Sec. 4. Civil rights cold case records collection at the national archives and record administration
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Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Archivist shall— establish a collection of cold case records to be known as the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection that ensures the physical integrity and original provenance of all records in the Collection; and prepare and publish the subject guidebook and index to the Collection. The Collection shall include— a copy of each cold case record that shall be transmitted to the Archivist in accordance with section 2107 of title 44, United States Code; each cold case record— that has been transmitted to the Archivist or disclosed to the public in an unredacted form before the date of the enactment of this Act; that is required to be transmitted to the Archivist; and the disclosure of which is postponed under this Act; a central directory comprised of identification aids created for each record transmitted to the Archivist under section 5; and all Review Board records as required by this Act.
All cold case records transmitted to the Archivist for disclosure to the public shall be included in the Collection and shall be available to the public for inspection and copying at the National Archives within 30 days after the transmission of such record to the Archivist. The Archivist shall— use efficient electronic means when possible; charge fees for copying cold case records; and grant waivers of such fees pursuant to the standard established by section 552(a)(4) of title 5, United States Code.
The Archivist, in consultation with the Information Security Oversight Office, shall ensure the security of the postponed cold case records in the Collection. Each Government office shall— transmit to the Archivist and make available to the public not later than 300 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, each cold case record that can be publicly disclosed including any such record that is publicly available on the date of enactment of this Act, without any redaction, adjustment, or withholding under the standards of this Act; and transmit to the Archivist upon approval for postponement by the Review Board or upon completion of other action authorized by this Act, each cold case record for which public disclosure has been postponed, in whole or in part, under the standards of this Act, to become part of the protected Collection.
A cold case record for which public disclosure has been postponed shall, pending transmission to the Archivist, be held for reasons of security and preservation by the originating body until such time as the information security program has been established at the National Archives as required in section 4(c)(2). Each postponed or redacted record shall be reviewed every 180 days by the originating agency and the Archivist consistent with the recommendations of the Review Board under section 8(c)(3)(B).
The periodic review shall— address the public disclosure of additional cold case records in the Collection under the standards of this Act; and serve to downgrade and declassify classified information, with the presumption of providing public disclosure. Any postponed cold case record that is determined to require continued postponement shall include an unclassified written description of the reason for such continued postponement. Such description shall be provided to the Archivist and published in the Federal Register upon determination.
Each cold case record shall be publicly disclosed in full, and available in the Collection not later than 25 years after the date of enactment of this Act unless— continued postponement is made necessary by an identifiable harm to military defense, intelligence operations, or the conduct of foreign relations; and the identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure. Executive branch agencies shall make text searchable documents available to the Review Board pursuant to standards established by section 552(a)(3) of title 5, United States Code.