Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 90 Part 1.djvu/1291

 PUBLIC LAW 94-409—SEPT. 13, 1976

90 STAT. 1241

Public Law 94-409 94th Congress An Act To provide that meetings of Government agencies shall be open to the public, and for other purpot-e.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "Government in the Sunshine Act".

Sept. 13, 1976 [S.5]

Government in the Sunshine Act. 5 USC 552b note.

DECLARATION OF POLICY

SEC. 2. It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States that the public is entitled to the fullest practicable information regarding the decisionmaking processes of the Federal Government. It is the purpose of this Act to provide the public with such information while protecting the rights of individuals and the ability of the Government to carry out its responsibilities. OPEN

5 USC 552b note.

MEETINGS

SEC. 3. (a) Title 5, United States Code, is amended by adding after section 552a the following new section: "§ 552b. Open meetings "(a) For purposes of this section— "(1) the term 'agency' means any agency, as defined in section 552(e) of this title, headed by a collegial body composed of two or more individual members, a majority of whom are appointed to such position by the President with the advice and consent of the Seriate, and ai^y subdivision thereof authorized to act on behalf of the agency; "(2) the term 'meeting' means the deliberations of at least the number of individual agency members required to take action on behalf of the agency where such deliberations determine or result in the joint conduct or disposition of official agency business, but does not include deliberations required or permitted by subsection (d) or (e); and "(3) the term 'member' means an individual who belongs to a collegial body heading an agency, (b) Members shall not jointly conduct or dispose of agency business other than in accordance with this section. Except as provided in subsection (c), every portion of every meeting of an agency shall be open to public observation. "(c) Except in a case where the agency finds that the public interest requires otherwise, the second sentence of subsection (b) shall not apply to any portion of an agency meeting, and the requirements of subsections (d) and (e) shall not apply to any information pertaining to such meeting otherwise required by this section to be disclosed to the public, where the agency properly determines that such portion or portions of its meeting or the disclosure of such information is likely to— " (1) disclose matters that are (A) specifically authorized under criteria established by an Executive order to be kept secret in the

5 USC 552b. Definitions. 5 USC 552.

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