IIB 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4887 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 27, 2018 

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 2018’’ 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 

‘‘Sec. 

‘‘6401. Definitions. 

‘‘6402. Data standards for grant reporting. 

‘‘6403. Guidance applying data standards for grant reporting. 

‘‘6404. Agency requirements. 

12 ‘‘§ 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. 


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

2 the Director of the Office of Management and Budg3 et. 

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

5 award’— 

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

7 value for a public purpose of support or stimu8 lation authorized by a law of the United States, 

9 including financial assistance and Government 

10 facilities, services, and property; 

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

12 and cooperative agreements; and 

13 ‘‘(C) does not include— 

14 ‘‘(i) conventional public information 

15 services or procurement of property or 

16 services for the direct benefit or use of the 

17 Government; or 

18 ‘‘(ii) an agreement that provides 

19 only— 

20 ‘‘(I) direct Government cash as21 sistance to an individual; 

22 ‘‘(II) a subsidy; 

23 ‘‘(III) a loan; 

24 ‘‘(IV) a loan guarantee; or 

25 ‘‘(V) insurance. 


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

2 the head of the standard-setting agency. 

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

4 ‘standard-setting agency’ means the Executive de5 partment designated under section 6402(a)(1). 

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

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

8 each commonwealth, territory or possession of the 

9 United States, and each federally recognized Indian 

10 Tribe. 

11 ‘‘§ 6402. Data standards for grant reporting 

12 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.— 

13 ‘‘(1) DESIGNATION OF STANDARD-SETTING

14 AGENCY.—The Director shall designate the Execu15 tive department (as defined in section 101 of title 5) 

16 that issues the most Federal awards in a calendar 

17 year as the standard-setting agency. 

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

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

20 this chapter, the Secretary and the Director shall es21 tablish Governmentwide data standards for informa22 tion reported by recipients of Federal awards. 

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

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

25 minimum— 


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1 ‘‘(A) standard definitions for data elements 

2 required for managing Federal awards; and 

3 ‘‘(B) unique identifiers for Federal awards 

4 and entities receiving Federal awards that can 

5 be consistently applied Governmentwide. 

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

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

8 cover any information required to be reported to any agen9 cy by recipients of Federal awards, including audit-related 

10 information reported under chapter 75 of this title. 

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

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

13 reasonable and practicable— 

14 ‘‘(1) render information reported by recipients 

15 of Federal grant and cooperative agreement awards 

16 fully searchable and machine-readable; 

17 ‘‘(2) be nonproprietary; 

18 ‘‘(3) incorporate standards developed and main19 tained by voluntary consensus standards bodies; 

20 ‘‘(4) be consistent with and implement applica21 ble accounting and reporting principles; and 

22 ‘‘(5) incorporate the data standards established 

23 under the Federal Funding Accountability and 

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


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

2 standards under subsection (a), the Secretary and the Di3 rector shall consult with, as appropriate— 

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

5 that the data standards incorporate the data stand6 ards created under the Federal Funding Account7 ability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 

8 6101 note); 

9 ‘‘(2) the head of each agency that issues Fed10 eral awards; 

11 ‘‘(3) recipients of Federal awards and organiza12 tions representing recipients of Federal awards; 

13 ‘‘(4) private sector experts; 

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

15 experts, privacy advocates, and industry stake16 holders; and 

17 ‘‘(6) State and local governments. 

18 ‘‘§ 6403. Guidance applying data standards for grant 

19 reporting 

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

21 date of the enactment of this chapter— 

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

23 guidance to all agencies directing the agencies to 

24 apply the data standards established under section 


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1 6402 to all applicable reporting by recipients of Fed2 eral grant and cooperative agreement awards; and 

3 ‘‘(2) the Director shall prescribe guidance ap4 plying the data standards to audit-related informa5 tion reported under chapter 75. 

