113TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 994 AN ACT To expand the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 to increase accountability and transparency in Federal spending, and for other purposes. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 1 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Digital Accountability 3 and Transparency Act of 2014’’ or the ‘‘DATA Act’’. 4 5 SEC. 2. PURPOSES. The purposes of this Act are to— 6 (1) expand the Federal Funding Accountability 7 and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 8 note) by disclosing direct Federal agency expendi- 9 tures and linking Federal contract, loan, and grant 10 spending information to programs of Federal agen- 11 cies to enable taxpayers and policy makers to track 12 Federal spending more effectively; 13 (2) establish Government-wide data standards 14 for financial data and provide consistent, reliable, 15 and searchable Government-wide spending data that 16 is displayed accurately for taxpayers and policy mak- 17 ers on USASpending.gov (or a successor system that 18 displays the data); 19 (3) simplify reporting for entities receiving Fed- 20 eral funds by streamlining reporting requirements 21 and reducing compliance costs while improving 22 transparency; 23 (4) improve the quality of data submitted to 24 USASpending.gov by holding Federal agencies ac- 25 countable for the completeness and accuracy of the 26 data submitted; and † S 994 ES 3 1 (5) apply approaches developed by the Recovery 2 Accountability and Transparency Board to spending 3 across the Federal Government. 4 SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO THE FEDERAL FUNDING AC- 5 COUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY ACT OF 6 2006. 7 The Federal Funding Accountability and Trans- 8 parency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note) is amended— 9 (1) in section 2— 10 (A) in subsection (a)— 11 (i) in the matter preceding paragraph 12 (1), by striking ‘‘this section’’ and insert- 13 ing ‘‘this Act’’; 14 (ii) by redesignating paragraphs (1), 15 (2), and (3) as paragraphs (2), (4), and 16 (7), respectively; 17 (iii) by inserting before paragraph (2), 18 as so redesignated, the following: 19 ‘‘(1) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘Director’ means 20 the Director of the Office of Management and Budg- 21 et.’’; 22 (iv) by inserting after paragraph (2), 23 as so redesignated, the following: 24 25 ‘‘(3) FEDERAL AGENCY.—The term ‘Federal agency’ has the meaning given the term ‘Executive † S 994 ES 4 1 agency’ under section 105 of title 5, United States 2 Code.’’; 3 (v) by inserting after paragraph (4), 4 as so redesignated, the following: 5 ‘‘(5) OBJECT CLASS.—The term ‘object class’ 6 means the category assigned for purposes of the an- 7 nual budget of the President submitted under sec- 8 tion 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, to the 9 type of property or services purchased by the Fed- 10 eral Government. 11 ‘‘(6) PROGRAM ACTIVITY.—The term ‘program 12 activity’ has the meaning given that term under sec- 13 tion 1115(h) of title 31, United States Code.’’; and 14 (vi) by adding at the end the fol- 15 lowing: 16 17 ‘‘(8) SECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ means the Secretary of the Treasury.’’; 18 (B) in subsection (b)— 19 (i) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘of 20 the Office of Management and Budget’’; 21 and 22 (ii) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘of 23 the Office of Management and Budget’’; 24 (C) in subsection (c)— † S 994 ES 5 1 (i) in paragraph (4), by striking 2 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 3 (ii) in paragraph (5), by striking the 4 period at the end and inserting a semi- 5 colon; and 6 (iii) by adding at the end the fol- 7 lowing: 8 ‘‘(6) shall have the ability to aggregate data for 9 the categories described in paragraphs (1) through 10 (5) without double-counting data; and 11 12 ‘‘(7) shall ensure that all information published under this section is available— 13 ‘‘(A) in machine-readable and open for- 14 mats; 15 ‘‘(B) to be downloaded in bulk; and 16 ‘‘(C) to the extent