[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5536 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        H.R.5536

                     One Hundred Eighteenth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE SECOND SESSION

         Begun and held at the City of Washington on Wednesday,
         the third day of January, two thousand and twenty-four


                                 An Act


 
To require transparency in notices of funding opportunity, and for other 
                                purposes.

    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 ``Grant Transparency Act of 2023''.
SEC. 2. NOTICES OF FUNDING OPPORTUNITY TRANSPARENCY.
    (a) Definitions.--In this section:
        (1) Agency.--The term ``agency''--
            (A) has the meaning given the term ``Executive agency'' in 
        section 105 of title 5, United States Code; and
            (B) does not include the Government Accountability Office.
        (2) Competitive grant.--The term ``competitive grant'' means a 
    discretionary award (as defined in section 200.1 of title 2, Code 
    of Federal Regulations) awarded by an agency--
            (A) through a grant agreement or cooperative agreement 
        under which the agency makes payment in cash or in kind to a 
        recipient to carry out a public purpose authorized by law; and
            (B) the recipient of which is selected from a pool of 
        applicants through the use of merit-based selection procedures 
        for the purpose of allocating funds authorized under a grant 
        program of the agency.
        (3) Evaluation or selection criteria.--The term ``evaluation or 
    selection criteria'' means standards or principles for judging, 
    evaluating, or selecting an application for a competitive grant.
        (4) Notice of funding opportunity.--The term ``notice of 
    funding opportunity'' has the meaning given the term in section 
    200.1 of title 2, Code of Federal Regulations.
        (5) Rating system.--The term ``rating system''--
            (A) means a system of evaluation of competitive grant 
        applications to determine how such applications advance through 
        the selection process; and
            (B) includes--
                (i) a merit criteria rating rubric;
                (ii) an evaluation of merit criteria;
                (iii) a methodology to evaluate and rate based on a 
            point scale; and
                (iv) an evaluation to determine whether a competitive 
            grant application meets evaluation or selection criteria.
    (b) Transparency Requirements.--Each notice of funding opportunity 
issued by an agency for a competitive grant shall include--
        (1) a description of any rating system and evaluation and 
    selection criteria the agency uses to assess applications for the 
    competitive grant;
        (2) a statement of whether the agency uses a weighted scoring 
    method and a description of any weighted scoring method the agency 
    uses for the competitive grant, including the amount by which the 
    agency weights each criterion; and
        (3) any other qualitative or quantitative merit-based approach 
    the agency uses to evaluate an application for the competitive 
    grant.
    (c) Applications; Data Elements.--
        (1) In general.--The Director of the Office of Management and 
    Budget, in coordination with the Executive department designated 
    under section 6402(a)(1) of title 31, United States Code, shall 
    develop data elements relating to grant applications to ensure 
    common reporting by each agency with respect to applications 
    received in response to each notice of funding opportunity of the 
    agency.
        (2) Contents.--The data elements developed under paragraph (1) 
    shall include--
            (A) the number of applications received; and
            (B) the city and State of each organization that submitted 
        an application.
    (d) Rule of Construction.--With respect to a particular competitive 
grant, nothing in this Act shall be construed to supersede any 
requirement with respect to a notice of funding opportunity for the 
competitive grant in a law that authorizes the competitive grant.
    (e) No Additional Funds.--No additional funds are authorized to be 
appropriated for the purpose of carrying out this Act.
    (f) Effective Date.--
        (1) In general.--This Act shall take effect on the date that is 
    120 days after the date of enactment of this Act.
        (2) No retroactive effect.--This Act shall not apply to a 
    notice of funding opportunity issued before the date of enactment 
    of this Act.

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

                            Vice President of the United States and    
                                               President of the Senate.