Stop the Outlay of Payments Act

II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 2056 To require agencies to notify the Director of the Office of Management and Budget when the agency suspends or terminates a Federal award, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 15, 2021 Ms. ERNST introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs A BILL To require agencies to notify the Director of the Office of Management and Budget when the agency suspends or terminates a Federal award, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Stop the Outlay of 4 Payments Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. FEDERAL GRANTS. 6 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 7 (1) AGENCY.—The term ‘‘agency’’ means— 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 07:11 Jun 23, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2056.IS S2056 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 2056 IS (A) an Executive agency, as defined in sec- 1 tion 105 of title 5, United States Code; and 2 (B) an independent regulatory agency, as 3 defined in section 3502 of title 44, United 4 States Code. 5 (2) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 6 the Director of the Office of Management and Budg- 7 et. 8 (3) FEDERAL AWARD.—The term ‘‘Federal 9 award’’ means a grant, subgrant, contract, sub- 10 contract, loan, award, or cooperative agreement 11 awarded by an agency. 12 (4) SUSPENDED ENTITY.—The term ‘‘sus- 13 pended entity’’ means a recipient of a Federal 14 award, any portion of which the head of an agency 15 suspends or terminates for a reason described in 16 subsection (b)(2). 17 (b) NOTIFICATION.— 18 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days 19 after the date on which an agency suspends or ter- 20 minates any portion of a Federal award to the re- 21 cipient of the Federal award for a reason described 22 in paragraph (2), the head of an agency shall notify 23 the Director of the suspension or termination. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 07:11 Jun 23, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2056.IS S2056 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 2056 IS (2) REASON FOR SUSPENSION OR TERMI- 1 NATION.—A reason for a suspension or termination 2 of a Federal award described in this paragraph is a 3 failure of the recipient of the Federal award to com- 4 ply with— 5 (A) the terms and conditions of the Fed- 6 eral award; 7 (B) a Federal law or regulation; or 8 (C) a request by the agency awarding the 9 Federal award for information or materials re- 10 lating to the Federal award. 11 (3) LIST OF SUSPENSIONS.—The Director shall 12 maintain an up-to-date list of suspended entities on 13 the website of the Office of Management and Budg- 14 et. 15 (c) EFFECT ON OTHER GRANTS.— 16 (1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 17 the head of an agency may not award a Federal 18 award or disburse funds under a Federal award to 19 a suspended entity until the date on which the sus- 20 pended entity remedies the reason for a suspension 21 or termination of a Federal award of the suspended 22 entity under subsection (b)(2). 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 07:11 Jun 23, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2056.IS S2056 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 2056 IS (2) EXCEPTIONS.—The head of an agency may 1 award a Federal award and disburse funds under a 2 Federal award to a suspended entity if— 3 (A) the suspended entity has been classi- 4 fied as a suspended entity as a result of a cler- 5 ical error; or 6 (B) the suspended entity has an agreement 7 with the agency that suspends or terminates the 8 Federal award of the suspended entity to re- 9 solve the reason for the suspension or termi- 10 nation described in subsection (b)(2). 11 (3) COMPLIANCE.—For the purpose of com- 12 plying with paragraph (1), the head of an agency 13 shall reference the list of suspended entities main- 14 tained by the Director under subsection (b)(3). 15 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 07:11 Jun 23, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S2056.IS S2056 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS