Sponsors (4)
Official title: To require the public disclosure of COINTELPRO records, to establish a COINTELPRO Records Collection, and to establish the COINTELPRO Records Review Board, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 22, 2026 by Summer Lee · Last progress January 22, 2026
The bill substantially increases public access, archival preservation, and independent review of COINTELPRO-era records — improving historical accountability — but does so at the cost of privacy and safety risks for people named in files, new administrative and fiscal burdens (including use of existing agency funds), and potential political and legal disputes over what ultimately gets released.
The general public, historians, journalists, and researchers gain substantially expanded and time‑bound access to COINTELPRO and related historical records (defined terms, deadlines, and Archivist authority mean records must be transmitted and made public on a set schedule).
Victims, next of kin, and affected communities receive procedural protections (advance notice before public release and requirements to provide segregable parts, summaries, or substitute records when full disclosure is postponed), giving them time to prepare and preserving some privacy safeguards.
An independent, statutory Review Board with subpoena, hearing, and reporting authority (and required transparency about removals) creates an accountability mechanism to evaluate contested withholdings and surface new evidence about civil‑rights era abuses.
Individuals named in historical files — including victims, minority activists, immigrants, and private citizens — face heightened risks to privacy, reputation, or personal safety because broader definitions and mandatory disclosures could surface sensitive personal information.
Significant administrative and fiscal burdens: federal agencies, NARA, and the Review Board must spend staff time and money to locate, prepare, digitize, transfer, and host records (and initial implementation may draw on existing discretionary balances, reducing funds available for other programs).
The statute creates risks of politicization and reduced congressional leverage: executive authorities can begin spending before new appropriations, and political actors (including high‑level officials) have paths to override or influence disclosure decisions, which could skew what is released or withheld.
Based on analysis of 22 sections of legislative text.
Creates a COINTELPRO Records Review Board, requires federal agencies to transmit and disclose COINTELPRO records to NARA with set timelines, and renames the federal building at 935 Pennsylvania Ave NW.
Renames the federal building at 935 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, DC as the “Federal Bureau of Investigation Federal Building,” and creates a permanent process to collect, review, and disclose records related to the FBI’s COINTELPRO program. The bill requires federal offices to transmit COINTELPRO records to a newly established COINTELPRO Records Review Board and to the National Archives, sets schedules for public disclosure and digitization, defines limited exemptions for harm, provides administrative and judicial review paths, and directs use of existing discretionary funds until Congress appropriates money.