Congressional Budget Justification Transparency Act of 2019

II Calendar No. 436 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 2560 [Report No. 116–221] 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. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES SEPTEMBER 26, 2019 Mr. PETERS (for himself and Mr. PORTMAN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Secu- rity and Governmental Affairs MARCH 2, 2020 Reported by Mr. JOHNSON, with an amendment [Omit the part struck through] A BILL To amend the Federal Funding Accountability and Trans- parency 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 Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:14 Mar 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2560.RS S2560 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 2560 RS SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Congressional Budget 2 Justification Transparency Act of 2019’’. 3 SEC. 2. PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF BUDGET JUSTIFICATIONS 4 AND APPROPRIATION REQUESTS. 5 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 3 of the Federal Funding 6 Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 7 6101 note) is amended to read as follows: 8 ‘‘SEC. 3. FULL DISCLOSURE OF FEDERAL FUNDS. 9 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not less frequently than monthly 10 when practicable, and in any event not less frequently than 11 quarterly, the Secretary (in consultation with the Director 12 and, with respect to information described in subsection 13 (b)(2), the head of the applicable Federal agency) shall 14 ensure that updated information with respect to the infor- 15 mation described in subsection (b) is posted on the website 16 established under section 2. 17 ‘‘(b) INFORMATION TO BE POSTED.— 18 ‘‘(1) FUNDS.—For any funds made available to 19 or expended by a Federal agency or component of a 20 Federal agency, the information to be posted shall 21 include— 22 ‘‘(A) for each appropriations account, in- 23 cluding an expired or unexpired appropriations 24 account, the amount— 25 ‘‘(i) of budget authority appropriated; 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:14 Mar 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2560.RS S2560 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 2560 RS ‘‘(ii) that is obligated; 1 ‘‘(iii) of unobligated balances; and 2 ‘‘(iv) of any other budgetary re- 3 sources; 4 ‘‘(B) from which accounts and in what 5 amount— 6 ‘‘(i) appropriations are obligated for 7 each program activity; and 8 ‘‘(ii) outlays are made for each pro- 9 gram activity; 10 ‘‘(C) from which accounts and in what 11 amount— 12 ‘‘(i) appropriations are obligated for 13 each object class; and 14 ‘‘(ii) outlays are made for each object 15 class; and 16 ‘‘(D) for each program activity, the 17 amount— 18 ‘‘(i) obligated for each object class; 19 and 20 ‘‘(ii) of outlays made for each object 21 class. 22 ‘‘(2) BUDGET JUSTIFICATIONS.— 23 ‘‘(A) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:14 Mar 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2560.RS S2560 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 2560 RS ‘‘(i) the term ‘agency’ has the mean- 1 ing given that term in section 101 of title 2 31, United States Code; and 3 ‘‘(ii) the term ‘budget justification 4 materials’ means the annual budget jus- 5 tification materials of an agency that are 6 submitted to Congress in support of the 7 budget of the agency, in conjunction with 8 the budget of the United States Govern- 9 ment submitted under section 1105(a) of 10 title 31, United States Code. 11 ‘‘(B) INFORMATION.—The information to 12 be posted shall include the budget justification 13 materials of each agency— 14 ‘‘(i) for the second fiscal year begin- 15 ning after the date of enactment of this 16 paragraph, and each fiscal year thereafter; 17 and 18 ‘‘(ii) to the extent practicable, that 19 were released for any fiscal year before the 20 date of enactment of this paragraph. 21 ‘‘(C) FORMAT.—Budget justification mate- 22 rials shall be posted under subparagraph (B)— 23 ‘‘(i) in an open format; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:14 Mar 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2560.RS S2560 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 2560 RS ‘‘(ii) in a manner that enables users 1 to download individual reports, download 2 all reports in bulk, and download in bulk 3 the results of a search, to the extent prac- 4 ticable; and 5 ‘‘(iii) in a structured data format, to 6 the extent practicable. 7 ‘‘(D) DEADLINE.—The budget justification 8 materials required to be posted under subpara- 9 graph (B)(i) shall be posted not later than 2 10 weeks after the date on which the budget jus- 11 tification materials are first submitted to Con- 12 gress. 13 ‘‘(E) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing 14 in this paragraph shall be construed to author- 15 ize an agency to destroy any budget justifica- 16 tion materials relating to a fiscal year before 17 the fiscal year described in subparagraph 18 (B)(i).’’. 19 (b) INFORMATION REGARDING AGENCY BUDGET 20 JUSTIFICATIONS.—Section 1105 of title 31, United States 21 Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: 22 ‘‘(i)(1) The Director of the Office of Management 23 and Budget shall make publicly available on an internet 24 website, and continuously update, a tabular list for each 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:14 Mar 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2560.RS S2560 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •S 2560 RS fiscal year of each agency that submits to Congress budget 1 justification materials in support of the budget of the 2 agency, which shall include— 3 ‘‘(A) the name of the agency; 4 ‘‘(B) a unique identifier that identifies the 5 agency; 6 ‘‘(C) to the extent practicable, the date on 7 which the budget justification materials of the agen- 8 cy are first submitted to Congress; 9 ‘‘(D) the date on which the budget justification 10 materials of the agency are posted online under sec- 11 tion 3 of the Federal Funding Accountability and 12 Transparency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note); 13 ‘‘(E) the uniform resource locator where the 14 budget justification materials submitted to Congress 15 are published on the website of the agency; and 16 ‘‘(F) a single data set that contains the infor- 17 mation described in subparagraphs (A) through (E) 18 with respect to the agency for all fiscal years for 19 which budget justifications of the agency are made 20 available under section 3 of the Federal Funding Ac- 21 countability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 22 U.S.C. 6101 note) in a structured data format. 23 ‘‘(2)(A) Each agency that submits to Congress budg- 24 et justification materials in support of the budget of the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:14 Mar 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2560.RS S2560 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •S 2560 RS agency shall make the materials available on the website 1 of the agency. 2 ‘‘(B) The Director of Office of Management and 3 Budget shall establish best practices for agencies relating 4 to making available materials under subparagraph (A) (i), 5 which shall include guidelines for using a uniform resource 6 locator that is in a consistent format across agencies and 7 is descriptive, memorable, and pronounceable, such as the 8 format of ‘agencyname.gov/budget’. 9 ‘‘(C) If the Director of Office of Management and 10 Budget maintains a public website that contains the budg- 11 et of the United States Government submitted under sub- 12 section (a) and any related materials, such website shall 13 also contain a link to the tabular list required under para- 14 graph (1). 15 ‘‘(3) In this subsection, the term ‘budget justification 16 materials’ has the meaning given that term in section 3 17 of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency 18 Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note).’’. 19 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:14 Mar 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2560.RS S2560 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS Calendar No. 436 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 2560 [Report No. 116–221] A BILL To amend the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, to require the budget justifications and appropriation requests of agen- cies be made publicly available. MARCH 2, 2020 Reported with an amendment VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:14 Mar 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6651 Sfmt 6651 E:\BILLS\S2560.RS S2560 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS