OLL17708 S.L.C. 115TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. ll To enforce current law regarding the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES llllllllll Mr. CORNYN (for himself, Mr. MURPHY, Mr. SCOTT, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. HATCH, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. HELLER, and Mrs. SHAHEEN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on llllllllll A BILL To enforce current law regarding the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3 4 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fix NICS Act of 5 2017’’. 6 7 8 SEC. 2. ACCOUNTABILITY FOR FEDERAL DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES. Section 103 of the Brady Handgun Violence Preven- 9 tion Act (34 U.S.C. 40901) is amended— OLL17708 S.L.C. 2 1 2 3 4 5 (1) in subsection (e)(1), by adding at the end the following: ‘‘(F) SEMIANNUAL CERTIFICATION AND REPORTING.— ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The head of each 6 Federal department or agency shall submit 7 a semiannual written certification to the 8 Attorney General indicating whether the 9 department or agency is in compliance 10 with the record submission requirements 11 under subparagraph (C). 12 ‘‘(ii) SUBMISSION DATES.—The head 13 of a Federal department or agency shall 14 submit a certification to the Attorney Gen- 15 eral under clause (i)— 16 ‘‘(I) not later than July 31 of 17 each year, which shall address all rel- 18 evant records, including those that 19 have not been transmitted to the At- 20 torney General, in possession of the 21 department or agency during the pe- 22 riod beginning on January 1 of the 23 year and ending on June 30 of the 24 year; and OLL17708 S.L.C. 3 1 ‘‘(II) not later than January 31 2 of each year, which shall address all 3 relevant records, including those that 4 have not been transmitted to the At- 5 torney General, in possession of the 6 department or agency during the pe- 7 riod beginning on July 1 of the pre- 8 vious year and ending on December 9 31 of the previous year. 10 ‘‘(iii) CONTENTS.—A certification re- 11 quired under clause (i) shall state, for the 12 applicable period— 13 ‘‘(I) the total number of records 14 of the Federal department or agency 15 demonstrating that a person falls 16 within one of the categories described 17 in subsection (g) or (n) of section 922 18 of title 18, United States Code; 19 ‘‘(II) for each category of records 20 described in subclause (I), the total 21 number of records of the Federal de- 22 partment or agency that have been 23 provided to the Attorney General; and 24 ‘‘(III) the efforts of the Federal 25 department or agency to ensure com- OLL17708 S.L.C. 4 1 plete and accurate reporting of rel- 2 evant records, including efforts to 3 monitor compliance and correct any 4 reporting failures or inaccuracies. 5 6 ‘‘(G) IMPLEMENTATION ‘‘(i) IN PLAN.— GENERAL.—Not later than 1 7 year after the date of enactment of this 8 subparagraph, the head of each Federal 9 department or agency, in coordination with 10 the Attorney General, shall establish a plan 11 to ensure maximum coordination and auto- 12 mated reporting or making available of 13 records to the Attorney General as re- 14 quired under subparagraph (C), and the 15 verification of the accuracy of those 16 records, including the pre-validation of 17 those records, where appropriate, during a 18 4-year period specified in the plan. The 19 records shall be limited to those of an indi- 20 vidual described in subsection (g) or (n) of 21 section 922 of title 18, United States 22 Code. 23 ‘‘(ii) BENCHMARK REQUIREMENTS.— 24 Each plan established under clause (i) 25 shall include annual benchmarks to enable OLL17708 S.L.C. 5 1 the Attorney General to assess implemen- 2 tation of the plan, including— 3 4 ‘‘(I) qualitative goals and quantitative measures; 5 ‘‘(II) measures to monitor inter- 6 nal compliance, including any report- 7 ing failures and inaccuracies; 8 ‘‘(III) a needs assessment, in- 9 cluding estimated compliance costs; 10 and 11 ‘‘(IV) an estimated date by which 12 the Federal department or agency will 13 fully comply with record submission 14 requirements under subparagraph (C). 15 ‘‘(iii) COMPLIANCE DETERMINA- 16 TION.—Not 17 cal year beginning after the date of the es- 18 tablishment of a plan under clause (i), the 19 Attorney General shall determine whether 20 the applicable Federal department or agen- 21 cy has achieved substantial compliance 22 with the benchmarks included in the plan. 23 ‘‘(H) later than the end of each fis- ACCOUNTABILITY.