I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 4894 

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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OCTOBER 29, 2019 

Mr. QUIGLEY (for himself and Mr. COLLINS of Georgia) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Reform, and in addition to the Committee on the Budget, for a period to 

be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 

concerned 

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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Congressional Budget 

5 Justification Transparency Act of 2019’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF BUDGET JUSTIFICATIONS 

2 AND APPROPRIATION REQUESTS. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 3 of the Federal Funding 

4 Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 

5 6101 note) is amended to read as follows: 

6 ‘‘SEC. 3. FULL DISCLOSURE OF FEDERAL FUNDS. 

7 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not less frequently than monthly 

8 when practicable, and in any event not less frequently than 

9 quarterly, the Secretary (in consultation with the Director 

10 and, with respect to information described in subsection 

11 (b)(2), the head of the applicable Federal agency) shall 

12 ensure that updated information with respect to the infor13 mation described in subsection (b) is posted on the website 

14 established under section 2. 

15 ‘‘(b) INFORMATION TO BE POSTED.— 

16 ‘‘(1) FUNDS.—For any funds made available to 

17 or expended by a Federal agency or component of a 

18 Federal agency, the information to be posted shall 

19 include— 

20 ‘‘(A) for each appropriations account, in21 cluding an expired or unexpired appropriations 

22 account, the amount— 

23 ‘‘(i) of budget authority appropriated; 

24 ‘‘(ii) that is obligated; 

25 ‘‘(iii) of unobligated balances; and 


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1 ‘‘(iv) of any other budgetary re2 sources; 

3 ‘‘(B) from which accounts and in what 

4 amount— 

5 ‘‘(i) appropriations are obligated for 

6 each program activity; and 

7 ‘‘(ii) outlays are made for each pro8 gram activity; 

9 ‘‘(C) from which accounts and in what 

10 amount— 

11 ‘‘(i) appropriations are obligated for 

12 each object class; and 

13 ‘‘(ii) outlays are made for each object 

14 class; and 

15 ‘‘(D) for each program activity, the 

16 amount— 

17 ‘‘(i) obligated for each object class; 

18 and 

19 ‘‘(ii) of outlays made for each object 

20 class. 

21 ‘‘(2) BUDGET JUSTIFICATIONS.— 

22 ‘‘(A) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph— 

23 ‘‘(i) the term ‘agency’ has the mean24 ing given that term in section 101 of title 

25 31, United States Code; and 


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1 ‘‘(ii) the term ‘budget justification 

2 materials’ means the annual budget jus3 tification materials of an agency that are 

4 submitted to Congress in support of the 

5 budget of the agency, in conjunction with 

6 the budget of the United States Govern7 ment submitted under section 1105(a) of 

8 title 31, United States Code, but does not 

9 include budget justification materials that 

10 are classified. 

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 begin15 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 mate22 rials shall be posted under subparagraph (B)— 

23 ‘‘(i) in an open format machine read24 able and text searchable; 


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1 ‘‘(ii) in a manner that enables users 

2 to download individual reports, download 

3 all reports in bulk, and download in bulk 

4 the results of a search, to the extent prac5 ticable; and 

6 ‘‘(iii) in a structured data format, to 

7 the extent practicable. 

8 ‘‘(D) DEADLINE.—The budget justification 

9 materials required to be posted under subpara10 graph (B)(i) shall be posted not later than 2 

11 weeks after the date on which the budget jus12 tification materials are first submitted to Con13 gress. 

14 ‘‘(E) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing 

15 in this paragraph shall be construed to author16 ize an agency to destroy any budget justifica17 tion materials relating to a fiscal year before 

18 the fiscal year described in subparagraph 

19 (B)(i).’’. 

20 (b) INFORMATION REGARDING AGENCY BUDGET

21 JUSTIFICATIONS.—Section 1105 of title 31, United States 

22 Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: 

23 ‘‘(i)(1) The Director of the Office of Management 

24 and Budget shall make publicly available on an internet 

25 website, and continuously update, a tabular list for each 


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1 fiscal year of each agency that submits to Congress budget 

2 justification materials in support of the budget of the 

3 agency, which shall include— 

4 ‘‘(A) the name of the agency; 

5 ‘‘(B) a unique identifier that identifies the 

6 agency; 

7 ‘‘(C) to the extent practicable, the date on 

8 which the budget justification materials of the agen9 cy are first submitted to Congress; 

10 ‘‘(D) the date on which the budget justification 

11 materials of the agency are posted online under sec12 tion 3 of the Federal Funding Accountability and 

13 Transparency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note); 

14 ‘‘(E) the uniform resource locator where the 

15 budget justification materials submitted to Congress 

16 are published on the website of the agency; and 

17 ‘‘(F) a single data set that contains the infor18 mation described in subparagraphs (A) through (E) 

19 with respect to the agency for all fiscal years for 

20 which budget justifications of the agency are made 

21 available under section 3 of the Federal Funding Ac22 countability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 

23 U.S.C. 6101 note) in a structured data format. 

24 ‘‘(2)(A) Each agency that submits to Congress budg25 et justification materials in support of the budget of the 


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1 agency shall make the materials available on the website 

2 of the agency. 

3 ‘‘(B) The Director of Office of Management and 

4 Budget shall establish best practices for agencies relating 

5 to making available materials under subparagraph (A)(i), 

6 which shall include guidelines for using a uniform resource 

7 locator that is in a consistent format across agencies and 

8 is descriptive, memorable, and pronounceable, such as the 

9 format of ‘agencyname.gov/budget’. 

10 ‘‘(C) If the Director of Office of Management and 

11 Budget maintains a public website that contains the budg12 et of the United States Government submitted under sub13 section (a) and any related materials, such website shall 

14 also contain a link to the tabular list required under para15 graph (1). 

16 ‘‘(3) In this subsection, the term ‘budget justification 

17 materials’ has the meaning given that term in section 3 

18 of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency 

19 Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note).’’. 

Æ 


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