Title V: Getting Democracy’s Data

TITLE V of The MAD Act

MASS DIGITIZATION AND PRESERVATION OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT RECORDS AND COLLECTIONS

SEC. 5001. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

(a) SHORT TITLE.—This title may be cited as the "Get Democracy’s Data Act".

(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of this title is as follows:

Sec. 5001. Short title; table of contents.

Sec. 5002. Findings.

Sec. 5003. Purposes.

Sec. 5004. Definitions.

Sec. 5005. Mass digitization through competitive contracts.

Sec. 5006. Competitive procurement and public access requirements.

Sec. 5007. Modernization of records schedules and appraisal criteria.

Sec. 5008. Reporting requirements.

Sec. 5009. Appropriations.

Sec. 5009A. State and territory government records digitization grants.

Sec. 5010. Protection of digitization facilities.

Sec. 5011. Whistleblower protection.

Sec. 5012. Rule of construction.

Sec. 5013. Severability.

SEC. 5002. FINDINGS.

Congress finds the following:

(1) The National Archives and Records Administration (referred to in this title as "NARA") has an estimated 13,500,000,000 pages of textual records, 41,000,000 photographs, 40,000,000 aerial photographs, 10,000,000 maps, charts, and architectural and engineering drawings, and more than 450,000,000 feet of motion picture, sound, and video recordings in its holdings. As of the date of enactment of this title, fewer than 500,000,000 pages of NARA's textual holdings have been digitized and made available to the public through the National Archives Catalog, representing approximately 3.4 percent of the total.

(2) The permanent records held by NARA represent the product of hundreds of years of creation, archival appraisal, permanent selection, and sustained public investment in institutional knowledge. Each of these records has already been individually evaluated and selected for permanent retention precisely because of its enduring value, constituting a curated body of governmental knowledge, intelligence, and decisionmaking spanning nearly the full history of the United States. This accumulated investment in the creation, appraisal, and physical preservation of the permanent record is substantial, and yet the records remain largely inaccessible, not only to the general public through digital formats as a means of educating themselves on the history of the United States, but also for computational analysis, longitudinal study, and the development of analytical frameworks that could inform future governance. The additional investment necessary to digitize these holdings is modest relative to the costs already borne by the public in their creation and preservation, and digitization would, for the first time, unlock their full value toward the ends of democratic oversight, evidence-based policymaking, and the preservation of diverse reasoning styles and institutional perspectives across the arc of American governance.

(3) The Library of Congress (referred to in this title as "LOC") holds more than 178,000,000 items across 470 languages, comprising the largest library collection in the world. Among these holdings are substantial collections of government documents, congressional records, legal materials, maps, and other materials of direct governmental provenance. Many of these materials, as well as other collection items stored on inherently unstable media such as microfilm and microfiche, remain undigitized.

(4) The Government Publishing Office (referred to in this title as "GPO") provides free public access, through the website govinfo.gov, to more than 2,000,000 Federal Government publications. However, most digital-native collections available through that website begin with publications of the 103d Congress, and the substantial historical record of Federal Government publications predating 1994 remains largely undigitized.

(5) Analog records across these institutions, including materials stored on microfilm, microfiche, nitrate-based film stock, thermofax paper, acid-degraded paper stock, and other inherently unstable media, are subject to ongoing and irreversible physical deterioration. Absent timely digitization, substantial volumes of historically significant material face total and permanent loss.

(6) Federal agencies have developed rigorous technical standards for the digitization of cultural heritage materials, including the Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials published by the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (referred to in this title as "FADGI"), aligned with International Organization for Standardization standard ISO 19264-1:2021; the binding digitization regulations for permanent Federal records under part 1236 of title 36, Code of Federal Regulations, as established pursuant to section 3302 of title 44, United States Code; and the National Digital Stewardship Alliance Levels of Digital Preservation. These standards are technically mature, but are not supported by appropriations commensurate with the scale of the digitization task.

(7) Over the decades, the Federal Government has significantly expanded its capabilities in intelligence collection, surveillance, data analysis, and information processing, while the vast majority of the Government's own institutional records, documenting the decisions, operations, and conduct of Federal agencies across the full history of the Republic, remain inaccessible to the public except in analog form and upon request. This asymmetry between the Government's growing capacity to collect and analyze information about the citizenry and the citizenry's limited capacity to access and analyze information about its own Government undermines the foundational democratic principle that an informed public is the ultimate check on the exercise of governmental power.

(8) The advent of artificial intelligence and advanced computational tools has the potential either to deepen or to correct this asymmetry. If the records of the Federal Government remain in analog form, inaccessible to large-scale computational analysis, search, retrieval, and the other benefits of artificial intelligence, those benefits will accrue disproportionately to those with institutional access, including the Government itself, well-resourced private entities, and foreign adversaries, while the public's capacity to oversee, audit, and understand the operations of its own Government will continue to erode. Making digitized government records freely and publicly available would enable citizens, researchers, journalists, and civil society organizations to apply the same analytical capabilities to the work of Government, and would both rebalance access to institutional knowledge and strengthen democratic accountability in an era of rapid technological change.

(9) The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence and computational technologies is fundamentally transforming the capacity of the private sector, foreign governments, and civil society to organize, analyze, and act upon information at scale. The Federal Government has not made commensurate investments in the digital information infrastructure upon which effective democratic governance depends. The continued predominance of analog records across Federal institutions represents a structural impediment to the modernization of Congress, the effective administration of the executive branch, evidence-based policymaking, rigorous oversight, and the informed participation of the public in self-governance. Digitization of the Federal record is not merely a matter of archival preservation or technological convenience; it is a critical and overdue investment in the operational capacity and democratic legitimacy of the Government.

