the agency publicly announces such change and the vote of each member upon such change at the earliest practicable time and in no case later than the commencement of the meeting or portion in question.

"(f) (1) A complete transcript or electronic recording adequate to record fully the proceedings shall be made of each meeting, or portion of a meeting, closed to the public, except for a meeting, or portion of a meeting, closed to the public pursuant to paragraph (10) of subsection (c). The agency shall make promptly available to the public, in a location easily accessible to the public, the complete transcript or electronic recording of the discussion at such meeting of any item on the agenda, or of the testimony of any witness received at such meeting, except for such portion or portions of such discussion or testimony as the agency determines to contain information specified in paragraphs (1) through (10) of subsection (c). Copies of such transcript, or a transcription of such electronic recording disclosing the identity of each speaker, shall be furnished to any person at no greater than the actual cost of duplication or transcription or, if in the public interest, at no cost. The agency shall maintain a complete verbatim copy of the transcript, or a complete electronic recording of each meeting, or portion of a meeting, closed to the public, for a period of at least two years after such meeting, or until one year after the conclusion of any agency proceeding with respect to which the meeting, or a portion thereof, was held, whichever occurs later.

"(2) Written minutes shall be made of any agency meeting, or portion thereof, which is open to the public. The agency shall make such minutes promptly available to the public in a location easily accessible to the public, and shall maintain such minutes for a period of at least two years after such meeting. Copies of such minutes shall be furnished to any person at no greater than the actual cost of duplication thereof or, if in the public interest, at no cost.

"(g) Each agency subject to the requirements of this section shall, within 180 days after the date of enactment of this section, following consultation with the Office of the Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States and published notice in the Federal Register of at least thirty days and opportunity for written comment by any persons, promulgate regulations to implement the requirements of subsections (b) through (f) of this section. Any person may bring a proceeding in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to require an agency to promulgate such regulations if such agency has not promulgated such regulations within the time period specified herein. Subject to any limitations of time therefor provided by law, any person may bring a proceeding in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to set aside agency regulations issued pursuant to this subsection that are not in accord with the requirements of subsections (b) through (f) of this section, and to require the promulgation of regulations that are in accord with such subsections.

"(h) The district courts of the United States have jurisdiction to enforce the requirements of subsections (b) through (f) of this section. Such actions may be brought by any person against an agency prior to, or within sixty days after the meeting out of which the violation of this section arises, except that if public announcement of such meeting is not initially provided by the agency in accordance with the requirements of this section, such action may be instituted pursuant to this section at any time prior to sixty days after any public announcement of such meeting. Such actions may be brought in the district court of the United States for the district in which the agency meeting is held, or in the District Court for the District of Columbia, or where the agency in question has its headquarters. In such actions a defendant shall serve his answer within twenty days after the service of the complaint, but such time may be extended by the court for up to twenty additional days upon a showing of good cause therefor. The burden is on the defendant to sustain his action. In deciding such cases the court may examine in camera any portion of a transcript or electronic recording of a meeting closed to the public, and may take such additional evidence as it deems necessary. The court, having due regard for orderly administration and the public interest, as well as the interests of the party, may grant such equitable relief as it deems appropriate, including granting an injunction against future violations of this section, or ordering the agency to make available to the public such portion of the transcript or electronic recording of a meeting as is not authorized to be withheld under subsection (c) of this section. Nothing in this section confers jurisdiction on any district court acting solely under this subsection to set aside, enjoin or invalidate any agency action taken or discussed at an agency meeting out of which the violation of this section arose.