Acting on the Annual Duplication Report Act of 2020

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 4735 To address recommendations made to Congress by the Government Account- ability Office as detailed in its annual report on duplication, fragmenta- tion, and overlap, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES SEPTEMBER 24, 2020 Ms. HASSAN (for herself and Mr. PAUL) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs A BILL To address recommendations made to Congress by the Gov- ernment Accountability Office as detailed in its annual report on duplication, fragmentation, and overlap, 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 ‘‘Acting on the Annual 4 Duplication Report Act of 2020’’. 5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 6 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find- 7 ings: 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Oct 16, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4735.IS S4735 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 4735 IS (1) The annual reports prepared by the Comp- 1 troller General of the United States under section 21 2 of the Joint Resolution entitled ‘‘Joint Resolution 3 increasing the statutory limit on the public debt’’, 4 approved February 12, 2010 (13 U.S.C. 712 note), 5 have produced approximately $429,000,000,000 in 6 financial benefits for the Federal Government. 7 (2) 2020 marks the tenth year that the Comp- 8 troller General has prepared this valuable report, 9 and during that time, agencies have made significant 10 progress fully or partially addressing the over 900 11 actions identified by the Comptroller General in the 12 past decade. 13 (3) The 2020 report entitled ‘‘Additional Op- 14 portunities to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and 15 Duplication and Achieve Billions in Financial Bene- 16 fits’’ (GAO–20–2440SP) identified 168 new actions 17 that Congress or the executive branch can take to 18 improve efficiency and effectiveness across the Fed- 19 eral Government, and potentially to save tens of bil- 20 lions of dollars. 21 (4) Those financial benefits cannot be realized 22 without full implementation of the actions and rec- 23 ommendations set forth by the Comptroller General. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Oct 16, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4735.IS S4735 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 4735 IS (5) Of the 168 new actions, several require leg- 1 islation to be fully implemented, including— 2 (A) requiring the Secretary of the Treas- 3 ury to set cybersecurity standards for third- 4 party tax preparation companies to better pro- 5 tect taxpayer information, as well as requiring 6 the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Serv- 7 ice to organize and coordinate all aspects of the 8 Service’s efforts to protect taxpayer information 9 received from third-party preparers; 10 (B) requiring the Secretary of the Depart- 11 ment of Housing and Urban Development to 12 evaluate and report to Congress on the ade- 13 quacy of the Government National Mortgage 14 Association’s guaranty fee for single-family 15 mortgage-backed securities to provide capital 16 reserves to endure losses, as well as the Govern- 17 ment National Mortgage Association’s reliance 18 on contractors and their associated costs; and 19 (C) requiring the Secretary of the Navy to 20 submit reports to Congress if a critical cost es- 21 timate breach occurs within the major defense 22 ship acquisition program. 23 (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con- 24 gress that— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Oct 16, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4735.IS S4735 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 4735 IS (1) it is the responsibility of Congress and the 1 executive branch to take action to implement rec- 2 ommendations made in the annual reports of the 3 Government Accountability Office on reducing dupli- 4 cation, fragmentation, and overlap in Federal pro- 5 grams to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars by 6 achieving significant savings and avoiding wasteful 7 spending; and 8 (2) legislation and adequate resources are need- 9 ed to ensure that all potential financial benefits are 10 realized from the implementation of those rec- 11 ommendations. 12 SEC. 3. PROTECTING THE SECURITY OF TAXPAYER INFOR- 13 MATION HELD BY THIRD-PARTY PROVIDERS 14 BY IMPROVING COORDINATION AND ESTAB- 15 LISHING MINIMUM SECURITY REQUIRE- 16 MENTS TO REDUCE FRAGMENTATION. 17 (a) REGULATION OF SECURITY REQUIREMENTS FOR 18 TAX RETURN PREPARERS AND AUTHORIZED E-FILE 19 PROVIDERS.— 20 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 21 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec- 22 retary of the Treasury (or the Secretary’s delegate) 23 shall prescribe standards for the security of return 24 information and information technology systems that 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Oct 16, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4735.IS S4735 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 4735 IS are consistent with security standards issued by the 1 National Institute for Standards and Technology. 