(10) While modern legislative materials are increasingly available in digital form through systems such as the websites Congress.gov and govinfo.gov, substantial portions of the historical congressional record remain undigitized, including committee manuscript collections, deliberative records, and legislative files from the earliest Congresses through the pre-digital era. Similarly, executive agencies have digital access to recent records but lack the ability to computationally analyze the full depth of their institutional history, including historical regulatory proceedings, adjudicative precedent, and operational documentation. These gaps impede—

(A) the capacity of Congress to conduct comprehensive oversight, analyze the full breadth of legislative precedent, and evaluate the outcomes of prior enactments across the history of the Republic;

(B) the ability of Federal agencies to apply data-driven methods to policy development, program evaluation, and administrative decisionmaking;

(C) the effectiveness of interagency coordination and institutional knowledge transfer, particularly during transitions of leadership and administration that may result in the consolidation or formation of agencies; and

(D) the capacity of State, Tribal, and local governments to access and benefit from Federal data, precedent, and operational experience.

(11) The emergence of artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, and large-scale computational analysis capabilities has created an unprecedented demand for high-quality, provenance-verified textual, audio, and visual data. Digitized Federal Government records would constitute a uniquely valuable public-domain resource that could be used to train and inform artificial intelligence systems, and would simultaneously enable the Government itself to deploy such systems for the improvement of its own operations.

(12) The mass digitization of Federal Government records and collections would benefit multiple sectors of the economy and civil society, including—

(A) academic and historical researchers seeking primary-source access to government decisionmaking throughout the history of the Republic;

(B) the technology and artificial intelligence industries, which require large, high-quality, public-domain textual datasets for training;

(C) journalists and transparency advocates seeking to audit the conduct of government and promote public accountability;

(D) Federal, State, Tribal, and local government agencies seeking to analyze historical precedent, administrative practice, and environmental history to improve the efficiency and consistency of government operations and policies;

(E) genealogical researchers and members of the public seeking access to census, military service, immigration, and other vital records held by NARA and the Library of Congress; and

(F) the general public, whose right to access the records of their own government is foundational to democratic self-governance.

(13) The National Declassification Center, established pursuant to Executive Order 13526 (75 Fed. Reg. 707; relating to classified national security information), has processed hundreds of millions of pages of formerly classified records for public release. The accessibility of these declassified materials remains severely constrained by the absence of copies in machine-readable digital formats, which limits the ability of researchers, journalists, historians, and the public to locate, search, and analyze such materials.

(14) There is an opportunity to digitize administrative records, such as internal memoranda, standard operating procedures, interagency correspondence, routine adjudicative decisions, and process documentation, as well as program records documenting the mission-specific functions of Federal agencies. The digitization of such records presents a strategic opportunity to support future automated or augmented systems that could assist government decisionmaking and increase the speed, consistency, transparency, and cost-effectiveness with which civil servants perform their duties.

(15) The existing records schedules, including the General Records Schedules issued by the Archivist of the United States, do not adequately account for the prospective utility of records that may otherwise not be permanently retained but that may contain useful latent institutional knowledge and mandate-interpretive decisionmaking. Because records reflecting significant institutional knowledge are routinely authorized for disposition before their potential value for computational analysis and institutional continuity can be realized, Congress finds that the retention of a greater proportion of such records should be pursued.

(16) Due to chronic underfunding, NARA has relied on public-private digitization partnerships to digitize materials at no direct cost to the Government. However, existing partnership agreements have, in some cases, resulted in extended periods during which digitized copies of public-domain government records are accessible to the public only through commercial platforms. It is critical to ensure that digitized records are made freely and publicly available through independent, nongovernmental platforms, in addition to government-operated systems, in order to safeguard the integrity and accessibility of the public record.

(17) The complete digitization of the analog holdings of NARA and the Government Publishing Office, together with the government documents and at-risk materials held by the Library of Congress, is a generational undertaking that will require a sustained, contracted effort over multiple decades and sustained appropriations beyond those authorized by this title. The largest comparable mass digitization effort to date, the Google Books project, required approximately 15 years and an estimated $750,000,000 to scan approximately 40,000,000 volumes, a fraction of the Federal Government's reported analog holdings. Accordingly, this title authorizes an initial phase of that undertaking and establishes the institutional framework, standards, and public-access guarantees on which subsequent phases may build.

SEC. 5003. PURPOSES.

The purposes of this title are—

(1) to authorize and fund an initial phase of the mass digitization of the analog holdings of NARA, together with the partial digitization of the holdings of the Government Publishing Office and a selection of government-related documents, at-risk materials, and other collections of governmental provenance held by the Library of Congress;

(2) to preserve at-risk analog records and collection materials, including materials deteriorating on microfilm, nitrate film, and acid-degraded paper, through high-fidelity digital conversion in conformance with applicable Federal digitization standards;

(3) to make the newly digitized records freely and publicly accessible in open, machine-readable formats;

(4) to update the records schedules and appraisal criteria to account for the prospective value of administrative and program records for future government automation and augmentation, and to increase the retention of such records across Federal agencies;

(5) to require that copies of the newly digitized records be deposited with an independent, nongovernmental public platform, in order to guarantee enduring public access independent of government-operated systems; and

(6) to provide Federal financial assistance to the States and territories for the digitization of their government records, in order to extend the benefits of mass digitization to the preservation and public accessibility of State and territorial legislative, executive, and judicial records.

SEC. 5004. DEFINITIONS.

In this title:

(1) ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS.—The term "administrative records" means records documenting the common support, decisionmaking, mandate-interpretation, and housekeeping functions of Federal agencies, including personnel, fiscal, procurement, communications, and facilities management functions, as distinguished from program records. Such term includes records covered by the General Records Schedules issued by the Archivist under part 1227 of title 36, Code of Federal Regulations.

