S 252

Introduced

GOOD Act

To increase access to agency guidance documents.

Introduced Jan 24, 2025

Latest action (Aug 6, 2026) Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably.

Referred to

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee

Policy area

Government Operations and Politics

Legislative subjects (2)

Administrative law and regulatory procedures Government information and archives

Summary

Requires federal agencies to publish all existing guidance documents on a centralized internet website within 180 days of enactment and to publish new guidance documents on the same date they are issued.
Requires the Office of Management and Budget Director to designate a single central internet website for publishing all agency guidance documents within 90 days of enactment.
Requires each agency to provide prominently displayed hyperlinks on its website providing access to the centralized guidance document location.
Requires guidance documents to be categorized and organized into subcategories on the designated central website.
Exempts guidance documents that are protected from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act from publication requirements.
Requires agencies to maintain rescinded guidance documents on the central website and to indicate the rescission status, reason for rescission, and date of rescission.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)

Sen. Johnson, Ron [R-WI] (R-WI)

15 cosponsors

Actions (3)

Aug 6, 2026 Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably. · senate
Jan 24, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. · senate
Jan 24, 2025 Introduced in Senate

More bills on these subjects (8)

Other bills that carry the most legislative subjects in common with this one (topical discovery — distinct from the procedural related bills above).

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

Text versions (1)

Introduced in Senate · Jan 24, 2025

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

Committee action

What happened to this bill in committee — the meetings where it was considered and every recorded vote taken on it.

Meetings where this bill was on the agenda

Business meeting to consider an original resolution regarding Contempt of Congress, S.2732, to strengthen employee cost savings suggestions programs within the Federal Government, S.2733, to require the Comptroller General of the United States to analyze certain legislation in order to prevent duplication of and overlap with existing Federal programs, offices, and initiatives, S.252, to increase access to agency guidance documents, S.164, to amend chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, to provide for en bloc consideration in resolutions of disapproval for "midnight rules", H.R.5235, to amend title 41, United States Code, to prohibit minimum educational requirements for proposed contractor personnel in certain contract solicitations, S.3175, to establish a pilot program for ZIP Code boundary changes, S.4505, to require the United States Postal Service to designate ZIP Codes for certain communities, S.1735, to require certain agencies to include a page on the website of the agency relating to permit applications, S.5163, to amend title 39, United States Code, to prevent the awarding of bonuses to the Postmaster General and Deputy Postmaster General for a fiscal year in which the United States Postal Service does not meet or exceed each on-time mail delivery target, S.2542, to direct the Director of the Federal Protective Service to establish guidance relating to emergency protocols for buildings, S.3211, to require the Office of Management and Budget to consider revising the Standard Occupational Classification system to establish a separate code for direct support professionals, S.4079, to establish in U.S. Customs and Border Protection a pilot program to adopt dogs from local animal shelters to be trained as support dogs, S.3296, to amend chapter 81 of title 5, United States Code, to cover, for purposes of workers' compensation under such chapter, services by physician assistants and nurse practitioners provided to injured Federal workers, S.388, to amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act with respect to the implementation of building codes, S.3226, to provide for the creation of the missing Armed Forces and civilian personnel Records Collection at the National Archives, to require the expeditious public transmission to the Archivist and public disclosure of missing Armed Forces and civilian personnel records, S.24, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 154 First Avenue East in Jerome, Idaho, as the "Representative Maxine Bell Post Office", S.58, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 107 North Hoyne Avenue in Fritch, Texas, as the "Chief Zeb Smith Post Office", S.829, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 840 Front Street in Casselton, North Dakota, as the "Commander Delbert Austin Olson Post Office", S.917, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 620 East Pecan Boulevard in McAllen, Texas, as the "Agent Raul H. Gonzalez Jr. Memorial Post Office", S.2394, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 505 East 9th Avenue in Amarillo, Texas, as the "Mayor Jerry H. Hodge Post Office Building", S.2432, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 6444 San Fernando Road in Glendale, California, as the "Paul Ignatius Post Office", S.3270 and H.R.6310, bills to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 3570 Olney Laytonsville Road in Olney, Maryland, as the "Edward L. Ramsey Olney Post Office Building", S.3294 and H.R.6332, bills to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 10660 Page Avenue in Fairfax, Virginia, as the "Congressman Gerald E. Connolly Post Office Building", S.3331, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 50 East 100 North in Moab, Utah, as the "2nd Lieutenant Mitch Williams Post Office", S.3373, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 14855 South Van Dyke Road in Plainfield, Illinois, as the "Staff Sergeant Jose Duenez Jr. Post Office Building", S.3444, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service at 1300 East Northwest Highway in Palatine, Illinois, as the "Bernie Bluestein Post Office Building", S.3630, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 46164 Westlake Drive in Sterling, Virginia, as the "Firefighter Trevor Brown Post Office Building", S.3835, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 10 East Main Street in Mahaffey, Pennsylvania, as the "Robert Allen Bishop, Sr., Post Office Building", S.4052, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 203 North Clay Street in Marshfield, Missouri, shall be known and designated as the "Edwin P. Hubble Post Office", S.4523, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 111 SouHomeland Security and Governmental Affairs CommitteeAug 6, 2026Business meeting