2 (2) PENALTY FOR FAILURE TO SECURE INFOR- 3 MATION.— 4 (A) IN GENERAL.—Section 6695 of the In- 5 ternal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by re- 6 designating subsection (h) as subsection (i) and 7 by inserting after subsection (g) the following 8 new subsection: 9 ‘‘(h) FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH ELECTRONIC RE- 10 TURN SECURITY STANDARDS.—Any person who is author- 11 ized by the Secretary to provide electronic filing services 12 and who fails to secure return information and informa- 13 tion technology standards in such manner as prescribed 14 by the Secretary shall pay a penalty of $500 for each such 15 failure. The maximum penalty imposed under this sub- 16 section on any person with respect to any calendar year 17 shall not exceed $25,000.’’. 18 (B) INFLATION ADJUSTMENT.—Section 19 6695(i) of such Code, as redesignated by sub- 20 paragraph (A), is amended— 21 (i) by redesignating paragraph (2) as 22 paragraph (3); 23 (ii) by inserting after paragraph (1) 24 the following new paragraph: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Oct 16, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4735.IS S4735 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 4735 IS ‘‘(2) FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH SECURITY 1 STANDARDS.—In the case of any failure described in 2 subsection (h) in a calendar year beginning after 3 2021, each of the dollar amounts under subsection 4 (h) shall be increased by an amount equal to such 5 dollar amount multiplied by the cost-of-living adjust- 6 ment determined under section 1(f)(3) for the cal- 7 endar year determined by substituting ‘calendar year 8 2020’ for ‘calendar year 2016’ in subparagraph 9 (A)(ii) thereof.’’; and 10 (iii) in paragraph (3) (as redesignated 11 by clause (i)), by striking ‘‘paragraph (1)’’ 12 and inserting ‘‘paragraph (1) or (2)’’. 13 (C) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments 14 made by this paragraph shall apply to failures 15 described in section 6695(h) of the Internal 16 Revenue Code of 1986 (as added by subpara- 17 graph (A)) after the date that is 60 days after 18 the date the Secretary prescribes the standards 19 required under paragraph (1). 20 (b) COORDINATION OF TAXPAYER INFORMATION SE- 21 CURITY.—Not later than 180 days after the date of enact- 22 ment of this Act, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue 23 shall develop an organizational plan to create a centralized 24 body or other governance structure to coordinate all as- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Oct 16, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4735.IS S4735 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •S 4735 IS pects of the Internal Revenue Service’s efforts to protect 1 return information while being held or transmitted by 2 those authorized by the Internal Revenue Service to pro- 3 vide electronic filing services. The Commissioner shall 4 transmit the organizational plan to the Committee on Fi- 5 nance of the Senate, the Committee on Homeland Security 6 and Governmental Affairs of the Senate, the Committee 7 on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, and 8 the Committee on Oversight and Reform of the House of 9 Representatives. 10 SEC. 4. OPTIMIZING REVENUE INTAKE AND SAVING TAX- 11 PAYER DOLLARS AT GINNIE MAE BY ASSESS- 12 ING CURRENT PRACTICES AND EXPLORING 13 ALTERNATIVE GOVERNANCE STRUCTURES 14 TO PROVIDE BETTER OVERSIGHT. 15 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 16 (1) the term ‘‘appropriate congressional com- 17 mittees’’ means— 18 (A) the Committee on Banking, Housing, 19 and Urban Affairs of the Senate; 20 (B) the Committee on Homeland Security 21 and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; 22 (C) the Committee on Financial Services of 23 the House of Representatives; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Oct 16, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4735.IS S4735 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •S 4735 IS (D) the Committee on Oversight and Re- 1 form of the House of Representatives; 2 (2) the term ‘‘Association’’ means the Govern- 3 ment National Mortgage Association; and 4 (3) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 5 of Housing and Urban Development. 6 (b) GUARANTY FEE STUDY AND REPORT.