—The Attorney 24 General shall publish, including on the website 25 of the Department of Justice, and submit to the OLL17708 S.L.C. 6 1 Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee 2 on Appropriations of the Senate and the Com- 3 mittee on the Judiciary and the Committee on 4 Appropriations of the House of Representatives 5 a semiannual report that discloses— 6 ‘‘(i) the name of each Federal depart- 7 ment or agency that has failed to submit 8 a required certification under subpara- 9 graph (F); 10 ‘‘(ii) the name of each Federal depart- 11 ment or agency that has submitted a re- 12 quired certification under subparagraph 13 (F), but failed to certify compliance with 14 the record submission requirements under 15 subparagraph (C); 16 ‘‘(iii) the name of each Federal de- 17 partment or agency that has failed to sub- 18 mit an implementation plan under sub- 19 paragraph (G); 20 ‘‘(iv) the name of each Federal de- 21 partment or agency that is not in substan- 22 tial compliance with an implementation 23 plan under subparagraph (G); 24 ‘‘(v) a detailed summary of the data, 25 broken down by department or agency, OLL17708 S.L.C. 7 1 contained in the certifications submitted 2 under subparagraph (F); 3 ‘‘(vi) a detailed summary of the con- 4 tents and status, broken down by depart- 5 ment or agency, of the implementation 6 plans established under subparagraph (G); 7 and 8 ‘‘(vii) the reasons for which the Attor- 9 ney General has determined that a Federal 10 department or agency is not in substantial 11 compliance with an implementation plan 12 established under subparagraph (G). 13 ‘‘(I) NONCOMPLIANCE PENALTIES.—For 14 each of fiscal years 2019 through 2022, each 15 political appointee of a Federal department or 16 agency that has failed to certify compliance 17 with the record submission requirements under 18 subparagraph (C), and is not in substantial 19 compliance with an implementation plan estab- 20 lished under subparagraph (G), shall not be eli- 21 gible for the receipt of bonus pay, excluding 22 overtime pay, until the department or agency— 23 ‘‘(i) certifies compliance with the 24 record submission requirements under sub- 25 paragraph (C); or OLL17708 S.L.C. 8 1 ‘‘(ii) achieves substantial compliance 2 with an implementation plan established 3 under subparagraph (G). 4 ‘‘(J) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The Attor- 5 ney General may use funds made available for 6 the national instant criminal background check 7 system established under subsection (b) to pro- 8 vide technical assistance to a Federal depart- 9 ment or agency, at the request of the depart- 10 ment or agency, in order to help the depart- 11 ment or agency comply with the record submis- 12 sion requirements under subparagraph (C). 13 ‘‘(K) 14 COURTS.—For APPLICATION TO FEDERAL purposes of this paragraph— 15 ‘‘(i) the terms ‘department or agency 16 of the United States’ and ‘Federal depart- 17 ment or agency’ include a Federal court; 18 and 19 ‘‘(ii) the Director of the Administra- 20 tive Office of the United States Courts 21 shall perform, for a Federal court, the 22 functions assigned to the head of a depart- 23 ment or agency.’’; and 24 (2) in subsection (g), by adding at the end the 25 following: ‘‘For purposes of the preceding sentence, OLL17708 S.L.C. 9 1 not later than 60 days after the date on which the 2 Attorney General receives such information, the At- 3 torney General shall determine whether or not the 4 prospective transferee is the subject of an erroneous 5 record and remove any records that are determined 6 to be erroneous. In addition to any funds made 7 available under subsection (k), the Attorney General 8 may use such sums as are necessary and otherwise 9 available for the salaries and expenses of the Federal 10 Bureau of Investigation to comply with this sub- 11 section.’’. 12 13 14 SEC. 3. REAUTHORIZATION OF NICS ACT RECORD IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM. (a) REQUIREMENTS TO OBTAIN WAIVER.—Section 15 102 of the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 16 2007(34 U.S.C. 40912) is amended— 17 (1) in subsection (a), in the first sentence— 18 (A) by striking ‘‘the Crime Identification 19 Technology Act of 1988 (42 U.S.C. 14601)’’ 20 and inserting ‘‘section 102 of the Crime Identi- 21 fication Technology Act of 1998 (34 U.S.C. 22 40301)’’; and 23 (B) by inserting ‘‘is in compliance with an 24 implementation plan established under sub- 25 section (b) or’’ before ‘‘provides at least 90 per- OLL17708 S.L.C. 10 1 cent of the information described in subsection 2 (c)’’; and 3 (2) in subsection (b)(1)(B), by inserting ‘‘or 4 has established an implementation plan under sec- 5 tion 107’’ after ‘‘the Attorney General’’. 