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Bill
Notes

Retention of Electronic Correspondence Of Regulatory Decisions Act of 2014

H.R. 5181 · 113th Congress · Jul 23, 2014 · Lineage

A BILL

To amend title 44, United States Code, to require the retention of records of high level officials, and for other purposes.

Section 1 Short title

This Act may be cited as the “Retention of Electronic Correspondence Of Regulatory Decisions Act of 2014” or as the “RECORD Act of 2014”.

Sec. 2 Retention of records of high level officials

Section 3102 of title 44, United States Code, is amended—
(1)
in paragraph (2), by striking “; and” and inserting a semicolon;
(2)
in paragraph (3), by striking the period at the end and inserting “; and”; and
(3)
by adding at the end the following:

“(4) the identification of electronic mail accounts that should be preserved because such accounts are most likely to contain records that should be preserved as permanent Federal records and the automatic retention of those records, including the accounts of each head of a Federal agency, the deputies and assistants of such head, the head of each program office and staff office, each assistant secretary, each administrator, each commissioner, each director of an office, bureau, or the equivalent, each principal regional official, each staff assistant to such official (such as a special assistant, confidential assistant, and administrative assistant), each career Federal employee, each political appointee, and each member of the Armed Forces serving in equivalent or comparable positions; and

“(5) electronic capture, management, and preservation of the electronic mail accounts described in paragraph (4) in accordance with the records disposal requirements of chapter 33 of this title such that—

“(A) electronic records are readily accessible for retrieval through electronic searches; and

“(B) there are mandatory minimum functional requirements for electronic records management systems to ensure compliance with this section.”

Sec. 3 Review by the Comptroller General of the United States

Section 3107 of title 44, United States Code, is amended—
(1)
by striking “Chapters 21” and inserting “(a) In general.—Chapters 21”; and
(2)
by adding at the end the following:

“(b) Comptroller General evaluation—The Comptroller General shall evaluate and report to Congress not less than every two years on agency management of electronic mail records required under paragraphs (4) and (5) of section 3102.”

Sec. 4 Review by Inspector General

Section 4(a) of the Inspector General Act (5 U.S.C. App.) is amended—
(1)
in paragraph (4), by striking “; and” and inserting a semicolon;
(2)
in paragraph (5), by striking the period at the end and inserting “; and”; and
(3)
by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

“(6) to review existing and proposed legislation and regulations relating to records retention requirements under the chapters 21, 29, 31 and 33 of title 44, United States Code (commonly referred to as the Federal Records Act) for programs and operations of such establishment and to make recommendations in the semiannual reports required by section 5(a) concerning compliance with records retention requirements.”

Sec. 5 Effective date

This Act and the amendments made by this Act shall take effect on December 31, 2014.