H.R. 2061 — what changed
Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2013
From Introduced in House to Reported in House. 5 sections amended between Introduced in House and Reported in House.
Sec. 2 Purposes
The purposes of this Act are to—
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expand the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 by disclosing direct Federal agency expenditures and linking Federal contract, loan, and grant spending information to programs of Federal agencies in order to enable taxpayers and policymakers policy makers to track Federal spending more effectively;
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provide consistent, reliable, and searchable Government-wide spending data that is displayed accurately for taxpayers and policymakers policy makers on USASpending.gov;
analyze Federal spending data to proactively prevent waste, fraud, abuse, and improper payments;
simplify reporting for entities receiving Federal funds by streamlining reporting requirements and reducing compliance costs while improving transparency; and
improve the quality of data submitted to USASpending.gov by holding Federal agencies accountable for the completeness and accuracy of the data submitted.
Sec. 3 Amendments to the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006
Section 2 of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note) is amended—
in the section heading, by striking “full disclosure of entities receiving Federal funding” and inserting “disclosure of Federal funding”;
in subsection (a)—
by redesignating paragraphs (2) and (3) as paragraphs (3) and (7), respectively;
by inserting after paragraph (1) the following new paragraph (2):
“(2) Federal agency—The term “Federal agency” has the meaning given the term “Executive agency” under section 105 of title 5, United States Code.”
by inserting after paragraph (3), as redesignated by subparagraph (A), the following new paragraphs:
“(4) Federal funds—The term “Federal funds” means any funds that are made available to or expended by a Federal agency.
“(5) Object class—The term “object class” means the category assigned for purposes of the annual budget of the President submitted under section 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, to the type of property or services purchased by the Federal Government.
“(6) Program activity—The term “program activity” has the meaning given that term under section 1115(h) of title 31, United States Code.”
in paragraph (7), as redesignated by subparagraph (A)—
in subparagraph (B), by striking “paragraph (2)(A)(i)” and inserting “paragraph (3)(A)(i)”; and
in subparagraph (C), by striking “paragraph (2)(A)(ii)” and inserting “paragraph (3)(A)(ii)”;
in subsection (b)—
in paragraph (1)—
by striking “the Office of Management and Budget” and inserting “the Secretary of the Treasury” each place it appears;
added
in subparagraph (F)—
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in clause (i), by redesignating subclauses (I) and (II) as items (aa) and (bb), respectively;
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by redesignating clauses (i) and (ii) as subclauses (I) and (II); and
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by striking the period at the end of subclause (II) as so redesignated and inserting “; and”;
renumbered
was (5)(2)(3)
by redesignating subparagraphs (A) through (G) as clauses (i) through (vii), respectively, and adjusting the margin accordingly;
renumbered
was (5)(2)(4)
by striking “for each Federal award—” and inserting the following: “for all Federal funds—
“(A) for each Federal agency, component of a Federal agency, appropriations account, program activity, and object class (including any subcomponent of an object class), and other accounts or data as appropriate—
“(i) the amount of budget authority available;
“(ii) the amount obligated;
“(iii) the amount of outlays;
“(iv) the amount of any Federal funds reprogrammed or transferred; and
“(v) the amount of expired and unexpired unobligated balances; and
“(B) for each Federal award—”
renumbered
was (5)(2)(5)
in subparagraph (B)(iii), as so designated by this subparagraph, by inserting “, which shall be assigned a unique identifier,” after “information on the award”;
in paragraph (3)—
by striking “The Director of the Office of Management and Budget” and inserting “The Secretary of the Treasury”; and
by striking “the Director” and inserting “the Secretary”;
in paragraph (4)—
by striking “the Director of the Office of Management and Budget” and inserting “the Secretary of the Treasury”; and
by striking “the Director” and inserting “the Secretary”, each place it appears; and
by adding at the end the following:
“(5) Application of data standards—The Secretary of the Treasury shall apply the data standards established under subsection (e) to all data collection, data dissemination, and data publication required under this section.
“(6) Data feed to recovery accountability and transparency board—The Secretary of the Treasury shall provide the data described in paragraph (1) to the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board so that it can be included in the Recovery Operations Center described in subsection (h).”