(2) APPRAISAL.—The term "appraisal" has the meaning given that term in section 1220.18 of title 36, Code of Federal Regulations, and refers to the process by which the Archivist determines whether records have sufficient value to warrant their continued preservation by the Government.

(3) ARCHIVIST.—The term "Archivist" means the Archivist of the United States.

(4) AT-RISK RECORDS.—The term "at-risk records" means analog records or collection materials in the custody of a covered institution, or of a Federal agency connected to a covered institution, that are stored on inherently unstable media, such as microfilm, microfiche, nitrate-based film, thermofax paper, acid-degraded paper stock, cellulose acetate film, or other media with a projected usable lifespan of fewer than 50 years absent intentional conservation.

(5) COVERED INSTITUTION.—The term "covered institution" means NARA, the Library of Congress, and the Government Publishing Office.

(6) DIGITIZATION.—The term "digitization" means the conversion of analog records or collection materials into digital surrogates that conform to the applicable standards described in section 5005(e), including the creation of production masters, access copies, and associated metadata. Such term includes the outputs of optical character recognition processing where technically feasible.

(7) DISPOSITION.—The term "disposition" has the meaning given that term in section 1220.18 of title 36, Code of Federal Regulations.

(8) FADGI.—The term "FADGI" means the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative.

(9) GPO.—The term "GPO" means the Government Publishing Office.

(10) INDEPENDENT PUBLIC ACCESS PLATFORM.—The term "independent public access platform" means a publicly accessible digital repository or platform that is operated by a nongovernmental entity, that provides free and unrestricted public access to digitized records and collection materials, and that maintains operational independence from any Federal, State, Tribal, or local government. Such term includes a library or archive operated by an institution of higher education, as defined in section 101 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001).

(11) LOC.—The term "LOC" means the Library of Congress.

(12) MASS DIGITIZATION.—The term "mass digitization" means the large-scale, high-throughput conversion of analog records and collection materials into digital form, often using assembly-line workflows, as distinguished from selective or on-demand digitization.

(13) NARA.—The term "NARA" means the National Archives and Records Administration.

(14) PRODUCTION MASTER.—The term "production master" means the highest-quality digital file produced through the digitization process, suitable for long-term preservation and faithful reproduction of original materials, as distinguished from an access copy or derivative file.

(15) PROGRAM RECORDS.—The term "program records" means records documenting the unique, mission-specific, or substantive functions for which a Federal agency was established, as distinguished from administrative records.

(16) RECORDS SCHEDULE.—The term "records schedule" means a document that provides mandatory instructions for the disposition of records, including a General Records Schedule issued by the Archivist and an agency-specific records schedule approved by the Archivist pursuant to section 3303a of title 44, United States Code.

SEC. 5005. MASS DIGITIZATION THROUGH COMPETITIVE CONTRACTS.

(a) AUTHORITY.—Each covered institution is authorized and directed to enter into contracts for the mass digitization of its analog holdings in accordance with this section, subject to the following:

(1) With respect to NARA, the authority under this section extends to all analog holdings in the custody of NARA, to be digitized in successive phases as appropriations are made available, with the initial phase funded under section 5009(a).

(2) With respect to the Government Publishing Office, the authority under this section extends to all Federal Government publications in the custody of the Government Publishing Office, with priority given to historical publications predating the 103d Congress that are not available through the website govinfo.gov.

(3) With respect to the Library of Congress, the authority under this section extends to—

(A) at-risk records and collection materials, regardless of provenance;

(B) government documents, congressional records, legal materials, and other collection materials of Federal, State, or Tribal governmental provenance that are not held by NARA or the Government Publishing Office;

(C) materials held by the Law Library of Congress; and

(D) such additional collections as the Librarian of Congress may designate as serving the purposes of this title.

(4) Nothing in this section precludes a covered institution from supplementing contracted digitization with in-house digitization activities. In exercising the authority under this subsection, each covered institution shall award contracts to multiple providers concurrently across distinct record groups, collections, or geographic regions, as applicable, to maximize throughput and to ensure that no single contractor controls the pace or scope of the digitization program.

(b) COORDINATION.—Not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this title, the Archivist, the Librarian of Congress, and the Director of the Government Publishing Office shall enter into a memorandum of understanding establishing—

(1) a joint planning framework to avoid duplication of effort, to coordinate prioritization of overlapping or related collections, and to harmonize the technical specifications for contracted digitization services;

(2) common procedures for the ingestion, storage, and public dissemination of digitized materials; and

(3) a shared reporting framework for the annual reports required under section 5008.

(c) CONDITION ON OBLIGATION; FAILURE TO EXECUTE MEMORANDUM.—No amounts made available under section 5009 may be obligated, and no contract may be awarded, until the memorandum of understanding required by subsection (b) has been executed by the Archivist, the Librarian of Congress, and the Director of the Government Publishing Office, subject to the following:

(1) If the memorandum of understanding has not been executed within 6 months after the date of enactment of this title, the Archivist, the Librarian of Congress, and the Director of the Government Publishing Office shall each, not later than 30 days after the end of that period, submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives a written explanation identifying the status of negotiations, any unresolved disagreements, and the terms that the official submitting the explanation would accept.

(2) If the memorandum of understanding has not been executed within 12 months after the date of enactment of this title, any two of the three officials named in this subsection may petition the Comptroller General of the United States to mediate the remaining disagreements. Not later than 60 days after receiving such a petition, the Comptroller General shall propose a coordination framework addressing the matters described in paragraphs (1) through (3) of subsection (b) and transmit such framework to the three officials and the committees specified in paragraph (1).

