---
kind: "diff"
citation: "H.R. 4887"
bill: "115-hr-4887"
heading: "Grant Reporting Efficiency and Agreements Transparency Act of 2018"
from: "ih"
from_label: "Introduced in House"
to: "rh"
to_label: "Reported in House"
sections_amended: 4
sections_added: 1
sections_removed: 0
url: "https://uscodex.org/bills/115/hr/4887/changes/rh"
---

# H.R. 4887 — what changed

H.R. 4887, Grant Reporting Efficiency and Agreements Transparency Act of 2018 — 4 sections amended and 1 added between Introduced in House and Reported in House.

Edits are marked `<del>struck</del>` and `<ins>inserted</ins>`.

## Sec. 3 Data standards for grant reporting

- (a) Amendment— Subtitle V of title 31, United States Code, is amended by inserting after chapter 63 the following new chapter:
  - “64 <del>Data standards for grant reporting</del><ins>DATA STANDARDS FOR GRANT REPORTING</ins>
  - “6401. Definitions
  - “In this chapter:
  - “(1) Agency—The term agency has the meaning given that term in section <del>551 </del><ins>552(f) </ins>of title 5.
  - “(2) Core <del>standard </del>data elements—The term core <del>standard </del>data elements means data elements that are not program-specific in nature and are required by <ins>agencies for </ins>all or the vast majority of Federal grant and cooperative assistance recipients for purposes of reporting.
  - “(3) Director—The term Director means the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
  - “(4) Federal award—The term Federal award—
  - “(A) means the transfer of anything of value for a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a law of the United States, including financial assistance and Government facilities, services, and property;
  - “(B) includes grants, subgrants, awards, and cooperative agreements; and
  - “(C) does not include—
  - “(i) conventional public information services or procurement of property or services for the direct benefit or use of the Government; or
  - “(ii) an agreement that provides only—
  - “(I) direct Government cash assistance to an individual;
  - “(II) a subsidy;
  - “(III) a loan;
  - “(IV) a loan guarantee; or
  - “(V) insurance.
  - “(5) Secretary—The term Secretary means the head of the standard-setting agency.
  - “(6) Standard-setting agency—The term standard-setting agency means the Executive department designated under section 6402(a)(1).
  - <ins>“(7) State—The term State means each State of the United States, the District of Columbia, each commonwealth, territory or possession of the United States, and each federally recognized Indian Tribe.</ins>
  - “6402. Data standards for grant reporting
  - “(a) In general
  - <ins>“(1) Designation of standard-setting agency—The Director shall designate the Executive department (as defined in section 101 of title 5) that issues the most Federal awards in a calendar year as the standard-setting agency.</ins>
  - <del>“(1) Designation of standard-setting agency—The Director shall designate the Executive department (as defined in section 101 of title 5) that issues the most Federal awards as the standard-setting agency.</del>
  - “(2) Establishment of standards—Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this chapter, the Secretary and the Director shall establish Governmentwide data standards for information reported by recipients of Federal awards.
  - “(3) Data elements—The data standards established under paragraph (2) shall include, at a minimum—
  - <del>“(A) a comprehensive taxonomy of standard definitions for data elements required for managing Federal awards; and</del>
  - <del>“(B) unique and nonproprietary identifiers </del><ins>“(A) standard definitions </ins>for <del>Federal awards and entities receiving </del><ins>data elements required for managing </ins>Federal <del>awards that can be consistently applied Governmentwide.</del><ins>awards; and</ins>
  - <del>“(b) Scope—The data standards established under subsection (a) shall include core standard data elements </del><ins>“(B) unique identifiers for Federal awards </ins>and <del>may cover any information required to be reported to any agency by recipients of </del><ins>entities receiving </ins>Federal <del>awards, including audit-related information reported under chapter 75 of this title.</del><ins>awards that can be consistently applied Governmentwide.</ins>
  - <ins>“(b) Scope—The data standards established under subsection (a) shall include core data elements and may cover any information required to be reported to any agency by recipients of Federal awards, including audit-related information reported under chapter 75 of this title.</ins>
  - “(c) Requirements—The data standards required to be established under subsection (a) shall, to the extent reasonable and practicable—
  - “(1) render information reported by recipients of Federal grant and cooperative agreement awards fully searchable and machine-readable;
  - <del>“(2) be nonproprietary;</del>
  - <del>“(3) </del><ins>“(2) </ins>incorporate standards developed and maintained by voluntary consensus standards bodies;
  - <del>“(4) </del><ins>“(3) </ins>be consistent with and implement applicable accounting and reporting principles; and
  - <del>“(5) </del><ins>“(4) </ins>incorporate the data standards established under the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note).
  - “(d) Consultation—In establishing the <del>core standard </del>data <del>elements </del><ins>standards </ins>under subsection (a), the Secretary and the Director shall consult with, as appropriate—
  - “(1) the Secretary of the Treasury, to ensure that the data standards incorporate the data standards created under the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note);
  - “(2) the head of each agency that issues Federal awards;
  - “(3) recipients of Federal awards and organizations representing recipients of Federal awards;
  - “(4) <del>software providers seeking to build tools that automatically compile and submit grant-related reports and organizations representing such software providers; and</del><ins>private sector experts;</ins>
  - “(5) members of the public, including privacy <del>experts and </del><ins>experts, </ins>privacy <del>advocates.</del><ins>advocates, and industry stakeholders; and</ins>
  - <del>“6403. Guidance applying standard data elements for grant reporting</del><ins>“(6) State and local governments.</ins>
  - <ins>“6403. Guidance applying data standards for grant reporting</ins>
  - “(a) In general—Not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this chapter—
  - “(1) the Secretary and the Director shall issue guidance to all agencies directing the agencies to apply the data standards established under section 6402 to all applicable reporting by recipients of Federal grant and cooperative agreement awards; and
  - “(2) the Director shall prescribe guidance applying the data standards to audit-related information reported under chapter 75.
  - “(b) Guidance—The guidance issued under this section shall—
  - “(1) to the extent reasonable and practicable—
  - “(A) minimize the disruption to existing reporting practices for agencies and for recipients of Federal grant and cooperative agreement awards; and
  - <del>“(B) explore opportunities to implement modern technologies within Federal award reporting; and</del>
  - <del>“(2) allow the Director </del><ins>“(B) explore opportunities </ins>to <del>permit exceptions on a case-by-case basis.</del><ins>implement modern technologies within Federal award reporting;</ins>
  - <ins>“(2) allow the Director to permit exceptions for categories of grants if the Director publishes a list of such exceptions, including exceptions for Indian Tribes and Tribal organizations consistent with the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act; and</ins>
  - <ins>“(3) take into consideration the consultation required under section 6402(d).</ins>
  - “6404. Agency requirements
  - “Not later than 3 years after the date of the enactment of this chapter, the head of each agency shall ensure that all of the agency’s grants and cooperative agreements use data standards for all future information collection requests and amend existing information collection requests covered by chapter 35 of title 44 (commonly referred to as the Paperwork Reduction Act) to comply with the data standards established under section 6402, consistent with the guidance issued by the Secretary and the Director under section 6403.”
- (b) Technical and conforming amendment— The table of chapters for subtitle V of title 31, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to chapter 63 the following new item:

