February 11, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 26 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages H1502-H1504]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




CREATING ADVANCED STREAMLINED ELECTRONIC SERVICES FOR CONSTITUENTS ACT 
                                OF 2019

  Ms. HILL of California. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
pass the bill (H.R. 1079) to require the Director of the Office of 
Management and Budget to issue guidance on electronic consent forms, 
and for other purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 1079

       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 ``Creating Advanced 
     Streamlined Electronic Services for Constituents Act of 
     2019'' or the ``CASES Act''.

     SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

       It is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) congressional offices provide crucial services to 
     constituents by acting as a liaison between the constituents 
     and the respective agencies;
       (2) this includes assisting constituents by making 
     inquiries and working toward resolutions on behalf of the 
     constituent with the respective agencies; and
       (3) this process should be simplified through the creation 
     of electronic forms that may be submitted under section 552a 
     of title 5, United States Code (commonly referred to as the 
     Privacy Act), thus modernizing the process for constituents 
     and improving access and efficiency of Government services 
     and agencies in order to expedite the resolution of the 
     problem for which constituents sought help.

     SEC. 3. OMB GUIDANCE ON ELECTRONIC CONSENT AND ACCESS FORMS.

       (a) Guidance.--Not later than 1 year after the date of the 
     enactment of this Act, the Director shall issue guidance that 
     does the following:
       (1) Requires each agency to accept electronic identity 
     proofing and authentication processes for the purposes of 
     allowing an individual to provide prior written consent for 
     the disclosure of the individual's records under section 
     552a(b) of title 5, United States Code, or for individual 
     access to records under section 552a(d) of such title.
       (2) Creates a template for electronic consent and access 
     forms and requires each agency to post the template on the 
     agency website and to accept the forms from any individual 
     properly identity proofed and authenticated in accordance 
     with paragraph (1) for the purpose of authorizing disclosure 
     of the individual's records under section 552a(b) of title 5, 
     United States Code, or for individual access to records under 
     section 552a(d) of such title.
       (3) Requires each agency to accept the electronic consent 
     and access forms described in paragraph (2) from any 
     individual properly identity proofed and authenticated in 
     accordance with paragraph (1) for the purpose of authorizing 
     disclosure of the individual's records to another entity, 
     including a congressional office, in accordance with section 
     552a(b) of title 5, United States Code, or for individual 
     access to records under section 552a(d).
       (b) Agency Compliance.--Each agency shall comply with the 
     guidance issued pursuant to subsection (a) not later than 1 
     year after the date on which such guidance is issued.
       (c) Definitions.--In this section:
       (1) Agency; individual; record.--The terms ``agency'', 
     ``individual'', and ``record'' have the meanings given those 
     terms in section 552a(a) of title 5, United States Code.
       (2) Director.--The term ``Director'' means the Director of 
     the Office of Management and Budget.

     SEC. 4. NO ADDITIONAL FUNDS AUTHORIZED.

       No additional funds are authorized to carry out the 
     requirements of this Act. Such requirements shall be carried 
     out using amounts otherwise authorized.

     SEC. 5. DETERMINATION OF BUDGETARY EFFECTS.

       The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of 
     complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, shall 
     be determined by reference to the latest statement titled 
     ``Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation'' for this Act, 
     submitted for printing in the Congressional Record by the 
     Chairman of the House Budget Committee, provided that such 
     statement has been submitted prior to the vote on passage.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Hill) and the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. 
Meadows) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from California.


                             General Leave

  Ms. HILL of California. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous material on this measure.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. HILL of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I support this bill, the CASES for Constituents Act, 
introduced by Representatives Garret Graves and Joe Kennedy. This bill 
would modernize the way Federal agencies process Privacy Act waivers 
and make it easier for Members of Congress to help constituents get 
assistance from Federal agencies.
  Our constituents are required to provide Federal agencies with 
written consent before our offices can obtain information from the 
agency on their behalf. Some agencies have outdated policies and still 
require these consent

[[Page H1503]]