(3) If the memorandum of understanding has not been executed within 15 months after the date of enactment of this title, any covered institution the head of which has agreed, in writing, to operate under the coordination framework proposed by the Comptroller General under paragraph (2) may begin obligating amounts made available to that institution under section 5009. The share of any covered institution the head of which has not so agreed shall remain unavailable for obligation until that official agrees to the framework or the memorandum of understanding is executed.

(4) The Comptroller General shall notify the committees specified in paragraph (1) upon the occurrence of each event described in paragraphs (1) through (3).

(d) PRIORITIZATION.—In awarding contracts under this section, each covered institution shall prioritize the digitization of the following categories of materials, in descending order of priority:

(1) At-risk records and collection materials, as identified through systematic condition assessments conducted or updated not less frequently than every 5 years.

(2) Records already processed for declassification by the National Declassification Center that have not been digitized and made available online in machine-readable form.

(3) Records and collection materials of high research demand, as determined by reference request data, Freedom of Information Act processing data, and consultation with the research community and the public.

(4) Administrative records and program records of Federal agencies with significant potential for supporting the automation, augmentation, or computational analysis of government functions.

(5) Historical government publications predating 1994 that are not available through the website govinfo.gov.

(6) With respect to NARA and the Government Publishing Office, all remaining analog holdings not described in paragraphs (1) through (5), to the extent appropriations are made available, with each institution proceeding in a manner calculated to maximize completeness and cost-effectiveness.

(e) MILESTONE TARGETS.—Subject to the availability of appropriations, each covered institution shall endeavor to meet the following targets in carrying out the digitization authorized by this section:

(1) Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this title, NARA shall complete an initial, comprehensive condition assessment identifying all at-risk records in its custody.

(2) Not later than 10 years after the date of enactment of this title, each covered institution shall endeavor to complete the digitization of the at-risk records and collection materials identified pursuant to paragraph (1) or through subsequent condition assessments, to the extent appropriations have been made available for that purpose.

(3) Not later than 12 years after the date of enactment of this title, NARA shall endeavor to complete the digitization of the records processed for declassification by the National Declassification Center that have not been made available online in machine-readable form as of the date of enactment of this title, to the extent appropriations have been made available for that purpose.

(4) Not later than 15 years after the date of enactment of this title, the Government Publishing Office shall endeavor to complete the digitization of the historical government publications predating the 103d Congress that are not available through the website govinfo.gov, to the extent appropriations have been made available for that purpose.

(5) Each covered institution shall report its progress toward the targets described in this subsection in the annual report required under section 5008(a). If a covered institution determines that a target established by this subsection is not achievable within the specified timeframe, whether because of insufficient appropriations or for any other reason, the head of the institution shall notify the committees specified in section 5008(a) and include in the next annual report a revised timeline and an explanation of the factors preventing timely completion.

(f) APPLICABLE STANDARDS.—All digitization performed under contracts awarded pursuant to this section shall conform to the following:

(1) For permanent Federal records, the technical requirements of subpart E of part 1236 of title 36, Code of Federal Regulations, as in effect on the date of the contract award or as subsequently amended by the Archivist.

(2) For other materials, a performance level of not less than 3 stars under the FADGI Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials, Third Edition (May 2023), or any successor edition, as aligned with Level B of International Organization for Standardization standard ISO 19264-1.

(3) The quality management requirements of section 1236.46 of title 36, Code of Federal Regulations, including the use of the FADGI Digital Image Conformance Evaluation program or a documented alternative quality-control procedure.

(4) Metadata standards consistent with the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (ISO 15836), the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard, and the Preservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies data dictionary, and such additional metadata requirements as the Archivist or the Librarian of Congress may prescribe.

(g) FILE FORMATS.—Production masters produced under this section shall be in an uncompressed or losslessly compressed Tagged Image File Format or other open, nonproprietary archival format approved by the Archivist or the Librarian of Congress. Access copies shall be made available in open, machine-readable formats, including PDF/A, JPEG 2000, or such other formats as the covered institution may designate.

(h) DIGITIZATION PROGRAM DIRECTORS.—

(1) DIRECTOR OF FEDERAL RECORDS DIGITIZATION.—There is established within NARA the position of Director of Federal Records Digitization. Such position shall be a career position in the Senior Executive Service, as defined in section 3132(a) of title 5, United States Code, and shall not be filled on a noncareer, limited term, or limited emergency basis. The individual appointed to such position shall have not fewer than 7 years of demonstrated professional experience in archival science, digital preservation, large-scale digitization program management, or Federal records management. The Director shall have direct authority over the award and administration of contracts under this title with respect to NARA, the approval of expenditures from amounts made available under section 5009(a), and the oversight of quality assurance and compliance with the deposit requirements of section 5006. The Director may be removed only for cause, consistent with the protections applicable to career members of the Senior Executive Service under subchapter V of chapter 75 of title 5, United States Code.

(2) DIRECTOR OF DIGITIZATION PROGRAMS, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.—The Librarian of Congress shall establish within the Library of Congress the position of Director of Digitization Programs. The individual appointed to such position shall have not fewer than 5 years of demonstrated professional experience in archival science, digital preservation, large-scale digitization, or library science, and shall have direct authority over the award and administration of contracts under this title with respect to the Library of Congress and the approval of expenditures from amounts made available under section 5009(c). Such Director may be removed only for cause, and the Librarian shall notify the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House Administration of the House of Representatives not fewer than 30 days before any such removal, including a written statement of the reasons therefor.

(3) DIRECTOR OF DIGITIZATION PROGRAMS, GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE.—The Director of the Government Publishing Office shall establish within the Government Publishing Office the position of Director of Digitization Programs. The individual appointed to such position shall have not fewer than 5 years of demonstrated professional experience in digital publishing, digital preservation, large-scale digitization, or Federal information dissemination, and shall have direct authority over the award and administration of contracts under this title with respect to the Government Publishing Office and the approval of expenditures from amounts made available under section 5009(b). Such Director may be removed only for cause, and the Director of the Government Publishing Office shall notify the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House Administration of the House of Representatives not fewer than 30 days before any such removal, including a written statement of the reasons therefor.

