105th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 150
To amend section 552 of title 5, United States Code (commonly referred
to as the Freedom of Information Act), to provide for disclosure of
information relating to individuals who committed Nazi war crimes, and
for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
January 21, 1997
Mr. Moynihan (for himself, Mr. D'Amato, and Mr. Dodd) introduced the
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on
the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend section 552 of title 5, United States Code (commonly referred
to as the Freedom of Information Act), to provide for disclosure of
information relating to individuals who committed Nazi war crimes, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the "War Crimes Disclosure Act''.
SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT FOR DISCLOSURE UNDER FOIA OF INFORMATION RELATING
TO INDIVIDUALS WHO COMMITTED NAZI WAR CRIMES.
(a) In General.--Section 552 of title 5, United States Code, is
amended--
(1) by redesignating subsections (d), (e), and (f) as subsections
(e), (f), and (g), respectively; and
(2) by inserting after subsection (c) the following new
subsection:
"(d)(1)(A) Notwithstanding subsection (b), this section shall
apply to any matter in the possession of a specified agency, that
relates to any individual as to whom there exists reasonable grounds to
believe that such individual, during the period beginning on March 23,
1933, and ending on May 8, 1945, under the direction of or in
association with--
(i) the Nazi government of Germany,
(ii) any government in any area occupied by the military
forces to the Nazi government of Germany,
(iii) any government established with the assistance or
cooperation of the Nazi government of Germany, or
(iv) any government that was an ally of the Nazi government
of Germany,
ordered, incited, assisted or otherwise participated in the persecution
of any person because of race, religion, national origin, or political
opinion.
"(B) For purposes of subparagraph (A), the term `specified agency'
means the following entities, any predecessors of such an entity, and
any component of such an entity (or of such a predecessor):
"(i) The Central Intelligence Agency.
"(ii) The Department of Defense.
"(iii) The National Security Agency.
"(iv) The National Security Council.
"(v) The Department of State.
"(vi) The Federal Bureau of Investigation.
"(vii) The United States Information Agency.
"(2)(A) Except as provided in subparagraph (B), paragraph (1)
shall not apply to the disclosure of any matter when there is clear and
convincing evidence that such disclosure would--
"(i) reasonably to expected to constitute an unwarranted
invasion of personal privacy;
"(ii) pose a current threat to military defense,
intelligence operations, or the conduct of foreign relations to
the United States;
"(iii) reveal an intelligence agent whose identity
currently requires protection;
"(iv) compromise an understanding of confidentiality
currently requiring protection between an agent of the
Government and a cooperating individual or a foreign
government;
"(v) constitute a substantial risk of physical harm to a
living person who provided confidential information to the
United States; or
"(vi) compromise an enforcement investigation, inquiry, or
prosecution by the Office of Special Investigations of the
Department of Justice.
"(B) Subparagraph (A) shall only apply to records, information, or
other relevant matter which is--
"(i) properly classified; and
"(ii) the protection of which outweighs the public
interest in disclosure.
"(3) Any reasonably segregable portion of a matter referred to in
paragraph (2) shall be provided, after deletion of all portions of the
matter that are referred to in such subparagraph, to any person
requesting the matter under this section if the reasonably segregable
portion of the matter would otherwise be required to be disclosed under
this section.
"(4) In the case of a request under this section for any
matter required to be disclosed under this subsection, if the
agency receiving such request is unable to locate the records
so requested, such agency shall promptly supply, to the person
making such a request, a description of the steps which were
taken by such agency to search the indices and other locator
systems of the agency to determine whether such records are in
the possession or control of the agency.''.
(b) Inapplicability of National Security Act of 1947 Exemption.--
Section 701 of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 431) is
amended--
(1) by redesignating subsections (e) and (f) as subsections
(f) and (g), respectively; and
(2) by inserting after subsection (d) the following new
subsection:
"(e) Subsection (a) shall not apply to any operational file, or
any portion of any operational file, described under section 552(d) of
title 5, United States Code (Freedom of Information Act).''.
SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.
The amendments made by this Act shall apply to requests made after
the expiration of the 180-day period beginning on the date of the
enactment of this Act.