practicable, for auto- 17 mated processing.’’; 18 (D) in subsection (d)— 19 (i) in paragraph (1)(A), by striking 20 ‘‘of the Office of Management and Budg- 21 et’’; 22 (ii) in paragraph (2)— 23 (I) in subparagraph (A), by strik- 24 ing ‘‘of the Office of Management and 25 Budget’’; and † S 994 ES 6 1 (II) in subparagraph (B), by 2 striking ‘‘of the Office of Management 3 and Budget’’; 4 (E) in subsection (e), by striking ‘‘of the 5 Office of Management and Budget’’; and 6 (F) in subsection (g)— 7 (i) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘of 8 the Office of Management and Budget’’; 9 and 10 (ii) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘of 11 the Office of Management and Budget’’; 12 and 13 14 15 16 (2) by striking sections 3 and 4 and inserting the following: ‘‘SEC. 3. FULL DISCLOSURE OF FEDERAL FUNDS. ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 3 years after the 17 date of enactment of the Digital Accountability and 18 Transparency Act of 2014, and monthly when practicable 19 but not less than quarterly thereafter, the Secretary, in 20 consultation with the Director, shall ensure that the infor21 mation in subsection (b) is posted on the website estab22 lished under section 2. 23 ‘‘(b) INFORMATION TO BE POSTED.—For any funds 24 made available to or expended by a Federal agency or † S 994 ES 7 1 component of a Federal agency, the information to be 2 posted shall include— 3 ‘‘(1) for each appropriations account, including 4 an expired or unexpired appropriations account, the 5 amount— 6 ‘‘(A) of budget authority appropriated; 7 ‘‘(B) that is obligated; 8 ‘‘(C) of unobligated balances; and 9 ‘‘(D) of any other budgetary resources; 10 11 ‘‘(2) from accounts and in what amount— 12 ‘‘(A) appropriations are obligated for each 13 program activity; and 14 ‘‘(B) outlays are made for each program 15 activity; 16 ‘‘(3) 17 which from which accounts and in what amount— 18 ‘‘(A) appropriations are obligated for each 19 object class; and 20 ‘‘(B) outlays are made for each object 21 class; and 22 ‘‘(4) for each program activity, the amount— 23 ‘‘(A) obligated for each object class; and 24 ‘‘(B) of outlays made for each object class. † S 994 ES 8 1 2 ‘‘SEC. 4. DATA STANDARDS. ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.— 3 ‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT OF STANDARDS.—The 4 Secretary and the Director, in consultation with the 5 heads of Federal agencies, shall establish Govern- 6 ment-wide financial data standards for any Federal 7 funds made available to or expended by Federal 8 agencies and entities receiving Federal funds. 9 ‘‘(2) DATA ELEMENTS.—The financial data 10 standards established under paragraph (1) shall in- 11 clude common data elements for financial and pay- 12 ment information required to be reported by Federal 13 agencies and entities receiving Federal funds. 14 ‘‘(b) REQUIREMENTS.—The data standards estab- 15 lished under subsection (a) shall, to the extent reasonable 16 and practicable— 17 ‘‘(1) incorporate widely accepted common data 18 elements, such as those developed and maintained 19 by— 20 ‘‘(A) an international voluntary consensus 21 standards body; 22 ‘‘(B) Federal agencies with authority over 23 contracting and financial assistance; and 24 ‘‘(C) accounting standards organizations; † S 994 ES 9 1 ‘‘(2) incorporate a widely accepted, nonpropri- 2 etary, searchable, platform-independent computer- 3 readable format; 4 ‘‘(3) include unique identifiers for Federal 5 awards and entities receiving Federal awards that 6 can be consistently applied Government-wide; 7 8 ‘‘(4) be consistent with and implement applicable accounting principles; 9 10 ‘‘(5) be capable of being continually upgraded as necessary; 11 12 ‘‘(6) produce consistent and comparable data, including across program activities; and 13 ‘‘(7) establish a standard method of conveying 14 the reporting period, reporting entity, unit of meas- 15 ure, and other associated attributes. 16 ‘‘(c) DEADLINES.— 17 ‘‘(1) GUIDANCE.—Not later than 1 year after 18 the date of enactment of the Digital Accountability 19 and Transparency Act of 2014, the Director and the 20 Secretary shall issue guidance to Federal agencies 21 on the data standards established under subsection 22 (a). 23 ‘‘(2) AGENCIES.— 24 ‘‘(A) IN 25 GENERAL.—Except as provided in subparagraph (B), not later than 2 years after † S 994 ES 10 1 the date on which the guidance under para- 2 graph (1) is issued, each Federal agency shall 3 report financial and payment information data 4 in accordance with the data standards estab- 5 lished under subsection (a). 6 ‘‘(B) NONINTERFERENCE WITH 7 AUDITABILITY OF DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 8 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS.— 9 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Upon request by 10 the Secretary of Defense, the Director may 11 grant an extension of the deadline under 12 subparagraph (A) to the Department of 13 Defense for a period of not more than 6 14 months to report financial and payment in- 15 formation data in accordance with the data 16 standards established under subsection (a). 17 ‘‘(ii) LIMITATION.—The Director may 18 not grant more than 3 extensions to the 19 Secretary of Defense under clause (i). 20 ‘‘(iii) NOTIFICATION.—The Director 21 of the Office of Management and Budget 22 shall notify the Committee on Homeland 23 Security and Governmental Affairs and the 24 Committee on Armed Services of the Sen- 25 ate and the Committee on Oversight and † S 994 ES 11 1 Government Reform and the Committee on 2 Armed Services of the House of Represent- 3 atives of— 4 ‘‘(I) each grant of an extension 5 under clause (i); and 6 ‘‘(II) the reasons for granting 7 such an extension. 8 ‘‘(3) WEBSITE.—Not later than 3 years after 9 the date on which the guidance under paragraph (1) 10 is issued, the Director and the Secretary shall en- 11 sure that the data standards established under sub- 12 section (a) are applied to the data made available on 13 the website established under section 2. 14 ‘‘(d) CONSULTATION.—The Director and the Sec- 15 retary shall consult with public and private stakeholders 16 in establishing data standards under this section. 17 18 ‘‘SEC. 5. SIMPLIFYING FEDERAL AWARD REPORTING. ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Director, in consultation 19 with relevant Federal agencies, recipients of Federal 20 awards, including State and local governments, and insti21 tutions of higher education (as defined in section 102 of 22 the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1002)), 23 shall review the information required to be reported by re24 cipients of Federal awards to identify— † S 994 ES 12 1 2 ‘‘(1) common reporting elements across the Federal Government; 3 4 ‘‘(2) unnecessary duplication in financial reporting; and 5 ‘‘(3) unnecessarily burdensome reporting re- 6 quirements for recipients of Federal awards. 7 ‘‘(b) PILOT PROGRAM.— 8 ‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 1 year 9 after the date of enactment of the Digital Account- 10 ability and Transparency Act of 2014, the Director, 11 or a Federal agency designated by the Director, 12 shall establish a pilot program (in this section re- 13 ferred to as the ‘pilot program’) with the participa- 14 tion of appropriate Federal agencies to facilitate the 15 development of recommendations for— 16 ‘‘(A) 17 standardized reporting across the Federal Government; 18 ‘‘(B) the elimination of unnecessary dupli- 19 cation in financial reporting; and 20 ‘‘(C) the reduction of compliance costs for 21 recipients of Federal awards. 22 ‘‘(2) 23 elements REQUIREMENTS.—The pilot program shall— 24 ‘‘(A) include a combination of Federal con- 25 tracts, grants, and subawards, the aggregate † S 994 ES 13 1 value of which is not less than $1,000,000,000 2 and not more than $2,000,000,000; 3 ‘‘(B) include a diverse group of recipients 4 of Federal awards; and 5 ‘‘(C) to the extent practicable, include re- 6 cipients who receive Federal awards from mul- 7 tiple programs across multiple agencies. 8 ‘‘(3) DATA 9 10 COLLECTION.—The pilot program shall include data collected during a 12-month reporting cycle. 11 ‘‘(4) REPORTING AND EVALUATION REQUIRE- 12 MENTS.—Each 13 pating in the pilot program shall submit to the Of- 14 fice of Management and Budget or the Federal 15 agency designated under paragraph (1), as appro- 16 priate, any requested reports of the selected Federal 17 awards. recipient of a Federal award partici- 18 ‘‘(5) TERMINATION.—The pilot program shall 19 terminate on the date that is 2 years after the date 20 on which the pilot program is established. 21 ‘‘(6) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 22 90 days after the date on which the pilot program 23 terminates under paragraph (5), the Director shall 24 submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and 25 Governmental Affairs and the Committee on the † S 994 ES 14 1 Budget of the Senate and the Committee on Over- 2 sight and Government Reform and the Committee 3 on the Budget of the House of Representatives a re- 4 port on the pilot program, which shall include— 5 ‘‘(A) a description of the data collected 6 under the pilot program, the usefulness of the 7 data provided, and the cost to collect the data 8 from recipients; and 9 ‘‘(B) a discussion of any legislative action 10 required and recommendations for— 11 ‘‘(i) consolidating aspects of Federal 12 financial reporting to reduce the costs to 13 recipients of Federal awards; 14 ‘‘(ii) automating aspects of Federal fi- 15 nancial reporting to increase efficiency and 16 reduce the costs to recipients of Federal 17 awards; 18 ‘‘(iii) simplifying the reporting re- 19 quirements 20 awards; and 21 ‘‘(iv) 22 for recipients improving of financial Federal trans- parency. 23 ‘‘(7) GOVERNMENT-WIDE IMPLEMENTATION.— 24 Not later than 1 year after the date on which the 25 Director submits the report under paragraph (6), † S 994 ES 15 1 the Director shall issue guidance to the heads of 2 Federal agencies as to how the Government-wide fi- 3 nancial data standards established under section 4 4(a) shall be applied to the information required to 5 be reported by entities receiving Federal awards 6 to— 7 ‘‘(A) reduce the burden of complying with 8 reporting requirements; and 9 ‘‘(B) simplify the reporting process, includ- 10 ing by reducing duplicative reports. 11 ‘‘SEC. 6. ACCOUNTABILITY FOR FEDERAL FUNDING. 12 ‘‘(a) INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORTS.— 13 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In accordance with para- 14 graph (2), the Inspector General of each Federal 15 agency, in consultation with the Comptroller General 16 of the United States, shall— 17 ‘‘(A) review a statistically valid sampling of 18 the spending data submitted under this Act by 19 the Federal agency; and 20 ‘‘(B) submit to Congress and make pub- 21 lically available a report assessing the complete- 22 ness, timeliness, quality, and accuracy of the 23 data sampled and the implementation and use 24 of data standards by the Federal agency. 25 ‘‘(2) DEADLINES.— † S 994 ES 16 1 ‘‘(A) FIRST REPORT.—Not later than 18 2 months after the date on which the Director 3 and the Secretary issue guidance to Federal 4 agencies under section 4(c)(1), the Inspector 5 General of each Federal agency shall submit 6 and make publically available a report as de- 7 scribed in paragraph (1). 8 ‘‘(B) SUBSEQUENT REPORTS.—On the 9 same date as the Inspector General of each 10 Federal agency submits the second and fourth 11 reports under sections 3521(f) and 9105(a)(3) 12 of title 31, United States Code, that are sub- 13 mitted after the report under subparagraph 14 (A), the Inspector General shall submit and 15 make publically available a report as described 16 in paragraph (1). The report submitted under 17 this subparagraph may be submitted as a part 18 of the report submitted under section 3521(f) 19 or 9105(a)(3) of title 31, United States Code. 20 ‘‘(b) COMPTROLLER GENERAL REPORTS.— 21 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In accordance with para- 22 graph (2) and after a review of the reports sub- 23 mitted under subsection (a), the Comptroller Gen- 24 eral of the United States shall submit to Congress 25 and make publically available a report assessing and † S 994 ES 17 1 comparing the data completeness, timeliness, quality, 2 and accuracy of the data submitted under this Act 3 by Federal agencies and the implementation and use 4 of data standards by Federal agencies. 