(i) IN-HOUSE DIGITIZATION CAPACITY.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—In addition to the contracted digitization authorized under subsection (a), each covered institution may conduct in-house digitization of analog holdings using equipment owned, leased, or operated by the institution, if the head of the institution determines that in-house digitization is cost-effective, expedient, technically appropriate, or necessary for the handling of fragile, oversized, classified, or otherwise specialized materials unsuitable for off-site contractor processing.

(2) USE OF EXISTING EQUIPMENT.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this title, each covered institution shall conduct an inventory of all digitization equipment in its custody, including scanners, cameras, microfilm readers, and associated processing systems, and may prioritize the use of such equipment for in-house digitization activities under this subsection where operationally feasible.

(3) ACQUISITION OF EQUIPMENT.—Each covered institution is authorized to acquire additional digitization equipment using amounts made available under section 5009 where the head of the institution determines, and documents in writing, that such acquisition will—

(A) reduce the long-term per-page cost of digitization relative to contracted services;

(B) enable the digitization of materials that cannot be safely processed by external contractors; or

(C) provide redundant capacity necessary to meet the milestone targets under subsection (e).

(4) APPLICABLE STANDARDS.—All in-house digitization conducted under this subsection shall conform to the standards set forth in subsection (f) and the file format requirements of subsection (g). Materials digitized in-house shall be subject to the public deposit requirements of section 5006(c) to the same extent as contracted materials.

(5) LIMITATION.—Not more than 30 percent of the amounts made available to a covered institution under subsections (a), (b), and (c) of section 5009 may be expended on in-house digitization activities under this subsection, including the acquisition of equipment, unless the head of the institution notifies the committees specified in section 5008(a) of the basis for exceeding such limitation and those committees do not object.

SEC. 5006. COMPETITIVE PROCUREMENT AND PUBLIC ACCESS REQUIREMENTS.

(a) FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION.—All contracts for digitization services under this title shall be awarded through full and open competition in accordance with division C of subtitle I of title 41, United States Code, the Federal Acquisition Regulation, and, where applicable, the procurement authorities of the Library of Congress and the Government Publishing Office. No contract for digitization services under this title may be awarded on a sole-source basis or pursuant to any exception to full and open competition under section 3304 of title 41, United States Code, or subpart 6.3 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, regardless of the estimated value of the contract. Each covered institution shall structure its procurements under this title to result in the award of contracts to not fewer than 3 qualified contractors, to the maximum extent practicable, in order to expand digitization capacity, reduce the programmatic risk associated with reliance on a single provider, and accelerate the pace of digitization. If a covered institution determines that fewer than 3 qualified offerors have submitted responsive proposals for a given solicitation, the head of the institution shall document the basis for that determination, reissue the solicitation with revised terms designed to encourage broader participation, and notify the committees specified in section 5008(a) not later than 30 days after such determination. The head of a covered institution may not waive or modify the public deposit requirement of subsection (c), which remains mandatory.

(b) PUBLIC ACCESS PREFERENCE.—

(1) SCORED CRITERION.—In evaluating proposals for digitization contracts under this section, each covered institution shall assign significant weight, as a scored evaluation criterion, to—

(A) whether the offeror operates, or is formally affiliated with, an independent public access platform through which all records and collection materials digitized under the contract will be made freely and publicly available, without restriction on access, download, or reuse, except as otherwise required by law;

(B) whether the offeror commits to producing and maintaining, at the offeror's expense, a complete and unaltered copy of all records and collection materials digitized under the contract on such platform for the duration of the platform's operation; and

(C) the offeror's demonstrated technical capacity and institutional commitment to providing sustained, long-term public access to large-scale digital archives.

(2) EFFECT OF SATISFYING CRITERIA.—An offeror that satisfies the criteria described in subparagraphs (A) through (C) of paragraph (1) shall be deemed to satisfy the mandatory public deposit requirement of subsection (c) with respect to the platform it operates or with which it is affiliated.

(c) MANDATORY PUBLIC DEPOSIT.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—Every contract awarded under this title shall require that the contractor, at the contractor's expense, deposit a complete, unaltered digital copy of all production masters and associated metadata digitized under the contract with not fewer than 1 independent public access platform. Such deposit shall be made not later than 200 days after the completion of digitization of the records or materials, either on a rolling basis or at the completion of a collection, and the deposited materials shall remain in open, machine-readable formats consistent with section 5005(g), in perpetuity, available to the public free of charge and without restriction on access, download, or reuse, except as otherwise required by law.

(2) CONTRACTORS WITHOUT A PLATFORM.—Where a contractor does not itself operate an independent public access platform, the contractor shall bear the cost of preparing, transmitting, and storing the digital copy for deposit, and the receiving platform shall not be required to charge the public for access to the deposited materials or to bear the cost of providing access. Such a contractor may satisfy the deposit requirement of this subsection through a formal partnership or subcontracting arrangement with one or more independent public access platforms. The costs of such an arrangement, including reasonable compensation to the platform for the receipt, hosting, and long-term maintenance of deposited materials, shall be an allowable cost under the contract. Nothing in this subsection precludes a covered institution from entering into separate agreements with independent public access platforms to facilitate the receipt and hosting of deposited materials.