6 (b) IMPLEMENTATION ASSISTANCE TO STATES.— 7 Section 103 of the NICS Improvement Amendments Act 8 of 2007 (34 U.S.C. 40913) is amended— 9 (1) in subsection (b)(3), by inserting before the 10 semicolon at the end the following: ‘‘, including 11 through increased efforts to pre-validate the contents 12 of those records to expedite eligibility determina- 13 tions’’; 14 15 (2) in subsection (e)— (A) in paragraph (1)— 16 (i) by striking ‘‘and’’; and 17 (ii) by inserting before the period at 18 the end the following: ‘‘, and $125,000,000 19 for each of fiscal years 2018 through 20 2022’’; and 21 (B) by striking paragraph (2) and insert- 22 ing the following— 23 ‘‘(2) DOMESTIC 24 TION INITIATIVE.— ABUSE AND VIOLENCE PREVEN- OLL17708 S.L.C. 11 1 ‘‘(A) ESTABLISHMENT.—For each of fiscal 2 years 2018 through 2022, the Attorney General 3 shall create a priority area under the NICS Act 4 Record 5 known as ‘NARIP’) for a Domestic Abuse and 6 Violence Prevention Initiative that emphasizes 7 the need for grantees to identify and upload all 8 felony conviction records and domestic violence 9 records. 10 Improvement Program (commonly ‘‘(B) FUNDING.—The Attorney General— 11 ‘‘(i) may use not more than 50 per- 12 cent of the amounts made available under 13 this subsection for each of fiscal years 14 2018 through 2022 to carry out the initia- 15 tive described in subparagraph (A); and 16 17 ‘‘(ii) shall give a funding preference under NARIP to States that— 18 ‘‘(I) have established an imple- 19 mentation plan under section 107; 20 and 21 ‘‘(II) will use amounts made 22 available under this subparagraph to 23 improve efforts to identify and upload 24 all felony conviction records and do- 25 mestic violence records described in OLL17708 S.L.C. 12 1 clauses (i), (v), and (vi) of section 2 102(b)(1)(C) by not later than Sep- 3 tember 30, 2022.’’; and 4 5 (3) by adding at the end the following: ‘‘(g) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The Attorney Gen- 6 eral shall direct the Office of Justice Programs, the Bu7 reau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and 8 the Federal Bureau of Investigation to— 9 ‘‘(1) assist States that are not currently eligible 10 for grants under this section to achieve compliance 11 with all eligibility requirements; and 12 13 14 15 16 ‘‘(2) provide technical assistance and training services to grantees under this section.’’. SEC. 4. REAUTHORIZATION OF THE NATIONAL CRIMINAL HISTORY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM. (a) STATE GRANT PROGRAM 17 IDENTIFICATION, 18 TION.—Section FOR INFORMATION, CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND COMMUNICA- 102 of the Crime Identification Tech- 19 nology Act of 1998 (34 U.S.C. 40301) is amended— 20 (1) in subsection (a)(3)— 21 (A) by redesignating subparagraphs (C), 22 (D), and (E) as subparagraphs (D), (E), and 23 (F), respectively; and 24 25 (B) by inserting after subparagraph (B) the following: OLL17708 S.L.C. 13 1 ‘‘(C) identification of all individuals who 2 have been convicted of a crime punishable by 3 imprisonment for a term exceeding 1 year’’; 4 (2) in subsection (b)(6)— 5 6 (A) by striking ‘‘(18 U.S.C. 922 note)’’ and inserting ‘‘(34 U.S.C. 40901(b))’’; and 7 (B) by inserting before the semicolon at 8 the end the following: ‘‘, including through in- 9 creased efforts to pre-validate the contents of 10 felony conviction records and domestic violence 11 records to expedite eligibility determinations, 12 and measures and resources necessary to estab- 13 lish and achieve compliance with an implemen- 14 tation plan under section 107 of the NICS Im- 15 provement Amendments Act of 2007’’; 16 (3) in subsection (d), by inserting after ‘‘un- 17 less’’ the following: ‘‘the State has achieved compli- 18 ance with an implementation plan under section 107 19 of the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 20 or’’; and 21 (4) in subsection (e)(1), by striking ‘‘2002 22 through 2007’’ and inserting ‘‘2018 through 2022’’. 23 (b) GRANTS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF CRIMINAL 24 RECORDS.