IIB 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 150 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 18, 2019 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and 

Governmental Affairs 

AN ACT 

To modernize Federal grant reporting, 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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Grant Reporting Effi3 ciency and Agreements Transparency Act of 2019’’ or the 

4 ‘‘GREAT Act’’. 

5 SEC. 2. PURPOSES. 

6 The purposes of this Act are to— 

7 (1) modernize reporting by recipients of Federal 

8 grants and cooperative agreements by creating and 

9 imposing data standards for the information that 

10 grants and cooperative agreement recipients must 

11 report to the Federal Government; 

12 (2) implement the recommendation by the Di13 rector of the Office of Management and Budget, 

14 under section 5(b)(6) of the Federal Funding Ac15 countability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 

16 U.S.C. 6101 note), which includes the development 

17 of a ‘‘comprehensive taxonomy of standard defini18 tions for core data elements required for managing 

19 Federal financial assistance awards’’; 

20 (3) reduce burden and compliance costs of re21 cipients of Federal grants and cooperative agree22 ments by enabling technology solutions, existing or 

23 yet to be developed, by both the public and private 

24 sectors, to better manage data recipients already 

25 provide to the Federal Government; and 


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1 (4) to strengthen oversight and management of 

2 Federal grants and cooperative agreements by agen3 cies through consolidated collection and display of 

4 and access to open data that has been standardized, 

5 and where appropriate, transparency to the public. 

6 SEC. 3. DATA STANDARDS FOR GRANT REPORTING. 

7 (a) AMENDMENT.—Subtitle V of title 31, United 

8 States Code, is amended by inserting after chapter 63 the 

9 following new chapter: 

10 ‘‘CHAPTER 64—DATA STANDARDS FOR 

11 GRANT REPORTING 

12 ‘‘SEC. 6401. DEFINITIONS. 

13 ‘‘In this chapter: 

14 ‘‘(1) AGENCY.—The term ‘agency’ has the 

15 meaning given that term in section 552(f) of title 5. 

16 ‘‘(2) CORE DATA ELEMENTS.—The term ‘core 

17 data elements’ means data elements that are not 

18 program-specific in nature and are required by agen19 cies for all or the vast majority of Federal grant and 

20 cooperative assistance recipients for purposes of re21 porting. 

22 ‘‘(3) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘Director’ means 

23 the Director of the Office of Management and Budg24 et. 


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1 ‘‘(4) FEDERAL AWARD.—The term ‘Federal 

2 award’— 

3 ‘‘(A) means the transfer of anything of 

4 value for a public purpose of support or stimu5 lation authorized by a law of the United States, 

6 including financial assistance and Government 

7 facilities, services, and property; 

8 ‘‘(B) includes grants, subgrants, awards, 

9 and cooperative agreements; and 

10 ‘‘(C) does not include— 

11 ‘‘(i) conventional public information 

12 services or procurement of property or 

13 services for the direct benefit or use of the 

14 Government; or 

15 ‘‘(ii) an agreement that provides 

16 only— 

17 ‘‘(I) direct Government cash as18 sistance to an individual; 

19 ‘‘(II) a subsidy; 

20 ‘‘(III) a loan; 

21 ‘‘(IV) a loan guarantee; or 

22 ‘‘(V) insurance. 

23 ‘‘(5) SECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ means 

24 the head of the standard-setting agency. 


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1 ‘‘(6) STANDARD-SETTING AGENCY.—The term 

2 ‘standard-setting agency’ means the Executive de3 partment designated under section 6402(a)(1). 

4 ‘‘(7) STATE.—The term ‘State’ means each 

5 State of the United States, the District of Columbia, 

6 each commonwealth, territory or possession of the 

7 United States, and each federally recognized Indian 

8 Tribe. 

9 ‘‘SEC. 6402. DATA STANDARDS FOR GRANT REPORTING. 

10 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.— 

11 ‘‘(1) DESIGNATION OF STANDARD-SETTING

12 AGENCY.—The Director shall designate the Execu13 tive department (as defined in section 101 of title 5) 

14 that issues the most Federal awards in a calendar 

15 year as the standard-setting agency. 