## Sec. 5 Consolidation of assistance-related information; publication of public information as open data

- (a) Collection of information— Not later than 4 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary and the Director shall enable the collection, public display, and maintenance of Federal award information as a Governmentwide data set, using the data standards established under chapter 64 of title 31, United States Code, as added by section 3, subject to reasonable restrictions established by the Director to ensure protection of personally identifiable and otherwise sensitive information.
- (b) Publication of information— The Secretary and the Director shall require the publication of recipient-reported data collected from all agencies on a single public <del>website. </del><ins>portal. </ins>Information may be published on an existing Governmentwide website as determined appropriate by the Director.
- (c) <del>FOIA—</del><ins>Foia—</ins> Nothing in this section shall require the disclosure to the public of information that would be exempt from disclosure under section 552 of title 5, United States Code (commonly known as the “Freedom of Information Act”).

## Sec. 6 Evaluation of Nonproprietary Identifiers

- (a) <ins>Determination required—</ins> <ins>The Director and the Secretary shall determine whether to use nonproprietary identifiers under section 6402(a)(3)(B) of title 31, United States Code, as added by section 3(a).</ins>
- (b) <ins>Factors to be considered—</ins> <ins>In making the determination required pursuant to subsection (a), the Director and the Secretary shall consider factors such as accessibility and cost to recipients of Federal awards, agencies that issue Federal awards, private-sector experts, and members of the public, including privacy experts and privacy advocates.</ins>
- (c) <ins>Publication and report on determination—</ins> <ins>Not later than the earlier of 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act or the date on which the Secretary and Director establish data standards pursuant to section 6402(a)(2) of title 31, United States Code, as added by section 3(a), the Secretary and the Director shall publish and submit to the Committees on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate a report explaining the reasoning for the determination made pursuant to subsection (a).</ins>
- <del>In this Act, the terms agency, Director, Federal award, and Secretary have the meaning given those terms in section 6401 of title 31, United States Code, as added by section 3(a).</del>

## Sec. 7 Definitions

- <del>Nothing in </del><ins>In </ins>this Act, <del>or </del>the <del>amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to require </del><ins>terms agency, Director, Federal award, and Secretary have </ins>the <del>collection </del><ins>meaning given those terms in section 6401 </ins>of <del>data that is not otherwise required pursuant to any Federal award.</del><ins>title 31, United States Code, as added by section 3(a).</ins>

## Sec. 8 Rule of construction — added

- <ins>Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to require the collection of data that is not otherwise required pursuant to any Federal law, rule, or regulation.</ins>