HR7220-119

What This Bill Does

The COINTELPRO Full Disclosure Act is modeled on a records-review framework rather than ordinary FOIA alone. Government offices must fully disclose COINTELPRO records within six months unless disclosure would clearly and demonstrably be expected to cause harm. If full disclosure is postponed, agencies must disclose segregable information, substitute records, or summaries where possible and transmit the record to a new COINTELPRO Records Review Board. Records not fully disclosed by the Board's termination become public after 25 years unless a high-level written recommendation and approval process justifies continued delay. The Archivist must create a COINTELPRO Records Collection at the National Archives within 60 days, preserve provenance, publish a guidebook and index, set transmission metadata rules, make records available for inspection and copying, prioritize digitization, and receive electronic searchable records within two years. A five-member independent Review Board appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate reviews agency postponements, recommends executive-branch disclosure decisions, has staff and advisory committees, publishes determinations, reports postponed material, can request Attorney General court and grand-jury petitions, and terminates after its work. Rules of construction give the Act priority over other nondisclosure law except tax-return secrecy, preserve privacy for personnel and medical files, and preserve FOIA and judicial-review rights.

Who Benefits and How

Civil rights researchers, historians, archivists, journalists, descendants of COINTELPRO targets, advocacy groups, public-interest lawyers, and the general public benefit from a dedicated public collection, digitization, indexes, disclosure deadlines, Review Board oversight, court-unsealing procedures, and a 25-year sunset on most remaining secrecy. The National Archives benefits from a clear statutory collection mandate and metadata criteria.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Government offices holding COINTELPRO records, FBI records custodians, National Archives staff, the President, Senate confirmation staff, COINTELPRO Review Board members, Review Board employees, Attorney General staff, originating agencies, and federal taxpayers face search, preservation, review, transmission, redaction, publication, security-clearance, litigation, staffing, and funding burdens. Agencies that rely on national-security, law-enforcement, intelligence, foreign-relations, personnel-file, or medical-file grounds must justify postponement under a specific and public review process.

Key Provisions

• Requires government offices to fully disclose COINTELPRO records within six months unless harm standards justify postponement.
• Requires segregable information, substitute records, or summaries when full disclosure is postponed.
• Creates a National Archives COINTELPRO Records Collection with guidebook, index, metadata rules, public access, and digitization priority.
• Establishes a five-member independent COINTELPRO Records Review Board appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
• Directs the Review Board to publish disclosure determinations, review postponements, and recommend future disclosure dates.
• Authorizes Attorney General petitions to unseal court or grand-jury information relevant to COINTELPRO.
• Limits conflicting secrecy rules while preserving tax secrecy, personal privacy, FOIA rights, and judicial review.