16 ‘‘(2) ESTABLISHMENT OF STANDARDS.—Not 

17 later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of 

18 this chapter, the Secretary and the Director shall es19 tablish Governmentwide data standards for informa20 tion reported by recipients of Federal awards. 

21 ‘‘(3) DATA ELEMENTS.—The data standards 

22 established under paragraph (2) shall include, at a 

23 minimum— 

24 ‘‘(A) standard definitions for data elements 

25 required for managing Federal awards; and 


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1 ‘‘(B) unique identifiers for Federal awards 

2 and entities receiving Federal awards that can 

3 be consistently applied Governmentwide. 

4 ‘‘(b) SCOPE.—The data standards established under 

5 subsection (a) shall include core data elements and may 

6 cover any information required to be reported to any agen7 cy by recipients of Federal awards, including audit-related 

8 information reported under chapter 75 of this title. 

9 ‘‘(c) REQUIREMENTS.—The data standards required 

10 to be established under subsection (a) shall, to the extent 

11 reasonable and practicable— 

12 ‘‘(1) render information reported by recipients 

13 of Federal grant and cooperative agreement awards 

14 fully searchable and machine-readable; 

15 ‘‘(2) be nonproprietary; 

16 ‘‘(3) incorporate standards developed and main17 tained by voluntary consensus standards bodies; 

18 ‘‘(4) be consistent with and implement applica19 ble accounting and reporting principles; and 

20 ‘‘(5) incorporate the data standards established 

21 under the Federal Funding Accountability and 

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

23 ‘‘(d) CONSULTATION.—In establishing the data 

24 standards under subsection (a), the Secretary and the Di25 rector shall consult with, as appropriate— 


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1 ‘‘(1) the Secretary of the Treasury, to ensure 

2 that the data standards incorporate the data stand3 ards created under the Federal Funding Account4 ability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 

5 6101 note); 

6 ‘‘(2) the head of each agency that issues Fed7 eral awards; 

8 ‘‘(3) recipients of Federal awards and organiza9 tions representing recipients of Federal awards; 

10 ‘‘(4) private sector experts; 

11 ‘‘(5) members of the public, including privacy 

12 experts, privacy advocates, and industry stake13 holders; and 

14 ‘‘(6) State and local governments. 

15 ‘‘SEC. 6403. GUIDANCE APPLYING DATA STANDARDS FOR 

16 GRANT REPORTING. 

17 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after the 

18 date of the enactment of this chapter— 

19 ‘‘(1) the Secretary and the Director shall issue 

20 guidance to all agencies directing the agencies to 

21 apply the data standards established under section 

22 6402 to all applicable reporting by recipients of Fed23 eral grant and cooperative agreement awards; and 


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1 ‘‘(2) the Director shall prescribe guidance ap2 plying the data standards to audit-related informa3 tion reported under chapter 75. 

4 ‘‘(b) GUIDANCE.—The guidance issued under this 

5 section shall— 

6 ‘‘(1) to the extent reasonable and practicable— 

7 ‘‘(A) minimize the disruption to existing 

8 reporting practices for agencies and for recipi9 ents of Federal grant and cooperative agree10 ment awards; and 

11 ‘‘(B) explore opportunities to implement 

12 modern technologies within Federal award re13 porting; 

14 ‘‘(2) allow the Director to permit exceptions for 

15 categories of grants if the Director publishes a list 

16 of such exceptions, including exceptions for Indian 

17 Tribes and Tribal organizations consistent with the 

18 Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance 

19 Act; and 

20 ‘‘(3) take into consideration the consultation re21 quired under section 6402(d). 

22 ‘‘SEC. 6404. AGENCY REQUIREMENTS. 

23 ‘‘Not later than 3 years after the date of the enact24 ment of this chapter, the head of each agency shall ensure 

25 that all of the agency’s grants and cooperative agreements 


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1 use data standards for all future information collection re2 quests and amend existing information collection requests 

3 covered by chapter 35 of title 44 (commonly referred to 

4 as the Paperwork Reduction Act) to comply with the data 

5 standards established under section 6402, consistent with 

6 the guidance issued by the Secretary and the Director 

7 under section 6403.’’. 

8 (b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.— 

9 The table of chapters for subtitle V of title 31, United 

10 States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relat11 ing to chapter 63 the following new item: 

‘‘64. Data Standards for Grant Reporting 6401’’. 