(d) ENFORCEMENT OF DEPOSIT REQUIREMENTS.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—Every contract awarded under this title shall include—

(A) a clause providing that failure to complete the public deposit required by subsection (c) within the time specified constitutes a material breach of contract;

(B) a schedule of liquidated damages for noncompliance with deposit deadlines, in an amount determined by the contracting officer to be a reasonable forecast of the harm to the public interest caused by delayed public access; and

(C) a provision authorizing the covered institution, upon 60 days' written notice of noncompliance, to complete the deposit using the contractor's delivered production masters and to recover the costs of doing so from amounts otherwise due to the contractor.

(2) REPORTING.—Each covered institution shall report on the status of deposit compliance in the annual report required under section 5008(a).

(e) PROHIBITION ON EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS.—No contract entered into under this title may confer upon any contractor exclusive rights to the digitized records, collection materials, or derivative data produced under the contract. The Government shall retain unlimited rights in all such records, materials, and data. No embargo or period of exclusive commercial access may be imposed on digitized copies of records or materials that are in the public domain.

(f) EXISTING PARTNERSHIPS.—Nothing in this section terminates or modifies any digitization partnership agreement in effect on the date of enactment of this title. An embargo or exclusive access period applicable to records digitized under such an agreement before the date of enactment of this title may run to its original expiration. However, no new embargo or period of exclusive access may be imposed on any record digitized after the date of enactment of this title, and any renewal, extension, or successor agreement entered into after such date shall comply with the requirements of this section.

SEC. 5007. MODERNIZATION OF RECORDS SCHEDULES AND APPRAISAL CRITERIA.

(a) DIRECTIVE TO THE ARCHIVIST.—The Archivist shall update the guidelines for records scheduling and appraisal, including NARA Directive 1441 (or any successor directive) and the General Records Schedules, to require the preservation of Federal records that document—

(1) administrative and operational decisions made in the interpretation, implementation, and execution of statutory mandates;

(2) the reasoning, analysis, or deliberative processes underlying adjudicative determinations, policy interpretations, and regulatory actions;

(3) standard operating procedures, workflow documentation, and institutional practices that reflect how Federal agencies carry out their missions; and

(4) such additional categories of records as the Archivist determines possess significant prospective value for the automation, augmentation, or computational analysis of Federal Government functions, including records containing latent institutional knowledge.

(b) REVIEW OF EXISTING SCHEDULES.—Not later than 3 years after the date of enactment of this title, the Archivist, in consultation with the heads of Federal agencies, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, shall—

(1) applying the criteria established in subsection (a), conduct a comprehensive review of the General Records Schedules and, in coordination with each Federal agency, of agency-specific records schedules approved pursuant to section 3303a of title 44, United States Code, to identify categories of records that are currently authorized for disposition, that satisfy the criteria for preservation under subsection (a), and that have not yet been destroyed pursuant to such authorization; and

(2) issue revised records schedules, or guidance to Federal agencies for the revision of agency-specific records schedules, that require the preservation and, where practicable, the digitization and permanent retention of such records.

(c) PROSPECTIVE APPLICATION.—The updated appraisal guidelines required by subsection (a) shall apply prospectively to all records scheduling actions initiated after the date on which such guidelines take effect. The Archivist shall issue the updated guidelines not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this title and shall review and, as appropriate, revise them not less frequently than every 2 years thereafter. Nothing in this subsection limits the authority of the Archivist to apply the criteria set forth in subsection (a) to the review of existing records schedules under subsection (b).

(d) AGENCY COOPERATION.—The head of each Federal agency and relevant agency records officers shall cooperate with the Archivist in the review and revision of records schedules under this section and shall, upon request, provide the Archivist with access to records, inventories, scheduling documentation, and Standard Forms 115 necessary to carry out this section.

(e) PROTECTION OF DELIBERATIVE PROCESSES.—The preservation of records required by paragraphs (2) and (4) of subsection (a) is intended to capture the substantive reasoning, interpretive methodologies, and analytical frameworks underlying agency decisionmaking, for the purpose of building institutional knowledge bases that can inform the development of automated decision-support and retrieval systems. Such preservation does not require the attribution of specific deliberative contributions to individual employees, and an agency may redact individual identifying information from records preserved under this section to the extent consistent with the purposes of this title. Nothing in this section waives any privilege applicable to deliberative processes under section 552(b)(5) of title 5, United States Code, or requires the public disclosure of records exempt from disclosure under that section or any other provision of law.

SEC. 5008. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.

(a) ANNUAL REPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this title, and annually thereafter through fiscal year 2051, the Archivist, in coordination with the Librarian of Congress and the Director of the Government Publishing Office, shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives a joint report that includes—

(1) the total volume of records and collection materials digitized during the reporting period by each covered institution, disaggregated by record group, collection, or publication series and by media type;

(2) the status of at-risk records and collection materials, including a revised estimate of the volume of materials remaining at risk of physical deterioration;

(3) a description of all contracts awarded under section 5006 during the reporting period, including the identity of contractors, contract values, the volume of materials digitized, and the status of compliance with the public deposit requirements of section 5006(c);

(4) an assessment of the quality and public accessibility of digitized materials, including any backlog of digitized materials not yet made available to the public through the National Archives Catalog, the Library of Congress digital collections, the website govinfo.gov, or an independent public access platform;

(5) a projected timeline for the completion of the digitization funded under this title, updated to reflect progress and any changes in assumptions, together with an estimate of the volume of analog holdings remaining to be digitized in subsequent phases and the appropriations that would be necessary to complete them;

(6) a detailed accounting of all amounts expended from the funds made available under subsections (a), (b), and (c) of section 5009 during the reporting period, disaggregated by contract and digitization vendor, the volume of materials digitized per dollar expended, and any amounts expended on activities other than direct digitization services; and

(7) recommendations for additional legislative, regulatory, or administrative action to advance the purposes of this title.