—Section 106(b)(1) of the Brady Handgun Vio25 lence Prevention Act (34 U.S.C. 40302(1)) is amended— OLL17708 S.L.C. 14 1 (1) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A)— 2 (A) by striking ‘‘as of the date of enact- 3 ment of this Act’’ and inserting ‘‘, as of the 4 date of enactment of the Fix NICS Act of 5 2017,’’; and 6 (B) by striking ‘‘files,’’ and inserting the 7 following: ‘‘files and that will utilize funding 8 under this subsection to prioritize the identifica- 9 tion and transmittal of felony conviction records 10 and domestic violence records,’’; 11 (2) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 12 13 14 15 16 the end; (3) in subparagraph (C)— (A) by striking ‘‘upon establishment of the national system,’’; and (B) by striking the period at the end and 17 inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 18 (4) by adding at the end the following— 19 ‘‘(D) to establish and achieve compliance 20 with an implementation plan under section 107 21 of the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 22 2007.’’. OLL17708 S.L.C. 15 1 2 3 SEC. 5. IMPROVING INFORMATION SHARING WITH THE STATES. (a) IN GENERAL.—Title I of the NICS Improvement 4 Amendments Act of 2007 (34 U.S. 40911 et seq.) is 5 amended by adding at the end the following: 6 7 ‘‘SEC. 107. IMPLEMENTATION PLAN. ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 8 date of enactment of the Fix NICS Act of 2017, the Attor9 ney General, in coordination with the States and Indian 10 tribal governments, shall establish, for each State or In11 dian tribal government, a plan to ensure maximum coordi12 nation and automation of the reporting or making avail13 able of appropriate records to the National Instant Crimi14 nal Background Check System established under section 15 103 of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (34 16 U.S.C. 40901) and the verification of the accuracy of 17 those records during a 4-year period specified in the plan. 18 The records shall be limited to those of an individual de19 scribed in subsection (g) or (n) of section 922 of title 18, 20 United States Code 21 ‘‘(b) BENCHMARK REQUIREMENTS.—Each plan es- 22 tablished under this section shall include annual bench23 marks to enable the Attorney General to assess the imple24 mentation of the plan, including— 25 26 ‘‘(1) qualitative goals and quantitative measures; and OLL17708 S.L.C. 16 1 ‘‘(2) a needs assessment, including estimated 2 compliance costs. 3 ‘‘(c) COMPLIANCE DETERMINATION.—Not later than 4 the end of each fiscal year beginning after the date of the 5 establishment of an implementation plan under this sec6 tion, the Attorney General shall determine whether each 7 State or Indian tribal government has achieved substantial 8 compliance with the benchmarks included in the plan. 9 10 11 ‘‘(d) ACCOUNTABILITY.—The Attorney General— ‘‘(1) shall disclose and publish, including on the website of the Department of Justice— 12 ‘‘(A) the name of each State or Indian 13 tribal government that received a determination 14 of failure to achieve substantial compliance with 15 an implementation plan under subsection (c) for 16 the preceding fiscal year; and 17 ‘‘(B) a description of the reasons for which 18 the Attorney General has determined that the 19 State or Indian tribal government is not in sub- 20 stantial compliance with the implementation 21 plan, including, to the greatest extent possible, 22 a description of the types and amounts of 23 records that have not been submitted; and OLL17708 S.L.C. 17 1 ‘‘(2) if a State or Indian tribal government de- 2 scribed in paragraph (1) subsequently receives a de- 3 termination of substantial compliance, shall— 4 ‘‘(A) immediately correct the applicable 5 record; and 6 ‘‘(B) not later than 3 days after the deter- 7 mination, remove the record from the website of 8 the Department of Justice and any other loca- 9 tion where the record was published. 10 ‘‘(e) INCENTIVES.—For each of fiscal years 2018 11 through 2022, the Attorney General shall give affirmative 12 preference to all Bureau of Justice Assistance discre13 tionary grant applications of a State or Indian tribal gov14 ernment that received a determination of substantial com15 pliance under subsection (c) for the fiscal year in which 16 the grant was solicited.’’. 17 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents in 18 section 1(b) of the NICS Improvement Amendments Act 19 of 2007 (Public Law 110–180; 121 Stat. 2559) is amend20 ed by inserting after the item relating to section 106 the 21 following: ‘‘Sec. 107. Implementation plan.’’.