Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Reauthorization Act

This section establishes a sense of Congress that all federal, state, and local government records concerning civil rights cold cases should carry a presumption of immediate disclosure and eventually be made public. This sets a guiding principle for the Review Board's operations, encouraging maximum transparency and public access to historical information.

This amendment allows the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board to fully reimburse state and local governments for any expenses incurred when digitizing, photocopying, or mailing civil rights cold case records. The purpose is to facilitate the transmission of these records to the Archivist for inclusion in the national collection, removing financial barriers for compliance.

This amendment strikes a phrase from the original Act, clarifying that the general requirement for transmitting civil rights cold case records to the Archivist now explicitly applies to state and local governments. This removes a previous exception, ensuring these entities are fully included in the mandate to contribute records to the national collection.

This amendment modifies the original Act to specify that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) exemption for 'personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which 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 aims to prevent the withholding of older, potentially sensitive, records based on privacy concerns.

This section amends the original Act to extend the tenure of the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board from 7 years to 11 years. This provides the Board with an additional four years to complete its mandate of reviewing and facilitating the disclosure of civil rights cold case records, acknowledging the extensive nature of its work.