I 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 71 

To provide taxpayers with an annual report disclosing the cost and performance of Government programs and areas of duplication among them, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 3, 2017 

Mr. WALBERG (for himself, Mr. COOPER, Ms. SINEMA, Mr. ABRAHAM, Mr. 

ROYCE of California, Mr. LAMBORN, Mr. HUIZENGA, Mr. YODER, Mr. 

JOYCE of Ohio, Mrs. LOVE, Mr. BURGESS, Mr. LAMALFA, Mr. GOSAR, 

Mr. GOHMERT, Mr. FARENTHOLD, Mr. JODY B. HICE of Georgia, Mr. 

EMMER, Mr. TROTT, Mr. BISHOP of Utah, Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas, 

Mr. GUTHRIE, Mr. YOHO, Mr. COSTA, and Mr. CALVERT) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and 

Government Reform 

A BILL 

To provide taxpayers with an annual report disclosing the 

cost and performance of Government programs and areas 

of duplication among them, and for other purposes. 

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 ‘‘Taxpayers Right-To5 Know Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. INVENTORY OF GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1122(a) of title 31, 

3 United States Code, is amended— 

4 (1) by redesignating paragraphs (1) and (2) as 

5 paragraphs (2) and (3), respectively; 

6 (2) by inserting before paragraph (2), as so re7 designated, the following: 

8 ‘‘(1) DEFINITION OF PROGRAM.—For purposes 

9 of this subsection, the term ‘program’ means an or10 ganized set of activities by one or more agencies di11 rected toward a common purpose or goal.’’; 

12 (3) in paragraph (2), as so redesignated— 

13 (A) by striking ‘‘IN GENERAL.—Not later 

14 than October 1, 2012, the Office of Manage15 ment and Budget shall’’ and inserting 

16 ‘‘WEBSITE AND PROGRAM INVENTORY.—The 

17 Director of the Office of Management and 

18 Budget shall’’; 

19 (B) by striking subparagraph (C) and in20 serting the following: 

21 ‘‘(C) include on the website— 

22 ‘‘(i) a program inventory that shall 

23 identify each program of the Federal Gov24 ernment for which there is more than 

25 $1,000,000 in annual budget authority, 

26 which shall include— 


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1 ‘‘(I) any activity that is com2 monly referred to as a program by a 

3 Federal agency in communications 

4 with Congress, including any activity 

5 identified as a program in a budget 

6 request; 

7 ‘‘(II) any activity that is com8 monly referred to as a program by a 

9 Federal agency in communications 

10 with the public, including each pro11 gram for which financial awards are 

12 made on a competitive basis; and 

13 ‘‘(III) any activity referenced in 

14 law as a program after June 30, 

15 2019; and 

16 ‘‘(ii) for each program identified in 

17 the program inventory, the information re18 quired under paragraph (3) or paragraph 

19 (4), as applicable.’’; 

20 (4) in paragraph (3), as so redesignated— 

21 (A) in the matter preceding subparagraph 

22 (A), by striking ‘‘INFORMATION.—Information 

23 for each program described under paragraph 

24 (1)’’ and inserting ‘‘INFORMATION FOR LARGER

25 PROGRAMS.—Information for each program 


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1 identified in the program inventory required 

2 under paragraph (2) for which there is more 

3 than $10,000,000 in annual budget authority’’; 

4 (B) by striking subparagraph (C); 

5 (C) by redesignating subparagraph (B) as 

6 subparagraph (D); 

7 (D) by striking subparagraph (A) and in8 serting the following: 

9 ‘‘(A) an identification of the program ac10 tivities that are aggregated, disaggregated, or 

11 consolidated as part of identifying programs; 

12 ‘‘(B) for each program activity described in 

13 subparagraph (A), the amount of funding for 

14 the current fiscal year and previous 2 fiscal 

15 years; 

16 ‘‘(C) an estimate of the amount of funding 

17 for the program;’’; 

18 (E) in subparagraph (D), as so redesig19 nated, by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; and 

20 (F) by adding at the end the following: 

21 ‘‘(E) an identification of the statutes that 

22 authorize the program and any major regula23 tions specific to the program; 


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1 ‘‘(F) for any program that provides grants 

2 or other financial assistance to individuals or 

3 entities, for the most recent fiscal year— 

4 ‘‘(i) a description of the individuals 

5 served by the program and beneficiaries 

6 who received financial assistance under the 

7 program, including an estimate of the 

8 number of individuals and beneficiaries, to 

9 the extent practicable; 

10 ‘‘(ii) for each program for which the 

11 head of an agency determines it is not 

12 practicable to provide an estimate of the 

13 number of individuals and beneficiaries 

14 served by the program— 

15 ‘‘(I) an explanation of why data 

16 regarding the number of such individ17 uals and beneficiaries cannot be pro18 vided; and 