Full text

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

January 24, 2025

Mr. Johnson (for himself, Mr. Cramer, Ms. Ernst, Mr. Lankford, Mr. Tillis, Mrs. Blackburn, Mr. Budd, Mr. Schmitt, Mr. Marshall, Mr. Sheehy, Mr. Lee, Ms. Lummis, Mr. Scott of Florida, Mr. Hoeven, and Mr. Risch) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

A BILL

To increase access to agency guidance documents.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Guidance Out Of Darkness Act” or the “GOOD Act”.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

In this Act:

(1) Agency.—The term “agency” has the meaning given the term in section 551 of title 5, United States Code.

(2) Director.—The term “Director” means the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

(3) Guidance document.—

(A) Definition.—The term “guidance document”—

(i) means an agency statement of general applicability (other than a rule that has the force and effect of law promulgated in accordance with the notice and comment procedures under section 553 of title 5, United States Code) that—

(I) does not have the force and effect of law; and

(II) is designated by an agency official as setting forth— (aa) a policy on a statutory, regulatory, or technical issue; or (bb) an interpretation of a statutory or regulatory issue; and

(ii) may include—

(I) a memorandum;

(II) a notice;

(III) a bulletin;

(IV) a directive;

(V) a news release;

(VI) a letter;

(VII) a blog post;

(VIII) a no-action letter;

(IX) a speech by an agency official; and

(X) any combination of the items described in subclauses (I) through

(IX).

(B) Rule of construction.—The term “guidance document”—

(i) shall be construed broadly to effectuate the purpose and intent of this Act; and

(ii) shall not be limited to the items described in subparagraph (A)(ii).

SEC. 3. PUBLICATION OF GUIDANCE DOCUMENTS ON THE INTERNET.

(a) In General.—Subject to subsection (d), on the date on which an agency issues a guidance document, the agency shall publish the guidance document in accordance with the requirements under subsection

(c).

(b) Previously Issued Guidance Documents.—Subject to subsection

(d), not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, each agency shall publish, in accordance with the requirements under subsection (c), any guidance document issued by that agency that is in effect on that date.

(1) In general.—All guidance documents published under subsections (a) and (b) by an agency shall be published in a single location on an internet website designated by the Director under paragraph (4).

(2) Agency internet websites.—Each agency shall, for guidance documents published by the agency under subsections

(a) and (b), publish a hyperlink on the internet website of the agency that provides access to the guidance documents at the location described in paragraph (1).

(3) Organization.—

(A) In general.—The guidance documents described in paragraph (1) shall be—

(i) categorized as guidance documents; and

(ii) further divided into subcategories as appropriate.

(B) Agency internet websites.—The hyperlinks described in paragraph (2) shall be prominently displayed on the internet website of the agency.

(4) Designation.—Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director shall designate an internet website on which guidance documents shall be published under subsections (a) and (b).

(d) Documents and Information Exempt From Disclosure Under FOIA.— If a guidance document issued by an agency is a document that is exempt from disclosure under section 552(b) of title 5, United States Code (commonly known as the “Freedom of Information Act”), or contains information that is exempt from disclosure under that section, that document or information, as the case may be, shall not be subject to the requirements under this Act.

(e) Rescinded Guidance Documents.—On the date on which a guidance document issued by an agency is rescinded, or, in the case of a guidance document that is rescinded pursuant to a court order, not later than the date on which the order is entered, the agency shall, at the location described in subsection (c)(1)—

(1) maintain the rescinded guidance document; and

(2) indicate—

(A) that the guidance document is rescinded;

(B) if the guidance document was rescinded pursuant to a court order, the case number of the case in which the order was entered; and

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Summary

Sponsor (1)

Actions (3)

Related bills (1)

More bills on these subjects (8)

Similar bills (6)

Text versions (1)

Committee action

Meetings where this bill was on the agenda

Full text

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