H.R. 3087 — Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Reauthorization Act

This section amends the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-426), which established the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board to oversee the collection and public release of government records related to unsolved civil rights cold cases (generally, violent crimes prosecuted or prosecutable as federal civil rights violations before 1980), as follows: (1) expresses the sense of Congress that such records from federal, state, and local governments carry a presumption of immediate and eventual disclosure; (2) authorizes the Review Board, upon request, to reimburse state and local governments in full for expenses incurred in digitizing, photocopying, or mailing civil rights cold case records to the Archivist for inclusion in the collection; (3) eliminates the prior exception exempting state and local governments from the requirement to transmit civil rights cold case records to the collection; and (4) provides that the Freedom of Information Act exemption for personnel and medical files whose disclosure would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy (5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(6)) does not apply to civil rights cold case records created on or before January 1, 1990.

This section extends the tenure of the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board—from 7 years to 11 years—under the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act of 2018. (The board oversees the identification, review, and public release of federal records related to unsolved civil rights cold cases, generally those occurring between 1940 and 1979.)