forms to be mailed or faxed, which can be next to impossible in certain 
circumstances, such as after a major storm or other natural disaster.
  Under this bill, the Office of Management and Budget would be 
required to create a template for electronic consent forms and issue 
guidance to agencies requiring them to accept such forms.
  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the bipartisan way in which this bill was 
developed, and I thank Representatives Graves and Kennedy for their 
diligent efforts to address this problem.
  This is a good bipartisan bill, and I urge my colleagues to support 
it.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. MEADOWS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I rise in support of H.R. 1079, the CASES for Constituents Act, 
introduced by the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Graves) and, as was 
mentioned, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy).
  I have some prepared remarks, Mr. Speaker, but let me just deviate 
from that for just a second.
  Finally, two people have come together to get rid of the archaic way 
that we have to get disclosures, that only go to hurt our constituents 
whom we aim to serve. I mean, only in the government do we have this 
kind of way where we actually have to make sure that we run it over by 
a carrier pigeon to get something done.
  All of us have been together where we are trying to serve our 
constituents. Sometimes it is very time sensitive, Mr. Speaker, and 
what do they want?
  Well, you need to go get the privacy release form.
  And if you go get the privacy release form: Well, no. That is not 
okay. You have got to get their actual signature.
  And so we are sending people all over.
  So it is with heartfelt gratitude, Mr. Speaker, that I want to thank 
these two gentlemen for doing something that is not only common sense 
but much needed.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. HILL of California. Mr. Speaker, I will just note for the record 
that I believe faxes may or may not have ended their usefulness before 
I was born.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts 
(Mr. Kennedy).
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from California for 
her support and for her observation about the utility of fax machines; 
the gentleman from North Carolina as well for his comments of support; 
and my colleague, Mr. Graves, for his leadership, his advocacy on this 
piece of legislation, and for his determination in getting this done. 
It was a long, long slog to try to navigate our way through the morass 
to get there, but we did, and Mr. Graves' office deserves a lot of 
credit for that.
  We were able to clear the House unanimously last year, Mr. Speaker, 
and I am excited for our prospects this year.
  Importantly, as well, Mr. Speaker, today is the first time that 
identical texts have been introduced in the United States Senate. 
Senators Carper and Portman are taking the lead, and I look forward to 
our offices working together to get this bill across the finish line.
  For all the attention that is placed on Members of Congress when we 
are in Washington, there is no more important responsibility of this 
job than helping our constituents back home. Whether assisting a 
veteran seeking benefits or a retiree accessing Medicare, we can ease 
the burden off of our neighbors' shoulders by getting them the help 
that they have earned.
  When one of our constituents calls our office, whether it is in 
Newton, Massachusetts, or in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, they don't ask us 
about our political parties or policy positions; they just ask for a 
little bit of help.
  Usually, those neighbors only reach our office when they have fought 
every other battle possible first; but too often, archaic rules, as 
outlined by Mr. Meadows, build obstacles in our efforts to provide that 
help. With the CASES for Constituents Act, we can modernize our 
government, streamline that process, and more directly assist them when 
they need it.
  Let's bring the casework process a step closer to the 21st century 
and provide electronic access to privacy release forms.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill.
  Mr. MEADOWS. Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to 
the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Graves) in support of this particular 
piece of legislation that he and the gentleman who just spoke have led 
so eloquently and diligently on.
  Mr. GRAVES of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
North Carolina for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, years ago, they created something called the internet. 
If you are not familiar with it, I would urge you to go to your local 
library, go to the card catalog system to get the right Dewey decimal 
number, go find a book, and read up on it, because apparently many in 
our Federal Government haven't realized that this has been created.
  As was noted a little while ago, in 1974, there was an act called the 
Privacy Act that was passed--1974. Since that time, we have had 
companies like Apple and Amazon and Microsoft and many others that have 
proliferated and are now worth billions and billions of dollars, some 
of the largest companies in the world.
  Mr. Speaker, this is similar to us having to mail in a form to get an 
ambulance to come to our house.
  As was noted by some of the previous speakers, in many cases, people 
contact us because of emergency situations. We have had family members 
contact us when their loved ones were stuck overseas in emergency 
situations. We have had people contact us because there was water 
filling up their home and they needed emergency services at the time. 
Under the Privacy Act of 1974 that was written 45 years ago, we were 
unable to help them, as Mr. Meadows noted, unless they sent us a signed 
privacy release form.
  I remember distinctly, in August of 2016, when we had a record flood 
in my home State of Louisiana, talking to constituents who were on 
their cellphones saying that their homes had 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 feet of 
water and asking for help with FEMA, the Small Business Administration, 
and other government services, and myself or other folks on our team 
having to tell them: You bet, we want to help you. All you need to do 
is go to your computer, go to this website, click the link, print it 
out.
  You can imagine the response from people: I would love to be able to 
go to my computer right now. I would love to be able to find it, if it 
wasn't under 4 feet of water right now.
  Incredibly frustrating.
  Mr. Speaker, the government today has a customer service approval 
rating of 70 percent--70 percent is the customer service approval 
rating. While that was sufficient to get me through high school, that 
is not okay for the Federal Government. It is entirely inappropriate.
  This bill simply updates the Federal Government to put it online with 
how we file our taxes, how we handle our banking, insurance, and 
virtually everything else we do, ensuring that when people contact us, 
we can use those same technologies to protect privacy, that we can 
ensure the right people are asking for the right approvals, and we can 
quickly, within minutes, begin providing them services through their 
own Federal Government.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy) for 
persevering and continuing to work with us on this. I want to thank my 
friends, Mr. Meadows from North Carolina and Ms. Hill from California. 
Thank you all very much for doing this.
  This is bipartisan. This is common sense. It should have been done 
decades ago.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Jennifer Bollinger, Eric Fins, all the 
OGR staff and others who helped get this bill done, and I am looking 
forward to passage.
  I urge full support.
  Mr. MEADOWS. Mr. Speaker, I want to go ahead and close, if we can, at 
this particular point, but before I do so, I want to thank all of our 
staff.
  It is so easy at times for us to get up here, and yet the legislation 
that gets introduced oftentimes is not just due to our personal staff 
in our offices, but the committee staff, and so I want to make sure 
that I emphasize that today.
  Mr. Speaker, I will close with this final comment.

[[Page H1504]]

  I had a constituent not long ago who said: You know, I will just 
email you a release, and we won't have to go through all of this 
getting it in writing.
  I said: No, no, no, no, no. That will take an act of Congress.
  Well, let me just tell you, today the Congress has acted.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge support, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. HILL of California. Mr. Speaker, I would like to join my 
colleague in thanking the staff. I was handheld through this entire 
process.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge the passage of H.R. 1079, as amended, and I yield 
back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Hill) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 1079, as amended.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Ms. HILL of California. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and 
nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further 
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.

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