19 ‘‘(II) a discussion of the meas20 ures that could be taken to gather the 

21 data required to provide such an esti22 mate; and 

23 ‘‘(iii) a description of— 

24 ‘‘(I) the Federal employees who 

25 administer the program, including the 


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1 number of full-time equivalents with a 

2 pro rata estimate for full-time equiva3 lents associated with multiple pro4 grams; and 

5 ‘‘(II) other individuals whose sal6 ary is paid in part or full by the Fed7 eral Government through a grant, 

8 contract, cooperative agreement, or 

9 another form of financial award or as10 sistance who administer or assist in 

11 any way in administering the pro12 gram, including the number of full13 time equivalents, to the extent prac14 ticable; 

15 ‘‘(G) links to any evaluation, assessment, 

16 or program performance reviews by the agency, 

17 an Inspector General, or the Government Ac18 countability Office (including program perform19 ance reports required under section 1116) re20 leased during the preceding 5 years; and 

21 ‘‘(H) to the extent practicable, financial 

22 and other information for each program activity 

23 required to be reported under the Federal 

24 Funding Accountability and Transparency Act 

25 of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note).’’; and 


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1 (5) by adding at the end the following: 

2 ‘‘(4) INFORMATION FOR SMALLER PROGRAMS.— 

3 Information for each program identified in the pro4 gram inventory required under paragraph (2) for 

5 which there is more than $1,000,000 and not more 

6 than $10,000,000 in annual budget authority shall, 

7 at a minimum, include— 

8 ‘‘(A) an identification of the program ac9 tivities that are aggregated, disaggregated, or 

10 consolidated as part of identifying programs; 

11 ‘‘(B) for each program activity described in 

12 subparagraph (A), the amount of funding for 

13 the current fiscal year and previous 2 fiscal 

14 years; 

15 ‘‘(C) an identification of the statutes that 

16 authorize the program and any major regula17 tions specific to the program; 

18 ‘‘(D) for any program that provides grants 

19 or other financial assistance to individuals or 

20 entities, a description of the individuals served 

21 by the program and beneficiaries who received 

22 financial assistance under the program for the 

23 most recent fiscal year; and 

24 ‘‘(E) links to any evaluation, assessment, 

25 or program performance reviews by the agency, 


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1 an Inspector General, or the Government Ac2 countability Office (including program perform3 ance reports required under section 1116) re4 leased during the preceding 5 years. 

5 ‘‘(5) ARCHIVING.—After the end of each fiscal 

6 year, the Director of the Office of Management and 

7 Budget shall archive and preserve the information 

8 included in the program inventory required under 

9 paragraph (2) relating to that fiscal year.’’. 

10 (b) EXPIRED GRANT FUNDING.—Not later than Feb11 ruary 1 of each fiscal year, the Director of the Office of 

12 Management and Budget shall publish on a public website 

13 the total amount of undisbursed grant funding remaining 

14 in grant accounts for which the period of availability to 

15 the grantee has expired. 

16 SEC. 3. GUIDANCE AND IMPLEMENTATION. 

17 (a) GUIDANCE.—Not later than June 30, 2018, the 

18 Director of the Office of Management and Budget— 

19 (1) shall prescribe guidance to implement this 

20 Act, and the amendments made by this Act; 

21 (2) shall issue guidance to agencies to identify 

22 how the program activities used for reporting under 

23 the Federal Funding Accountability and Trans24 parency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note) are as25 sociated with programs identified in the program inVerDate Sep 11 2014 06:21 Jan 04, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H71.IH H71

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1 ventory required under section 1122(a)(2)(C)(i) of 

2 title 31, United States Code, as amended by sub3 section (a); 

4 (3) may issue guidance to agencies to ensure 

5 that the programs identified in the program inven6 tory required under section 1122(a)(2)(C)(i) of title 

7 31, United States Code, as amended by subsection 

8 (a), are presented at a similar level of detail across 

9 agencies and are not duplicative or overlapping; and 

10 (4) may, based on an analysis of the costs of 

11 implementation, and after submitting to Congress a 

12 notification of the action by the Director— 

13 (A) exempt from the requirements under 

14 section 1122(a) of title 31, United States Code, 

15 an agency that— 

16 (i) is not listed in section 901(b) of 

17 title 31, United States Code; and 

18 (ii) for the fiscal year during which 

19 the exemption is made, has budget author20 ity (as defined in section 3 of the Congres21 sional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 622)) 

22 of not more than $10,000,000; and 

23 (B) extend the implementation deadline 

24 under subsection (b) by not more than 1 year. 


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1 (b) IMPLEMENTATION.—This Act, and the amend2 ments made by this Act, shall be implemented not later 

3 than June 30, 2019. 

4 SEC. 4. NO ADDITIONAL FUNDS AUTHORIZED. 

5 No additional funds are authorized to carry out the 

6 requirements of this Act and the amendments made by 

7 this Act. Such requirements shall be carried out using 

8 amounts otherwise authorized. 

Æ 


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