I 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4887 

To modernize Federal grant reporting, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 29, 2018 

Ms. FOXX (for herself, Mr. GOMEZ, Mr. ISSA, Mr. QUIGLEY, and Mr. KILMER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 

on Oversight and Government Reform 

A BILL 

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, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Grant Reporting Effi5 ciency and Agreements Transparency Act of 2018’’ or the 

6 ‘‘GREAT Act’’. 

7 SEC. 2. PURPOSES. 

8 The purposes of this Act are to— 

9 (1) modernize reporting by recipients of Federal 

10 grants and cooperative agreements by creating and 


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1 imposing data standards for the information that 

2 grants and cooperative agreement recipients must 

3 report to the Federal Government; 

4 (2) implement the recommendation by the Di5 rector of the Office of Management and Budget, 

6 under section 5(b)(6) of the Federal Funding Ac7 countability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 

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

9 of a ‘‘comprehensive taxonomy of standard defini10 tions for core data elements required for managing 

11 Federal financial assistance awards’’; 

12 (3) reduce burden and compliance costs of re13 cipients of Federal grants and cooperative agree14 ments by enabling technology solutions, existing or 

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

16 sectors, to better manage data recipients already 

17 provide to the Federal Government; and 

18 (4) to strengthen oversight and management of 

19 Federal grants and cooperative agreements by agen20 cies through consolidated collection and display of 

21 and access to open data that has been standardized, 

22 and where appropriate, transparency to the public. 


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1 SEC. 3. DATA STANDARDS FOR GRANT REPORTING. 

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

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

4 following new chapter: 

5 ‘‘CHAPTER 64—DATA STANDARDS FOR 

6 GRANT REPORTING 

‘‘Sec. 

‘‘6401. Definitions. 

‘‘6402. Data standards for grant reporting. 

‘‘6403. Guidance applying standard data elements for grant reporting. 

‘‘6404. Agency requirements. 

7 ‘‘§ 6401. Definitions 

8 ‘‘In this chapter: 

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

10 meaning given that term in section 551 of title 5. 

11 ‘‘(2) CORE STANDARD DATA ELEMENTS.—The 

12 term ‘core standard data elements’ means data ele13 ments that are not program-specific in nature and 

14 are required by all or the vast majority of Federal 

15 grant and cooperative assistance recipients for pur16 poses of reporting. 

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

18 the Director of the Office of Management and Budg19 et. 

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

21 award’— 

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

23 value for a public purpose of support or stimuVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:12 Jan 30, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4887.IH H4887

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1 lation authorized by a law of the United States, 

2 including financial assistance and Government 

3 facilities, services, and property; 

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

5 and cooperative agreements; and 

6 ‘‘(C) does not include— 

7 ‘‘(i) conventional public information 

8 services or procurement of property or 

9 services for the direct benefit or use of the 

10 Government; or 

11 ‘‘(ii) an agreement that provides 

12 only— 

13 ‘‘(I) direct Government cash as14 sistance to an individual; 

15 ‘‘(II) a subsidy; 

16 ‘‘(III) a loan; 

17 ‘‘(IV) a loan guarantee; or 

18 ‘‘(V) insurance. 

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

20 the head of the standard-setting agency. 

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

22 ‘standard-setting agency’ means the Executive de23 partment designated under section 6402(a)(1). 

24 ‘‘§ 6402. Data standards for grant reporting 

25 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) DESIGNATION OF STANDARD-SETTING

2 AGENCY.—The Director shall designate the Execu3 tive department (as defined in section 101 of title 5) 

4 that issues the most Federal awards as the stand5 ard-setting agency. 

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

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

8 this chapter, the Secretary and the Director shall es9 tablish Governmentwide data standards for informa10 tion reported by recipients of Federal awards. 

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

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

13 minimum— 

14 ‘‘(A) a comprehensive taxonomy of stand15 ard definitions for data elements required for 

16 managing Federal awards; and 

17 ‘‘(B) unique and nonproprietary identifiers 

18 for Federal awards and entities receiving Fed19 eral awards that can be consistently applied 

20 Governmentwide. 

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

22 subsection (a) shall include core standard data elements 

23 and may cover any information required to be reported 

24 to any agency by recipients of Federal awards, including 


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1 audit-related information reported under chapter 75 of 

2 this title. 

