About the bill
Should there be a centralized and publicly searchable database of government lawsuit settlements?
Context
More than $4.3 billion in taxpayer money was used to settle lawsuits against the federal government or its employees in fiscal year 2016, through a little-known Treasury Department account known as the Judgment Fund. However, that fund is only tapped by government agencies if the agency in question does not have the requisite funds to pay out a settlement themselves. So while the Judgment Fund's payments are publicly searchable online, many or even most federal government settlements are not. Government-funded settlement agreements have received far more attention in the past two years, as the Me Too movement shined a spotlight on dozens of sexual harassment settlements involving federal workers.
What the bill does
The Settlement …
Sponsor and status
116th Congress (2019–2021)
This bill was introduced in a previous session of Congress and was passed by the House on February 13, 2019 but was never passed by the Senate.
Although this bill was not enacted, its provisions could have become law by being included in another bill. It is common for legislative text to be introduced concurrently in multiple bills (called companion bills), re-introduced in subsequent sessions of Congress in new bills, or added to larger bills (sometimes called omnibus bills).
1 Cosponsor (1 Republican)
Position statements
What legislators are saying
“Palmer Calls for Transparency in Federal Agency Settlement Agreements”
—
Rep. Gary Palmer [R-AL6]
(Sponsor)
on Feb 13, 2019
“THIS WEEK IN CONGRESS - February 15, 2019”
—
Rep. Gregorio Sablan [D-MP]
on Feb 19, 2019
“the daily leader: wednesday, february 13, 2019”
—
Rep. Steny Hoyer [D-MD5]
on Feb 12, 2019
History
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Nov 29, 2018
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Earlier Version —
Passed House (Senate next)
This activity took place on a related bill, H.R. 6777 (115th). |
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Feb 6, 2019
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Introduced
Bills and resolutions are referred to committees which debate the bill before possibly sending it on to the whole chamber. |
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Feb 13, 2019
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Passed House (Senate next)
The bill was passed in a vote in the House. It goes to the Senate next. |
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May 15, 2019
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Considered by Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
A committee held a hearing or business meeting about the bill.
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Jan 5, 2021
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Reintroduced Bill —
Passed House (Senate next)
This activity took place on a related bill, H.R. 27 (117th). |
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Jan 24, 2023
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Reintroduced Bill —
Passed House (Senate next)
This activity took place on a related bill, H.R. 300. |
H.R. 995 (116th) was a bill in the United States Congress.
A bill must be passed by both the House and Senate in identical form and then be signed by the President to become law.
Bills numbers restart every two years. That means there are other bills with the number H.R. 995. This is the one from the 116th Congress.
This bill was introduced in the 116th Congress, which met from Jan 3, 2019 to Jan 3, 2021. Legislation not passed by the end of a Congress is cleared from the books.
How to cite this information.
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Where is this information from?
GovTrack automatically collects legislative information from a variety of governmental and non-governmental sources. This page is sourced primarily from Congress.gov, the official portal of the United States Congress. Congress.gov is generally updated one day after events occur, and so legislative activity shown here may be one day behind. Data via the congress project.
