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Martin Luther King, Jr., Records Collection Act of 2016
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#An Act

to provide for the speedy declassification and publication of documents relating to the life and assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

*Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,*

**SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE**

  1. Short title—this Act may be referred to as its short title, the “Martin Luther King, Jr., Records Collection Act of 2016.”

**SECTION 2. FINDINGS, PURPOSE AND SUMMARY**

  1. Findings—
    The Congress finds that—
  1. > the life and assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr, is the story of an American struggle for freedom;
  2. > all documents relating to the life and death of Martin Luther King, Jr. should be stored for historical, educational and governmental purposes; and
  3. > Without legislation, a declassification of documents as they relate to Martin Luther King, Jr. would not fully happen until the year 2028.
  1. Purpose—
    The purpose of this Act is—
  1. > the creation of an Archive of the life and assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr; and
  2. > the requirement of speedy disclosure of classified documents relating to the life and assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
  1. Summary—
    This legislation serves to create a Collection on the life and assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. by way of storing centrally and declassifying any governmental classified documents. This Act creates an Oversight Committee by two committees in the Congress for when there are questions of whether to include a document in the Collection. It also offers limited punishments for continuing to hold documents from publication, not to exceed a reasonable maximum fine for large amounts of withholding documents of $15,000.

**SECTION 3. DEFINITIONS**

For the purposes of this act, the following definitions apply:

  1. The term “Archivist” means the Archivist of the United States.
  2. The term “related record” includes all records, public and private that document activities, persons, or events reasonably related to the life and assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and investigations of or inquiries into his life or death, including, but not limited to, a record—
  1. > That was created or made available for use by, obtained by, or otherwise came into the possession of any government office, any independent agency, any State or local law enforcement office that provided support or assistance or performed work in connection with a Federal inquiry into the life and assassination of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., or any donated deed or gift.
  1. The term “Collection” means the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Records Collection established under section 4.
  2. The term “official investigation” means the reviews of the activities or assassination of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., conducted by any Presidential commission, any authorized congressional committee, and any Government agency either independently, at the request of any Presidential commission or congressional committee, or at the request of any Government official.
  3. The term “Oversight committee” means any interested member of the Committee of Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and the Committee of the Judiciary of the Senate.

**SECTION 4. REVEREND DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., RECORDS COLLECTION AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES**

  1. In general—
  1. > No later than two months after this Act has been enacted, the National Archives will have commenced a collection of records that shall be known as “the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Records Collection.” In so doing, the Archivist shall ensure the physical integrity and original provenance of all records. This record shall also be published and be able to be searched on-line.
  2. > This Collection shall include all related records to the life and assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., that have been published before the enactment of this Act and as otherwise required by this Act.
  1. Each item in the Collection, other than an artifact, shall be available to the public for inspection and copying at the National Archives and through an electronic format within 30 days after its transmission to the National Archives. An artifact for the purposes of this subsection shall be any object that is not physically able to be copied at the National Archives, due to, but not exclusive to the reasonings of, fragility or size.
  2. Oversight—

Any individual that is interested and is a member of the Oversight committee (as defined in Section 3(e)) shall have continuing oversight jurisdiction with respect to the Collection and shall conduct biannual hearings, up to and including the final Archivist determination.

**SECTION 5. REVIEW, IDENTIFICATION, TRANSMISSION TO THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, AND PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OF RELATED RECORDS BY GOVERNMENT OFFICES**

  1. In general—
  1. > As soon as practicable after the date of enactment of this Act, but not exceeding fourteen days, each holder of a “related record” shall prepare its records relating to the life and assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. for transmission to the Archivist for inclusion in the Collection.
  1. Review—
    Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, each Government office shall review each related record in its custody or possession, and to make such related records available to the Oversight committee for consideration of whether it shall be referred to the Archivist.
  2. Transmission to the National Archives—
    Each government office shall t    ransmit to the Archivist, and make immediately available to the public, all related records, including those that are publicly available on the date of enactment of this Act, without any redaction, adjustment, or withholding under the standards of this Act.
  3. Completion—
    Any classified documents shall be declassified and published in the Collection within one year of the enactment of this Act. Any non-classified documents shall be published within the Collection within one-half of one year of the enactment of this Act. Any individual who knowingly does not send an otherwise unpublished document to the Collection within this time shall be sentenced to either federal prison for a sentence not to exceed three months, or pay a fine not to exceed $1, per document, with the maximum sentence being four years, and the maximum fine being $0.

**SECTION 6. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION**

  1. Precedence over other law—
    When this Act requires transmission of a record to the Archivist or public disclosure, it shall take precedence over any other law (except section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code), judicial decision construing such law, or common law doctrine that would otherwise prohibit such transmission or disclosure.
  2. Freedom of Information Act—
    Nothing in this Act shall be construed to eliminate or limit any right to file requests with any executive agency or seek judicial review of the decisions pursuant to section 552 of title 5, United States Code.
  3. Judicial review—
    Nothing in this Act shall be construed to preclude judicial review, under chapter 7 of title 5, United States Code, of final actions taken or required to be taken under this Act.
  4. Rules of the Senate and House of Representatives—
    To the extent that any provision of this Act establishes a procedure to be followed in the Senate or the House of Representatives, such provision is adopted—
  1. > as an exercise of the rulemaking power of the Senate and House of Representatives, respectively, and is deemed to be part of the rules of each House, respectively, but applicable only with respect to the procedure to be followed in that House, and it supersedes other rules only to the extent that it is inconsistent with such rules; and
  2. > with full recognition of the constitutional right of either House to change the rules (so far as they relate to the procedure of that House) at any time, in the same manner, and to the same extent as in the case of any other rule of that House.

**SECTION 7. SEVERABILITY AND ENACTMENT**

  1. Severability—
    If any provision of this Act or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of this Act and the application of that provision to other persons not similarly situated or to other circumstances shall not be affected by the invalidation.
  2. Enactment—This Act shall be placed into enactment fourteen days after being passed in both the Senate and the House of Representatives of Congress, and upon being signed into law by the President of the United States.

Written by Representative /u/DoomLexus (RLP-Central), and introduced to the House by the same. Introduced to the Senate by Senator /u/Bigg-Boss (RLP-Central).