12 SEC. 4. SINGLE AUDIT ACT. 

13 (a) AMENDMENTS.— 

14 (1) Section 7502(h) of title 31, United States 

15 Code, is amended by inserting before ‘‘to a Federal 

16 clearinghouse’’ the following ‘‘in an electronic form 

17 consistent with the data standards established under 

18 chapter 64,’’. 

19 (2) Section 7505 of title 31, United States 

20 Code, is amended by adding at the end the following 

21 new subsection: 

22 ‘‘(d) Such guidance shall require audit-related infor23 mation reported under this chapter to be reported in an 

24 electronic form consistent with the data standards estab25 lished under chapter 64.’’. 


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1 (b) GUIDANCE.—Not later than 2 years after the 

2 date of the enactment of this Act, the Director shall issue 

3 guidance requiring audit-related information reported 

4 under chapter 75 of title 31, United States Code, to be 

5 reported in an electronic form consistent with the data 

6 standards established under chapter 64 of title 31, United 

7 States Code, as added by section 3. 

8 SEC. 5. CONSOLIDATION OF ASSISTANCE-RELATED INFOR9 MATION; PUBLICATION OF PUBLIC INFORMA10 TION AS OPEN DATA. 

11 (a) COLLECTION OF INFORMATION.—Not later than 

12 4 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

13 Secretary and the Director shall enable the collection, pub14 lic display, and maintenance of Federal award information 

15 as a Governmentwide data set, using the data standards 

16 established under chapter 64 of title 31, United States 

17 Code, as added by section 3, subject to reasonable restric18 tions established by the Director to ensure protection of 

19 personally identifiable and otherwise sensitive information. 

20 (b) PUBLICATION OF INFORMATION.—The Secretary 

21 and the Director shall require the publication of recipient22 reported data collected from all agencies on a single public 

23 portal. Information may be published on an existing Gov24 ernmentwide website as determined appropriate by the Di25 rector. 


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1 (c) FOIA.—Nothing in this section shall require the 

2 disclosure to the public of information that would be ex3 empt from disclosure under section 552 of title 5, United 

4 States Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Freedom of Infor5 mation Act’’). 

6 SEC. 6. EVALUATION OF NONPROPRIETARY IDENTIFIERS. 

7 (a) DETERMINATION REQUIRED.—The Director and 

8 the Secretary shall determine whether to use nonpropri9 etary identifiers under section 6402(a)(3)(B) of title 31, 

10 United States Code, as added by section 3(a). 

11 (b) FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED.—In making the 

12 determination required pursuant to subsection (a), the Di13 rector and the Secretary shall consider factors such as ac14 cessibility and cost to recipients of Federal awards, agen15 cies that issue Federal awards, private-sector experts, and 

16 members of the public, including privacy experts and pri17 vacy advocates. 

18 (c) PUBLICATION AND REPORT ON DETERMINA19 TION.—Not later than the earlier of 1 year after the date 

20 of the enactment of this Act or the date on which the Sec21 retary and Director establish data standards pursuant to 

22 section 6402(a)(2) of title 31, United States Code, as 

23 added by section 3(a), the Secretary and the Director shall 

24 publish and submit to the Committees on Oversight and 

25 Government Reform of the House of Representatives and 


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1 Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Sen2 ate a report explaining the reasoning for the determination 

3 made pursuant to subsection (a). 

4 SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS. 

5 In this Act, the terms ‘‘agency’’, ‘‘Director’’, ‘‘Fed6 eral award’’, and ‘‘Secretary’’ have the meaning given 

7 those terms in section 6401 of title 31, United States 

8 Code, as added by section 3(a). 

9 SEC. 8. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 

10 Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this 

11 Act, shall be construed to require the collection of data 

12 that is not otherwise required pursuant to any Federal 

13 law, rule, or regulation. 

14 SEC. 9. NO ADDITIONAL FUNDS AUTHORIZED. 

15 No additional funds are authorized to carry out the 

16 requirements of this Act and the amendments made by 

17 this Act. Such requirements shall be carried out using 

18 amounts otherwise authorized. 

Passed the House of Representatives January 17, 

2019. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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