(b) RECORDS SCHEDULE REVIEW REPORT.—Not later than 3 years and 180 days after the date of enactment of this title, the Archivist shall submit to the committees specified in subsection (a) a report on the results of the review conducted under section 5007(b), including the categories of records identified, the revised records schedules or guidance issued, the number of record series reclassified from temporary to permanent status, and the estimated costs of preserving and digitizing such records.

(c) GAO REVIEW.—Not later than 5 years after the date of enactment of this title, and every 5 years thereafter, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to the committees specified in subsection (a) a report evaluating the effectiveness of the programs and contracts authorized by this title, including an assessment of cost-effectiveness, compliance with public access requirements, the quality of digitized materials, progress in the digitization funded under this title, and the scope and estimated cost of the analog holdings of each covered institution remaining to be digitized in subsequent phases.

SEC. 5009. APPROPRIATIONS.

(a) NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION.—There is appropriated to NARA, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, $1,000,000,000 to carry out the initial phase of the mass digitization of its analog holdings through the competitive procurement process described in sections 5005 and 5006. Such amount is intended to fund an initial phase of the undertaking described in section 5002(17), and nothing in this subsection limits the authority of Congress to appropriate additional amounts for subsequent phases. Amounts appropriated under this subsection shall remain available until September 30, 2051.

(b) GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE.—There is appropriated to the Government Publishing Office, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, $20,000,000 to carry out the digitization of Federal Government publications under sections 5005 and 5006. Amounts appropriated under this subsection shall remain available until September 30, 2051. Nothing in this subsection precludes Congress from appropriating additional amounts for the digitization activities of the Government Publishing Office.

(c) LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.—There is appropriated to the Library of Congress, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, $30,000,000 to carry out the digitization of government documents, at-risk materials, and other collection materials under sections 5005 and 5006. Amounts appropriated under this subsection shall remain available until September 30, 2051. Nothing in this subsection precludes Congress from appropriating additional amounts for the digitization activities of the Library of Congress.

(d) DIGITAL RETENTION.—There is authorized to be appropriated to NARA not less than $10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2051 for the digital storage, management, and long-term retention of—

(1) digitized records and collection materials produced under contracts awarded pursuant to sections 5005 and 5006, including production masters, access copies, and associated metadata; and

(2) records preserved pursuant to the revised records schedules and appraisal guidelines required by section 5007.

(e) PERMITTED USES OF RETENTION FUNDS.—Amounts appropriated under subsection (d) may be used for the acquisition and maintenance of storage infrastructure, cloud computing services, format migration, and the personnel necessary to manage an expanded volume of permanent digital records.

(f) LIMITATION ON USE OF FUNDS.—The amounts made available under subsections (a), (b), and (c) shall be used exclusively for the digitization activities authorized by this title, including in-house digitization and the acquisition of digitization equipment authorized under section 5005(i), contracted digitization services, quality assurance, metadata creation, and the preparation and deposit of digitized materials with independent public access platforms. Amounts made available under subsection (d) shall be used exclusively for the digital storage, management, and retention of records under this title. No amounts made available under this section may be used for the general administrative operations, facilities maintenance, or staffing of other existing programs of a covered institution, or for any other activity not directly related to the purposes of this title.

(g) SUPPLEMENT NOT SUPPLANT.—The amounts made available under this section are in addition to, and shall not supplant, reduce, or offset, any other amounts appropriated or otherwise made available for the general operations, staffing, preservation activities, public access programs, or other existing functions of NARA, the Library of Congress, or the Government Publishing Office. No covered institution may reduce its budget request for existing activities or programs on the basis that funding has been made available under this section.

(h) SUSTAINED RETENTION PLAN.—Not later than September 30, 2049, the Archivist shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives a plan for the sustained funding of the long-term digital storage, management, format migration, and retention of all records and collection materials digitized under this title after the expiration of the authorization under subsection (d). Such plan shall include an estimate of annual retention costs, an assessment of storage infrastructure requirements, and recommendations for legislative or administrative action necessary to ensure the continued preservation of, and public access to, digitized materials after fiscal year 2051.

(i) SUBSEQUENT PHASE PLANNING.—Not later than 1 year before the date on which amounts made available under subsection (a) are projected to be fully obligated, and in any event not later than September 30, 2049, the Archivist, in coordination with the Librarian of Congress and the Director of the Government Publishing Office, shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives a plan for the next phase of the mass digitization described in section 5002(17). Such plan shall include an estimate of the volume of analog holdings remaining to be digitized, an estimate of the appropriations necessary to complete the next phase, a proposed timeline, and recommendations for any legislative or administrative action necessary to carry out subsequent phases.

(j) INSPECTOR GENERAL AUDITS.—The Inspector General of NARA, and such other Inspectors General as have jurisdiction over the Library of Congress and the Government Publishing Office, shall conduct biennial audits of expenditures made from amounts provided under this section to verify that such amounts have been used exclusively for the purposes specified in subsection (f). The results of each audit shall be transmitted to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives and made publicly available.

(k) INSPECTOR GENERAL REVIEW OF MAJOR CONTRACT AWARDS.—The Inspector General of NARA, and such other Inspectors General as have jurisdiction over the Library of Congress and the Government Publishing Office, shall review any contract awarded under this title with a total value exceeding $10,000,000 not later than 60 days after the date of award. Such review shall assess compliance with the competitive procurement requirements of section 5006(a), the public access and deposit requirements of subsections (b) and (c) of section 5006, and the limitation on the use of funds under subsection (f) of this section. The Inspector General of NARA shall additionally assess compliance with the grant requirements of section 5009A, which may include collaboration with State agencies to assess such compliance. The results of each review shall be transmitted to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives. Nothing in this subsection delays the performance of any contract pending the completion of such review.

SEC. 5009A. STATE AND TERRITORY GOVERNMENT RECORDS DIGITIZATION GRANTS.

