II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 272 

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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 8, 2021 

Mr. PETERS (for himself, Mr. PORTMAN, Mr. CARPER, Mr. CORNYN, and Ms. 

ERNST) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

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 2021’’. 


pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
2 

•S 272 IS

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 agency (as defined in 

12 subsection (b)(1))) shall ensure that updated information 

13 with respect to the information described in subsection (b) 

14 is posted on the website 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 


pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
3 

•S 272 IS

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; 


pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
4 

•S 272 IS

1 ‘‘(ii) the term ‘budget justification 

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

4 submitted, in conjunction with the budget 

5 of the United States Government sub6 mitted under section 1105(a) of title 31, 

7 United States Code; and 

8 ‘‘(iii) the term ‘open Government data 

9 asset’ has the meaning given that term in 

10 section 3502 of title 44, United States 

11 Code). 

12 ‘‘(B) INFORMATION.—The information to 

13 be posted— 

14 ‘‘(i) shall include any budget justifica15 tion materials— 

16 ‘‘(I) for the second fiscal year be17 ginning after the date of enactment of 

18 this paragraph, and each fiscal year 

19 thereafter; and 

20 ‘‘(II) to the extent practicable, 

21 that were released for any fiscal year 

22 before the date of enactment of this 

23 paragraph; and 

24 ‘‘(ii) shall not include any portion of 

25 the budget justification materials the disVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:09 Feb 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S272.IS S272

pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
5 

•S 272 IS

1 closure of which is prohibited by law, that 

2 contains classified information, or that is 

3 exempt from disclosure under paragraph 

4 (1) of section 552(b) of title 5, United 

5 States Code. 

6 ‘‘(C) FORMAT.—Budget justification mate7 rials shall be posted under subparagraph (B)— 

8 ‘‘(i) as an open Government data 

9 asset; 

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

11 to download individual reports, download 

12 all reports in bulk, and download in bulk 

13 the results of a search, to the extent prac14 ticable; and 

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

16 the extent practicable. 

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

18 materials required to be posted under subpara19 graph (B)(i) shall be posted not later than 2 

20 weeks after the date on which the budget jus21 tification materials are first submitted to Con22 gress. 

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

24 in this paragraph shall be construed to author25 ize an agency to destroy any budget justificaVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:09 Feb 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S272.IS S272

pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
6 

•S 272 IS

1 tion materials relating to a fiscal year before 

2 the fiscal year described in subparagraph 

3 (B)(i).’’. 

4 (b) INFORMATION REGARDING AGENCY BUDGET

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

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

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

8 and Budget shall make publicly available on a website, and 

9 continuously update, a tabular list for each fiscal year of 

10 each agency that submits budget justification materials, 

11 which shall include— 

12 ‘‘(A) the name of the agency; 

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

14 agency; 

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

16 which the budget justification materials of the agen17 cy are first submitted to Congress; 

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

19 materials of the agency are posted online under sec20 tion 3 of the Federal Funding Accountability and 

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

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

23 budget justification materials are published on the 

24 website of the agency; and 


pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
7 

•S 272 IS

1 ‘‘(F) a single data set that contains the infor2 mation described in subparagraphs (A) through (E) 

3 with respect to the agency for all fiscal years for 

4 which budget justifications of the agency are made 

5 available under section 3 of the Federal Funding Ac6 countability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 

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

8 ‘‘(2)(A) Each agency that submits budget justifica9 tion materials shall make the materials available on the 

10 website of the agency, in accordance with the policies es11 tablished by the Director of the Office of Management and 

12 Budget under subparagraph (B). 

13 ‘‘(B) Not later than 30 days after the date of enact14 ment of this subsection, the Director of the Office of Man15 agement and Budget, in consultation with the Secretary 

16 of the Treasury, shall establish policies for agencies relat17 ing to making available materials under subparagraph 

18 (A), which shall include guidelines for making budget jus19 tification materials available in a format aligned with the 

20 requirements of section 3(b)(2)(C) of the Federal Funding 

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

22 6101 note) and using a uniform resource locator that is 

23 in a consistent format across agencies and is descriptive, 

24 memorable, and pronounceable, such as the format of 

25 ‘agencyname.gov/budget’. 


pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS
8 

•S 272 IS

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

2 Budget maintains a public website that contains the budg3 et of the United States Government submitted under sub4 section (a) and any related materials, such website shall 

5 also contain a link to the tabular list required under para6 graph (1). 

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

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

9 of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency 

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

11 SEC. 3. DETERMINATION OF BUDGETARY EFFECTS. 

12 The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of 

13 complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go-Act of 2010, 

14 shall be determined by reference to the latest statement 

15 titled ‘‘Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation’’ for this 

16 Act, submitted for printing in the Congressional Record 

17 by the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, pro18 vided that such statement has been submitted prior to the 

19 vote on passage. 

Æ 


pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS