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135 STAT. 337
PUBLIC LAW 117–40—SEPT. 24, 2021
Public Law 117–40
117th Congress
An Act
To amend the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, to
require the budget justifications and appropriation requests of agencies be made
publicly available.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Congressional Budget Justifica-
tion Transparency Act of 2021’’.
SEC. 2. PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF BUDGET JUSTIFICATIONS AND
APPROPRIATION REQUESTS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 3 of the Federal Funding Account-
ability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note) is
amended to read as follows:
‘‘SEC. 3. FULL DISCLOSURE OF FEDERAL FUNDS.
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not less frequently than monthly when prac-
ticable, and in any event not less frequently than quarterly, the
Secretary (in consultation with the Director and, with respect to
information described in subsection (b)(2), the head of the applicable
Federal agency) shall ensure that updated information with respect
to the information described in subsection (b) is posted on the
website established under section 2.
‘‘(b) INFORMATION TO BE POSTED.—
‘‘(1) FUNDS.—For any funds made available to or expended
by a Federal agency or component of a Federal agency, the
information to be posted shall include—
‘‘(A) for each appropriations account, including an
expired or unexpired appropriations account, the amount—
‘‘(i) of budget authority appropriated;
‘‘(ii) that is obligated;
‘‘(iii) of unobligated balances; and
‘‘(iv) of any other budgetary resources;
‘‘(B) from which accounts and in what amount—
‘‘(i) appropriations are obligated for each program
activity; and
‘‘(ii) outlays are made for each program activity;
‘‘(C) from which accounts and in what amount—
‘‘(i) appropriations are obligated for each object
class; and
‘‘(ii) outlays are made for each object class; and
‘‘(D) for each program activity, the amount—
‘‘(i) obligated for each object class; and
Time periods.
Consultation.
31 USC 6101
note.
Congressional
Budget
Justification
Transparency Act
of 2021.
Sept. 24, 2021
[S. 272]
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135 STAT. 338
PUBLIC LAW 117–40—SEPT. 24, 2021
‘‘(ii) of outlays made for each object class.
‘‘(2) BUDGET JUSTIFICATIONS.—
‘‘(A) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph—
‘‘(i) the term ‘budget justification materials’ means
the annual budget justification materials of a Federal
agency, or a component of a Federal agency, that are
submitted, in conjunction with the budget of the United
States Government submitted under section 1105(a)
of title 31, United States Code; and
‘‘(ii) the term ‘open Government data asset’ has
the meaning given that term in section 3502 of title
44, United States Code.
‘‘(B) INFORMATION.—The information to be posted—
‘‘(i) shall include any budget justification mate-
rials—
‘‘(I) for the second fiscal year beginning after
the date of enactment of this paragraph, and each
fiscal year thereafter; and
‘‘(II) to the extent practicable, that were
released for any fiscal year before the date of enact-
ment of this paragraph; and
‘‘(ii) shall not include budget justification materials
the disclosure of which is prohibited by law, that are
classified, or that are exempt from disclosure under
section 552(b) of title 5, United States Code.
‘‘(C) FORMAT.—Budget justification materials shall be
posted under subparagraph (B)—
‘‘(i) as an open Government data asset;
‘‘(ii) in a manner that enables users to download
individual reports, download all reports in bulk, and
download in bulk the results of a search, to the extent
practicable; and
‘‘(iii) in a structured data format, to the extent
practicable.
‘‘(D) DEADLINE.—The budget justification materials
required to be posted under subparagraph (B)(i) shall be
posted not later than 2 weeks after the date on which
the budget justification materials are first submitted to
Congress.
‘‘(E) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this para-
graph shall be construed to authorize a Federal agency,
or a component of a Federal agency, to destroy any budget
justification materials relating to a fiscal year before the
fiscal year described in subparagraph (B)(i).’’.
(b) INFORMATION
REGARDING
AGENCY
BUDGET
JUSTIFICA-
TIONS.—Section 1105 of title 31, United States Code, is amended
by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(i)(1) The Director of the Office of Management and Budget
shall make publicly available on a website, and continuously update,
a tabular list for each fiscal year of each agency that submits
budget justification materials, which shall include—
‘‘(A) the name of the agency;
‘‘(B) a unique identifier that identifies the agency;
‘‘(C) to the extent practicable, the date on which the budget
justification materials of the agency are first submitted to Con-
gress;
Update.
List.
Web postings.
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135 STAT. 339
PUBLIC LAW 117–40—SEPT. 24, 2021
‘‘(D) the date on which the budget justification materials
of the agency are posted online under section 3 of the Federal
Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31
U.S.C. 6101 note);
‘‘(E) the uniform resource locator where the budget justifica-
tion materials are published on the website of the agency;
and
‘‘(F) a single data set that contains the information
described in subparagraphs (A) through (E) with respect to
the agency for all fiscal years for which budget justifications
of the agency are made available under section 3 of the Federal
Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31
U.S.C. 6101 note) in a structured data format.
‘‘(2)(A) Each agency that submits budget justification materials
shall make the materials available on the website of the agency,
in accordance with the policies established by the Director of the
Office of Management and Budget under subparagraph (B).
‘‘(B) Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of
this subsection, the Director of the Office of Management and
Budget, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, shall
establish policies and data standards for agencies relating to making
available materials under subparagraph (A), which shall include
guidelines for making budget justification materials available in
a format aligned with the requirements of section 3(b)(2)(C) of
the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006
(31 U.S.C. 6101 note) and using a uniform resource locator that
is in a consistent format across agencies and is descriptive, memo-
rable, and pronounceable, such as the format of ‘agencyname.gov/
budget’.
‘‘(C) If the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
maintains a public website that contains the budget of the United
States Government submitted under subsection (a) and any related
materials, such website shall also contain a link to the tabular
list required under paragraph (1).
‘‘(3) In this subsection, the term ‘budget justification materials’
has the meaning given that term in section 3(b)(2) of the Federal
Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C.
6101 note).’’.
SEC. 3. DETERMINATION OF BUDGETARY EFFECTS.
The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of complying
with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go-Act of 2010, shall be determined
by reference to the latest statement titled ‘‘Budgetary Effects of
PAYGO Legislation’’ for this Act, submitted for printing in the
Definition.
Deadline.
Consultation.
Standards.
Guidelines.
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135 STAT. 340
PUBLIC LAW 117–40—SEPT. 24, 2021
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY—S. 272 (H.R. 22):
SENATE REPORTS: No. 117–23 (Comm. on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs).
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 167 (2021):
June 24, considered and passed Senate.
July 26, Aug. 23, considered and passed House.
Æ
Congressional Record by the Chairman of the Senate Budget Com-
mittee, provided that such statement has been submitted prior
to the vote on passage.
Approved September 24, 2021.
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