Settlement Agreement Information Database Act of 2018

Floor Speech

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Mr. COMER.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 6777, introduced by Congressman Palmer of Alabama.

Transparency and public participation are critical to maintaining the public's trust in its government. Since the 1970s, however, Federal agencies have increasingly resolved litigation by entering into consent decrees and other legally binding settlement agreements rather than through a public trial.

These agreements were often negotiated behind closed doors. Secret negotiations prevent the public from holding the Federal Government accountable for decisions made without their input.

States, local governments, industry stakeholders, and taxpayers are often directly affected by the agreements, but are shut out of the negotiations. For example, a consent decree entered into by the Environmental Protection Agency required the city of Fort Smith, Arkansas to reform its sewer systems in 12 years. Sewer utility bills increased by 167 percent in 3 years to fund the obligations of the agreement, while residents' incomes simultaneously decreased by 11 percent.

Due to poor recordkeeping, it is impossible for Congress and the public to determine the full cost of Federal settlement agreements. Most of the public's access to Federal settlement agreement information is currently determined by individual agency discretion, usually issued in the form of a press release.

Further, heads of agencies can declare a settlement confidential and seal the contents of the agreement without providing any explanation. The Settlement Agreement Information Database Act seeks to correct this problem by shining light on the details of Federal settlement agreements. The bill requires the establishment of an electronic and publicly-available database of agencies' settlement agreements. It requires Federal agencies to enter basic information about settlement agreements into the database.

Mr. Speaker, this is a commonsense transparency bill, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

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