—Not later 7 than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the 8 Secretary shall conduct a study and submit to the appro- 9 priate congressional committees and the Comptroller Gen- 10 eral of the United States a report on the adequacy of the 11 guaranty fee of the Association for single-family mort- 12 gage-backed securities, which shall— 13 (1) evaluate the extent to which the level of the 14 guaranty fee for single-family mortgage-backed secu- 15 rities provides the Association with sufficient re- 16 serves to cover potential losses under different eco- 17 nomic scenarios, including adverse scenarios, based 18 on an actuarial or similar analysis; 19 (2) identify the types of standards that the As- 20 sociation could use to set the guaranty fee for single- 21 family mortgage-backed securities and evaluate 22 which standard or standards would enable the Asso- 23 ciation to set the guaranty fee at an appropriate 24 level in line with the mission of the Association; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Oct 16, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4735.IS S4735 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 •S 4735 IS (3) assess the benefits and costs of adopting a 1 risk-based guaranty fee for single-family mortgage- 2 backed securities that imposes a higher fee on higher 3 risk issuers; 4 (4) analyze how and to what extent an increase 5 in the guaranty fee (for all issuers and a subset of 6 riskier issuers) would affect borrowers’ financing, 7 closing, and other related costs for federally insured 8 mortgage loans; and 9 (5) if warranted, include recommendations for 10 any necessary amendments to the National Housing 11 Act (12 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to change the guaranty 12 fee for single-family mortgage-backed securities, in- 13 cluding for establishing a standard under which the 14 Association can determine the level of the guaranty 15 fee for single-family mortgage-backed securities. 16 (c) RELIANCE ON CONTRACTORS STUDY AND RE- 17 PORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 18 of this Act, the Secretary shall conduct a study and submit 19 to the appropriate congressional committees and the 20 Comptroller General of the United States a report evalu- 21 ating the workforce composition of the Association in con- 22 sideration of the critical functions of the Association, 23 which shall— 24 (1) analyze— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Oct 16, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4735.IS S4735 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 10 •S 4735 IS (A) the number of Federal employees and 1 contractors by type of role or position that the 2 Association uses to perform compliance, risk 3 management, and other critical functions, and 4 the cost of a full-time equivalent Federal em- 5 ployee versus a contractor for comparable roles 6 or positions; 7 (B) the extent to which the Association 8 could use Federal employees instead of contrac- 9 tors by role or position to perform critical func- 10 tions; 11 (C) the types and amounts of costs that 12 the Association could save by using Federal em- 13 ployees instead of contractors, where possible, 14 to perform critical functions, such as savings 15 from differences in pay and not having to over- 16 see contractors; 17 (D) whether the Association would face 18 any legal or other obstacles in using Federal 19 employees instead of contractors to perform 20 critical functions; and 21 (E) the potential negative and positive ef- 22 fects of using Federal employees instead of con- 23 tractors on the ability of the Association to 24 achieve the mission of the Association; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Oct 16, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4735.IS S4735 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 11 •S 4735 IS (2) if warranted, include recommendations for 1 any necessary amendments to the National Housing 2 Act (12 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to change the funding 3 structure of the Association. 4 (d) COMPENSATION STRUCTURE STUDY AND RE- 5 PORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 6 of this Act, the Secretary shall conduct a study and submit 7 to the appropriate congressional committees and the 8 Comptroller General of the United States a report evalu- 9 ating the workforce challenges of the Association, which 10 shall— 11 (1) analyze, quantitatively to the extent pos- 12 sible, the challenges of the Association in hiring and 13 retaining staff, including compensation, during the 14 3-year period preceding the report; 15 (2) identify and summarize the options that the 16 Association has pursued within existing authorities 17 to address the staffing challenges of the Association, 18 including which agencies or offices were involved, 19 and the key decisions and outcomes of those efforts; 20 (3) identify options that the Association did not 21 pursue within existing authorities to address the 22 staffing challenges of the Association and the rea- 23 sons for not pursuing those options; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 Oct 16, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4735.IS S4735 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 12 •S 4735 IS (4) identify and evaluate options outside of ex- 1 isting authorities that the Association could use to 2 address the staffing challenges of the Association 3 and the potential benefits and costs of those options; 4 and 5 (5) if warranted, include recommendations for 6 any nec [Text truncated for display. 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