(a) GRANT PROGRAM ESTABLISHED.—The Archivist shall establish a grant program to provide financial assistance to States and territories for the digitization of their government records, including legislative records, agency records, judicial records, and records held by State or territorial archives, libraries, and historical societies. No embargo or period of exclusive commercial access may be imposed on digitized copies of records or materials that are in the public domain.

(b) APPROPRIATION AND ALLOCATION.—There is appropriated to NARA, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, $60,000,000 to carry out this section, to remain available until September 30, 2051. From such amounts, the Archivist shall allocate to each State a grant of not less than $1,000,000 and to each territory a grant in an amount the Archivist determines necessary to digitize the holdings of the territory, not to exceed $500,000.

(c) ELIGIBLE USES.—A State or territory receiving a grant under this section shall use the grant funds for—

(1) contracted digitization services awarded through competitive procurement consistent with applicable State or territorial law;

(2) in-house digitization activities, including the acquisition of equipment;

(3) quality assurance and metadata creation;

(4) the deposit of digitized materials with an independent public access platform; and

(5) the digital storage and long-term retention of digitized records.

(d) CONDITIONS.—As a condition of receiving a grant under this section, a State or territory shall agree that—

(1) all digitization performed with grant funds will conform to the standards set forth in section 5005(f) and the file format requirements of section 5005(g);

(2) digitized materials will be made freely and publicly available in open, machine-readable formats, without restriction on access, download, or reuse, except as otherwise required by State, territorial, or Federal law;

(3) a complete copy of all production masters and associated metadata will be deposited with not fewer than 1 independent public access platform, consistent with section 5006(c); and

(4) the State or territory will submit annual reports to the Archivist describing the volume of records digitized, the expenditures made, and compliance with the conditions of this subsection.

(e) DESIGNATION OF STATE RECIPIENT.—The Governor of each State shall designate a State agency, State archive, or State library to receive and administer grant funds under this section. Where a State has an established State archives or State records management agency, such agency shall be presumed to be the appropriate recipient absent a written determination by the Governor to the contrary.

(f) DESIGNATION OF TERRITORY RECIPIENT.—The Archivist shall designate a territorial agency, archive, or library to receive and administer grant funds under this section on behalf of each territory.

(g) FEDERAL ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—Not more than 3 percent of the amounts made available under subsection (b) may be retained by NARA for the administration of the grant program established by this section, including application processing, technical assistance to States and territories, review of annual reports, and oversight of compliance with the conditions specified in subsection (d).

(h) RECIPIENT ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—Not more than 5 percent of the grant funds received by a State or territorial agency, archive, or library under this section may be retained by that recipient for the administration of activities funded by the grant.

(i) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:

(1) STATE.—The term "State" means each of the 50 States.

(2) TERRITORY.—The term "territory" means the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the United States Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

(j) REPORTING.—The Archivist shall include in the annual report required under section 5008(a) a summary of grants awarded under this section, the activities funded, and the volume of State and territorial records digitized.

SEC. 5010. PROTECTION OF DIGITIZATION FACILITIES.

(a) IN GENERAL.—A facility owned or operated by a covered institution that is used for the storage, staging, preparation, or digitization of records or collection materials under this title may not be sold, transferred, repurposed, or closed under the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, the Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act of 2016, or any other authority, during the pendency of any active contract under this title involving materials housed at such facility, unless—

(1) the head of the covered institution provides not less than 180 days' advance written notice to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives, including a detailed explanation of the effect of the proposed action on the digitization program and a plan for the relocation and continued preservation of any affected records or collection materials; and

(2) a period of 180 days has elapsed following such notice without the enactment of a joint resolution described in subsection (b).

(b) JOINT RESOLUTION OF DISAPPROVAL.—If Congress enacts a joint resolution disapproving the proposed action within the 180-day period described in subsection (a)(2), the proposed sale, transfer, repurposing, or closure may not take effect. Such a joint resolution shall be considered under expedited procedures and shall be privileged in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

SEC. 5011. WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION.

(a) PROTECTION.—An employee or contractor of a covered institution who discloses information that the employee or contractor reasonably believes evidences waste, fraud, abuse, mismanagement, or noncompliance with this title in connection with the digitization program or the expenditure of amounts made available under section 5009 shall be protected from retaliation in accordance with section 2302(b)(8) of title 5, United States Code, and, with respect to a contractor employee, section 4712 of title 41, United States Code.

(b) PROHIBITION ON RETALIATION.—No official of a covered institution may take or threaten to take any personnel action, as defined in section 2302(a)(2) of title 5, United States Code, against an employee as a reprisal for any disclosure described in subsection (a).

SEC. 5012. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.

Nothing in this title may be construed to—

(1) authorize the disclosure of records or materials that are exempt from disclosure under section 552 of title 5, United States Code, or any other provision of law;

(2) alter the classification or declassification of national security information under Executive Order 13526 (or any successor order);

(3) authorize the digitization or public dissemination of materials subject to copyright protection under title 17, United States Code, except to the extent otherwise permitted by law;

(4) diminish or abrogate the authority of the Archivist under chapter 21 of title 44, United States Code, the authority of the Librarian of Congress under title 2, United States Code, or the authority of the Director of the Government Publishing Office under title 44, United States Code, except with respect to the prohibition on the imposition of an embargo on materials digitized after the date of enactment of this title; or

(5) authorize the disposition or destruction of original analog records or collection materials solely on the basis that a digital surrogate has been produced, except in accordance with applicable records schedules and the requirements of sections 3302 and 3312 of title 44, United States Code.

SEC. 5013. SEVERABILITY.

If any provision of this title, or the application of any provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be unconstitutional or otherwise invalid, the remainder of this title, and the application of such provision to other persons or circumstances, shall not be affected.