[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 272 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]
S.272
One Hundred Seventeenth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT THE FIRST SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Sunday,
the third day of January, two thousand and twenty one
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 Justification
Transparency Act of 2021''.
SEC. 2. PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF BUDGET JUSTIFICATIONS AND APPROPRIATION
REQUESTS.
(a) In General.--Section 3 of the Federal Funding Accountability
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
practicable, 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
``(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
materials--
``(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
enactment 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 paragraph
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 Justifications.--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
Congress;
``(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
justification 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, memorable, 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 Congressional
Record by the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, provided that
such statement has been submitted prior to the vote on passage.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.