[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 272 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 272
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
February 8, 2021
Mr. Peters (for himself, Mr. Portman, Mr. Carper, Mr. Cornyn, and Ms.
Ernst) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
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
agency (as defined in subsection (b)(1))) 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 `agency' has the meaning
given that term in section 101 of title 31,
United States Code;
``(ii) the term `budget justification
materials' means the annual budget
justification materials of an 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
``(iii) 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 any portion of the
budget justification materials the disclosure
of which is prohibited by law, that contains
classified information, or that is exempt from
disclosure under paragraph (1) of 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 an 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 30 days 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 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 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.
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