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S 4857
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Open Meetings Act of 2026

To amend chapter 15 of title 28, United States Code, with respect to documentation requirements for a meeting of certain conferences and councils.

Introduced Jun 23, 2026

Latest action (Jun 23, 2026) Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Referred to
Judiciary Committee
Policy area
Law

Summary
  • Requires the Judicial Conference to publish notice of covered meetings at least 30 days in advance, including the date, time, place, and agenda.
  • Requires each covered meeting to provide live audio streaming accessible to the public without charge or registration.
  • Requires the Judicial Conference to publish an archive of each meeting's audio stream within 7 days of the meeting on its website.
  • Allows meetings to resolve into closed sessions when required by law or when determined appropriate by majority vote for sensitive or confidential matters, with stated reasons.
  • Allows the Judicial Conference to waive the 30-day notice requirement for good cause with published explanation on its website.

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)

Actions (2)
  1. Jun 23, 2026 Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. · senate
  2. Jun 23, 2026 Introduced in Senate

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.

  • HR 9408 — Open Meetings Act of 2026 · Introduced Jun 23, 2026 · Cong. 119 91%
  • S 1450 — A bill to repeal the Open Meetings Clarification Emergency Amendment Act of 2025 enacted by the District of Columbia Council. · Introduced Apr 10, 2025 · Cong. 119 61%
  • SJRES 68 — A joint resolution disapproving the action of the District of Columbia Council in approving the Open Meetings Clarification Temporary Amendment Act of 2025. · Introduced Jul 23, 2025 · Cong. 119 60%
  • HJRES 109 — Disapproving the action of the District of Columbia Council in approving the Open Meetings Clarification Temporary Amendment Act of 2025. · Introduced Jul 23, 2025 · Cong. 119 57%
  • S 1133 — Sunshine in the Courtroom Act of 2025 · Introduced Jun 23, 2026 · Cong. 119 56%
  • HR 6855 — White House Conference on Small Business Act of 2025 · Introduced Dec 18, 2025 · Cong. 119 55%

Text versions (1)
  • Introduced in Senate · Jun 23, 2026

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

Full text

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

June 23, 2026

Ms. Hirono introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL

To amend chapter 15 of title 28, United States Code, with respect to documentation requirements for a meeting of certain conferences and councils.

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 “Open Meetings Act of 2026”.

SEC. 2. DOCUMENTATION REQUIREMENT FOR MEETING OF CERTAIN CONFERENCES AND COUNCILS.

(a) In General.—Chapter 15 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: “Sec. 336. Documentation requirement for meeting of certain conferences and councils

“(a) Definition.—In this section, the term ‘covered meeting’ means a meeting of a conference or council undertaken pursuant to this chapter.

“(b) Notice Requirement.—

“(1) In general.—Not later than 30 days before a covered meeting, the Judicial Conference shall publish notice of the covered meeting on the internet website of the Judicial Conference, including the date, time, place, and agenda of the covered meeting.

“(2) Exception.—The Judicial Conference may waive for good cause the requirement under paragraph (1). If the Judicial Conference waives the requirement under paragraph (1), the Judicial Conference shall publish an explanation for why the requirement was not met on the internet website of the Judicial Conference.

“(c) Live Audio Streaming Requirement.—

“(1) In general.—Each covered meeting shall provide live audio streaming, accessible to the public without charge or registration.

“(2) Record.—The Judicial Conference shall maintain an archive of each live audio stream provided pursuant to paragraph (1).

“(3) Publication.—Not later than 7 days after the date of a covered meeting, the Judicial Conference shall publish on the internet website of the Judicial Conference an archive of the live audio stream required under paragraph (1) in a manner that is accessible to the public without charge or registration.

“(4) Exception.—

“(A) In general.—During each covered meeting, the conference or council—

“(i) shall resolve into a closed session when publication of the matter at issue is prohibited by law; or

“(ii) may, by a majority vote, resolve into a closed session as determined appropriate by the conference or council for consideration of a sensitive or confidential matter.

“(B) Statement.—Prior to resolving into a closed session under subparagraph (A), the conference or council shall state the reason for so resolving.”.

(b) Clerical Amendment.—The table of sections for chapter 15 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

“336. Documentation requirement for meeting of certain conferences and councils.”. <all>

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