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

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

5 reasonable and practicable— 

6 ‘‘(1) render information reported by recipients 

7 of Federal grant and cooperative agreement awards 

8 fully searchable and machine-readable; 

9 ‘‘(2) be nonproprietary; 

10 ‘‘(3) incorporate standards developed and main11 tained by voluntary consensus standards bodies; 

12 ‘‘(4) be consistent with and implement applica13 ble accounting and reporting principles; and 

14 ‘‘(5) incorporate the data standards established 

15 under the Federal Funding Accountability and 

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

17 ‘‘(d) CONSULTATION.—In establishing the core 

18 standard data elements under subsection (a), the Sec19 retary and the Director shall consult with, as appro20 priate— 

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

22 that the data standards incorporate the data stand23 ards created under the Federal Funding Account24 ability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 

25 6101 note); 


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1 ‘‘(2) the head of each agency that issues Fed2 eral awards; 

3 ‘‘(3) recipients of Federal awards and organiza4 tions representing recipients of Federal awards; 

5 ‘‘(4) software providers seeking to build tools 

6 that automatically compile and submit grant-related 

7 reports and organizations representing such software 

8 providers; and 

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

10 experts and privacy advocates. 

11 ‘‘§ 6403. Guidance applying standard data elements 

12 for grant reporting 

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

14 date of the enactment of this chapter— 

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

16 guidance to all agencies directing the agencies to 

17 apply the data standards established under section 

18 6402 to all applicable reporting by recipients of Fed19 eral grant and cooperative agreement awards; and 

20 ‘‘(2) the Director shall prescribe guidance ap21 plying the data standards to audit-related informa22 tion reported under chapter 75. 

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

24 section shall— 

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


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1 ‘‘(A) minimize the disruption to existing 

2 reporting practices for agencies and for recipi3 ents of Federal grant and cooperative agree4 ment awards; and 

5 ‘‘(B) explore opportunities to implement 

6 modern technologies within Federal award re7 porting; and 

8 ‘‘(2) allow the Director to permit exceptions on 

9 a case-by-case basis. 

10 ‘‘§ 6404. Agency requirements 

11 ‘‘Not later than 3 years after the date of the enact12 ment of this chapter, the head of each agency shall ensure 

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

14 use data standards for all future information collection re15 quests and amend existing information collection requests 

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

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

18 standards established under section 6402, consistent with 

19 the guidance issued by the Secretary and the Director 

20 under section 6403.’’. 

21 (b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.— 

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

23 States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relat24 ing to chapter 63 the following new item: 

‘‘64. Data standards for grant reporting .................................. 6401’’. 


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1 SEC. 4. SINGLE AUDIT ACT. 

2 (a) AMENDMENTS.— 

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

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

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

6 consistent with the data standards established under 

7 chapter 64,’’. 

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

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

10 new subsection: 

11 ‘‘(d) Such guidance shall require audit-related infor12 mation reported under this chapter to be reported in an 

13 electronic form consistent with the data standards estab14 lished under chapter 64.’’. 

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

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

17 guidance requiring audit-related information reported 

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

19 reported in an electronic form consistent with the data 

20 standards established under chapter 64 of title 31, United 

21 States Code, as added by section 3. 

22 SEC. 5. CONSOLIDATION OF ASSISTANCE-RELATED INFOR23 MATION; PUBLICATION OF PUBLIC INFORMA24 TION AS OPEN DATA. 

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

26 4 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 


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1 Secretary and the Director shall enable the collection, pub2 lic display, and maintenance of Federal award information 

3 as a Governmentwide data set, using the data standards 

4 established under chapter 64 of title 31, United States 

5 Code, as added by section 3, subject to reasonable restric6 tions established by the Director to ensure protection of 

7 personally identifiable and otherwise sensitive information. 

8 (b) PUBLICATION OF INFORMATION.—The Secretary 

9 and the Director shall require the publication of recipient10 reported data collected from all agencies on a single public 

11 website. Information may be published on an existing Gov12 ernmentwide website as determined appropriate by the Di13 rector. 

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

15 disclosure to the public of information that would be ex16 empt from disclosure under section 552 of title 5, United 

17 States Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Freedom of Infor18 mation Act’’). 

19 SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS. 

20 In this Act, the terms ‘‘agency’’, ‘‘Director’’, ‘‘Fed21 eral award’’, and ‘‘Secretary’’ have the meaning given 

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

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


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1 SEC. 7. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 

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

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

4 that is not otherwise required pursuant to any Federal 

5 award. 

Æ 


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