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

7 section shall— 

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

9 ‘‘(A) minimize the disruption to existing 

10 reporting practices for agencies and for recipi11 ents of Federal grant and cooperative agree12 ment awards; and 

13 ‘‘(B) explore opportunities to implement 

14 modern technologies within Federal award re15 porting; 

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

17 categories of grants if the Director publishes a list 

18 of such exceptions, including exceptions for Indian 

19 Tribes and Tribal organizations consistent with the 

20 Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance 

21 Act; and 

22 ‘‘(3) take into consideration the consultation re23 quired under section 6402(d). 


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1 ‘‘§ 6404. Agency requirements 

2 ‘‘Not later than 3 years after the date of the enact3 ment of this chapter, the head of each agency shall ensure 

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

5 use data standards for all future information collection re6 quests and amend existing information collection requests 

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

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

9 standards established under section 6402, consistent with 

10 the guidance issued by the Secretary and the Director 

11 under section 6403.’’. 

12 (b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.— 

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

14 States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relat15 ing to chapter 63 the following new item: 

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

16 SEC. 4. SINGLE AUDIT ACT. 

17 (a) AMENDMENTS.— 

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

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

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

21 consistent with the data standards established under 

22 chapter 64,’’. 

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

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

25 new subsection: 


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1 ‘‘(d) Such guidance shall require audit-related infor2 mation reported under this chapter to be reported in an 

3 electronic form consistent with the data standards estab4 lished under chapter 64.’’. 

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

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

7 guidance requiring audit-related information reported 

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

9 reported in an electronic form consistent with the data 

10 standards established under chapter 64 of title 31, United 

11 States Code, as added by section 3. 

12 SEC. 5. CONSOLIDATION OF ASSISTANCE-RELATED INFOR13 MATION; PUBLICATION OF PUBLIC INFORMA14 TION AS OPEN DATA. 

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

16 4 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

17 Secretary and the Director shall enable the collection, pub18 lic display, and maintenance of Federal award information 

19 as a Governmentwide data set, using the data standards 

20 established under chapter 64 of title 31, United States 

21 Code, as added by section 3, subject to reasonable restric22 tions established by the Director to ensure protection of 

23 personally identifiable and otherwise sensitive information. 

24 (b) PUBLICATION OF INFORMATION.—The Secretary 

25 and the Director shall require the publication of recipientVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:16 Sep 28, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4887.RFS H4887

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1 reported data collected from all agencies on a single public 

2 portal. Information may be published on an existing Gov3 ernmentwide website as determined appropriate by the Di4 rector. 

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

6 disclosure to the public of information that would be ex7 empt from disclosure under section 552 of title 5, United 

8 States Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Freedom of Infor9 mation Act’’). 

10 SEC. 6. EVALUATION OF NONPROPRIETARY IDENTIFIERS. 

11 (a) DETERMINATION REQUIRED.—The Director and 

12 the Secretary shall determine whether to use nonpropri13 etary identifiers under section 6402(a)(3)(B) of title 31, 

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

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

16 determination required pursuant to subsection (a), the Di17 rector and the Secretary shall consider factors such as ac18 cessibility and cost to recipients of Federal awards, agen19 cies that issue Federal awards, private-sector experts, and 

20 members of the public, including privacy experts and pri21 vacy advocates. 

22 (c) PUBLICATION AND REPORT ON DETERMINA23 TION.—Not later than the earlier of 1 year after the date 

24 of the enactment of this Act or the date on which the Sec25 retary and Director establish data standards pursuant to 


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

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

3 publish and submit to the Committees on Oversight and 

4 Government Reform of the House of Representatives and 

5 Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Sen6 ate a report explaining the reasoning for the determination 

7 made pursuant to subsection (a). 

8 SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS. 

9 In this Act, the terms ‘‘agency’’, ‘‘Director’’, ‘‘Fed10 eral award’’, and ‘‘Secretary’’ have the meaning given 

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

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

13 SEC. 8. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 

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

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

16 that is not otherwise required pursuant to any Federal 

17 law, rule, or regulation. 

18 SEC. 9. NO ADDITIONAL FUNDS AUTHORIZED. 

19 No additional funds are authorized to carry out the 

20 requirements of this Act and the amendments made by 


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1 this Act. Such requirements shall be carried out using 

2 amounts otherwise authorized. 

Passed the House of Representatives September 26, 

2018. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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