in subsection (c)—
in paragraph (1)—
in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by striking “and Grants.gov” and inserting “Grants.gov, the Payment Automation Manager and Financial Information Repository and other data or databases from the Department of the Treasury, the MAX Information System of the Office of Management and Budget, and other data from Federal agencies collected and identified by the Office of Management and Budget”;
in subparagraph (B), by adding “and” at the end; and
by adding at the end the following:
“(C) specify such search shall be confined to Federal funds;”
in paragraph (2), by inserting “the Payment Automation Manager and Financial Information Repository and other data or databases from the Department of the Treasury, the MAX Information System of the Office of Management and Budget, other data from Federal agencies collected and identified by the Office of Management and Budget,” after “Grants.gov website,”;
in paragraph (4)—
by striking “shall be updated not later” and inserting the following: “shall be updated—
“(A) not later”
by adding at the end the following:
“(B) not less than once each quarter with information relating to Federal funds;”
in paragraph (5)—
by inserting “Federal funds and” before “Federal awards” the first place it appears;
by striking “subsection (a)(2)(A)(i) and those described in subsection (a)(2)(A)(ii)” and inserting “subsection (a)(3)(A)(i) and those described in subsection (a)(3)(A)(ii)”; and
by striking the period at the end and inserting a semicolon; and
by adding at the end the following:
“(6) shall have the ability to aggregate data for the categories described in paragraphs (1) through (5) without double-counting data; and
“(7) shall permit all information published under this section to be downloaded in bulk.”
by redesignating subsections (e), (f), and (g) as subsections (i), (j), and (k), respectively; and
by inserting after subsection (d) the following new subsections:
“(e) Department of the treasury requirements for data standards
“(1) In general—The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Administrator of General Services, and the heads of Federal agencies, shall establish Government-wide financial data standards for Federal funds, which shall—
“(A) include common data elements, such as codes, unique award identifiers, and fields, for financial and payment information required to be reported by Federal agencies and entities receiving Federal funds, including identifiers for Federal awards and entities receiving Federal awards;
“(B) to the extent reasonable and practicable, ensure interoperability and incorporate—
“(i) common data elements developed and maintained by an international voluntary consensus standards body, as defined by the Office of Management and Budget, such as the International Organization for Standardization;
“(ii) common data elements developed and maintained by Federal agencies with authority over contracting and financial assistance, such as the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council; and
“(iii) common data elements developed and maintained by accounting standards organizations; and
“(C) include data reporting standards that—
“(i) incorporate a widely accepted, nonproprietary, searchable, platform-independent computer-readable format;
“(ii) are consistent with and implement applicable accounting principles;
“(iii) are capable of being continually upgraded as necessary;
“(iv) are structured to specifically support the reporting of financial and performance-related data, such as that any data produced, regardless of reporting need or software used for creation or consumption, is consistent and comparable across reporting situations;
“(v) establish, for each data point, a standard method of conveying the reporting period, reporting entity, unit of measure, and other associated attributes; and
“(vi) incorporate nonproprietary standards in effect on the date of enactment of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2013.
“(2) Deadlines
“(A) Guidance—The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, shall issue guidance on the data standards established under paragraph (1) to Federal agencies not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2013.
“(B) Website—Not later than 1 year after the date on which the guidance under clause (i) is issued, the Secretary of the Treasury shall ensure that the website required under this section makes data publicly available in accordance with the data standards established under paragraph (1).
“(C) Agencies—Not later than 180 days after the date on which the guidance under subparagraph (A) is issued, each Federal agency shall collect, report, and maintain data in accordance with the data standards established under paragraph (1).
“(3) Consultation—The Secretary of the Treasury shall consult with public and private stakeholders in establishing data standards under this subsection.
“(f) Consolidated recipient financial reports—The Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall—
“(1) review the financial reporting required by Federal agencies for Federal award recipients to consolidate financial reporting and reduce duplicative financial reporting and compliance costs for recipients;
“(2) request input from Federal award recipients to reduce duplicative financial reporting, especially from State and local governments and institutions of higher education;
“(3) not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2013, provide guidance to the heads of Federal agencies regarding how to simplify the reporting requirements for Federal award recipients to consolidate financial reporting, reduce duplicative reporting, and reduce compliance costs, as appropriate; and
“(4) not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2013, submit to Congress a report regarding any legislative action required to consolidate, streamline, or reduce the cost of reporting requirements for Federal award recipients.
“(g) Accountability for Federal funding
“(1) In general—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2013, and every 2 years thereafter until the date that is 6 years after such date of enactment, the Inspector General of each Federal agency, in consultation with the Comptroller General of the United States, shall review a sampling of the data submitted under this Act by the agency, and shall submit to Congress and make publicly available a report on the completeness, timeliness, quality, and accuracy of the data sampled and the implementation and use of consistent data standards by the Federal agency.
“(2) Comptroller general
“(A) In general—Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2013, and every 2 years thereafter until the date that is 6 years after such date of enactment, and after review of the reports submitted under paragraph (1), the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to Congress and make publicly available a report on the completeness, timeliness, quality, and accuracy of the data submitted under this Act by each Federal agency and the implementation and use of consistent data standards by each Federal agency.
“(B) Ranking—The Comptroller General of the United States shall make available a ranking of Federal agencies regarding data quality, accuracy, and compliance with this Act.