5 ‘‘(2) DEADLINES.—Not later than 30 months 6 after the date on which the Director and the Sec- 7 retary issue guidance to Federal agencies under sec- 8 tion 4(c)(1), and every 2 years thereafter until the 9 date that is 4 years after the date on which the first 10 report is submitted under this subsection, the Comp- 11 troller General of the United States shall submit and 12 make publically available a report as described in 13 paragraph (1). 14 ‘‘(c) RECOVERY ACCOUNTABILITY 15 PARENCY 16 AND TRANS- BOARD DATA ANALYSIS CENTER.— ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may estab- 17 lish a data analysis center or expand an existing 18 service to provide data, analytic tools, and data man- 19 agement techniques to support— 20 ‘‘(A) the prevention and reduction of im- 21 proper payments by Federal agencies; and 22 ‘‘(B) improving efficiency 23 parency in Federal spending. 24 ‘‘(2) DATA 25 AVAILABILITY.—The and trans- Secretary shall enter into memoranda of understanding with Fed- † S 994 ES 18 1 eral agencies, including Inspectors General and Fed- 2 eral law enforcement agencies— 3 ‘‘(A) under which the Secretary may pro- 4 vide data from the data analysis center for— 5 ‘‘(i) the purposes set forth under 6 paragraph (1); 7 ‘‘(ii) the identification, prevention, 8 and reduction of waste, fraud, and abuse 9 relating to Federal spending; and 10 ‘‘(iii) use in the conduct of criminal 11 and other investigations; and 12 ‘‘(B) which may require the Federal agen- 13 cy, Inspector General, or Federal law enforce- 14 ment agency to provide reimbursement to the 15 Secretary for the reasonable cost of carrying 16 out the agreement. 17 ‘‘(3) TRANSFER.—Upon the establishment of a 18 data analysis center or the expansion of a service 19 under paragraph (1), and on or before the date on 20 which the Recovery Accountability and Transparency 21 Board terminates, and in addition to any other 22 transfer that the Director determines is necessary 23 under section 1531 of title 31, United States Code, 24 there are transferred to the Department of the 25 Treasury all assets identified by the Secretary that † S 994 ES 19 1 support the operations and activities of the Recovery 2 Operations Center of the Recovery Accountability 3 and Transparency Board relating to the detection of 4 waste, fraud, and abuse in the use of Federal funds 5 that are in existence on the day before the transfer. 6 7 ‘‘SEC. 7. CLASSIFIED AND PROTECTED INFORMATION. ‘‘Nothing in this Act shall require the disclosure to 8 the public of— 9 ‘‘(1) information that would be exempt from 10 disclosure under section 552 of title 5, United States 11 Code (commonly known as the ‘Freedom of Informa- 12 tion Act’); or 13 ‘‘(2) information protected under section 552a 14 of title 5, United States Code (commonly known as 15 the ‘Privacy Act of 1974’), or section 6103 of the 16 Internal Revenue Code of 1986. 17 18 ‘‘SEC. 8. NO PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION. ‘‘Nothing in this Act shall be construed to create a 19 private right of action for enforcement of any provision 20 of this Act.’’. 21 SEC. 4. EXECUTIVE AGENCY ACCOUNTING AND OTHER FI- 22 NANCIAL 23 PLANS. 24 MANAGEMENT REPORTS AND Section 3512(a)(1) of title 31, United States Code, 25 is amended by inserting ‘‘and make available on the † S 994 ES 20 1 website described under section 1122’’ after ‘‘appropriate 2 committees of Congress’’. 3 4 SEC. 5. DEBT COLLECTION IMPROVEMENT. Section 3716(c)(6) of title 31, United States Code, 5 is amended— 6 7 (1) by inserting ‘‘(A)’’ before ‘‘Any Federal agency’’; 8 (2) in subparagraph (A), as so designated, by 9 striking ‘‘180 days’’ and inserting ‘‘120 days’’; and 10 11 (3) by adding at the end the following: ‘‘(B) The Secretary of the Treasury shall notify Con- 12 gress of any instance in which an agency fails to notify 13 the Secretary as required under subparagraph (A).’’. Passed the Senate April 10, 2014. Attest: Secretary. † S 994 ES 113TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 994 AN ACT To expand the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 to increase accountability and transparency in Federal spending, and for other purposes.