As ordered reported by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on July 24, 2013
Under H.R. 2711, participation by a federal employee, acting in an official capacity, in an in-person or telephone conversation would constitute consent to a recording of that conversation by another participant in the conversation. The bill would require federal employees to provide written notice of the public’s right to record a conversation before meetings or phone calls take place. Agencies would be required to include a right-to-record statement on all written materials provided to the public as well as post that statement on their websites. Guidance on those statements would be provided by the Office of Management and Budget.
CBO expects that updating preprinted communications with the public would have no significant impact on administrative costs. The legislation also could affect direct spending by agencies not funded through annual appropriations; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. CBO estimates, however, that any net increase in spending by those agencies would not be significant. Enacting the bill would not affect revenues.
H.R. 2711 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments.