“(h) Recovery accountability and transparency board
“(1) Resources and mechanisms—The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board shall develop and test information technology resources and oversight mechanisms to enhance the transparency of and detect and remediate waste, fraud, and abuse in Federal spending for Inspectors General.
“(2) Website—The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board shall maintain a website informing the public of its activities to identify waste, fraud, and abuse and increase transparency of Federal funds to provide support for Inspectors General.
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“(3) Recovery Operations Center—The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board shall establish and maintain a Recovery Operations Center as a Government-wide government-wide Internet-based data access system to carry out the functions described in paragraph (4).
“(4) Functions of the Recovery Operations Center—The functions referred to in paragraph (3) are the following:
“(A) In General—The Recovery Operations Center shall incorporate—
“(i) all information described in subsection (b)(1);
“(ii) other information maintained by Federal, State, local, and foreign government agencies; and
“(iii) other commercially and publicly available information.
“(B) Specific Functions—The Recovery Operations Center shall be designed and operated to carry out the following functions:
“(i) Combine information described in subsection (b)(1) with other compilations of information, including those listed in subparagraph (A).
“(ii) Permit agencies, in accordance with applicable law, to detect and remediate waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Sec. 4 Pilot program to evaluate consolidated recipient reporting
In general— Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, shall establish a pilot program relating to reporting by recipients of Federal funds (in this section referred to as the “pilot program”) for the purpose of increasing financial transparency to—
display the full cycle of Federal funds;
improve the accuracy of Federal financial data; and
develop recommendations for reducing reporting required of recipients of Federal funds by consolidating and automating financial reporting requirements across the Federal Government.
Requirements— The pilot program shall—
include recipients that collectively receive not less than $1,000,000,000 in Federal funds each fiscal year;
include recipients that receive Federal funds under multiple programs across multiple agencies; and
include recipients that collectively receive Federal funds under contracts, grants, and subawards.
Reporting and evaluation requirements— Each recipient of Federal funds participating in the pilot program shall submit to the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board reports on the finances of the selected Federal awards.
Publication of information— All the information collected by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board under the pilot program shall be made publicly available and searchable on the website established under section 2 of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note).
Termination— The pilot program shall terminate on the date that is 3 years after the date on which the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board establishes the pilot program.
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Report to congress—Report— Not later than 90 days after the date on which the pilot program terminates under subsection (e), the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board shall submit to the Office of Management and Budget, the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate, and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives a report on the pilot program, which shall include—
a description of financial data collected under the pilot program, the accuracy of the data provided, and the cost to collect the data from recipients; and
recommendations for—
consolidating some or all aspects of Federal financial reporting to reduce the costs to recipients of Federal funds;
automating some or all aspects of Federal financial reporting to increase efficiency and reduce the costs to recipients of Federal funds; and
improving financial transparency.
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Government-wide implementation— Not later than 90 days after the date on which the Office of Management and Budget receives the report required by subsection (f), the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall determine whether to authorize the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board to extend the recipient reporting requirements of the pilot program to all Federal funds. The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board shall begin requiring Government-wide recipient reporting at the start of the fiscal year that commences after the fiscal year during which such authorization is granted, and under such terms and conditions that the Board shall determine, in consultation with the Director.
Sec. 6 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 amendments
changed Division A of Public Law 111–5 is amended—
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in subsection 1501(4) section 1501 of title XV, by adding before the period at the end the following: “except that, in subtitle B, striking paragraph (4) and inserting the term means any funds that are obligated or expended by an agency from appropriations made under this or any other Act”;following:
added “(4) Covered funds—The term “covered funds”—
added “(A) except as provided in subparagraph (B), means any funds that are expended or obligated from appropriations made under this Act; and
added “(B) for purposes of sections 1522 and 1524, means funds that are expended or obligated by an agency from appropriations made under this or any other Act.”
in section 1512 of title XV, by adding at the end the following:
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“(i) Expiration—The requirements in this section shall expire on September 31, 30, 2013.”
in section 1523 of title XV, by adding at the end the following:
“(d) Expiration—The requirements in this section shall expire on September 30, 2013.”
in section 1526 of title XV, by adding at the end the following:
“(e) Expiration—The requirements in this section shall expire on September 30, 2013.”
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in section 1530 of title XV, by striking “September 30, 2013,” 2013.” and inserting “September 30, 2017.”.
Sec. 7 Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013 amendments
changed Division A of Public Law 113–2 is amended in section 904(d)—
by striking “for purposes related to the impact of Hurricane Sandy”;
by striking “related to the impact of Hurricane Sandy” after “receiving appropriations”; and
by striking “related to funds appropriated for the impact of Hurricane Sandy” after “on its activities”.