I 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 598 

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 28, 2015 

Mr. WALBERG (for himself, Mr. COOPER, Mr. BOST, Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania, and Mr. LONG) 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’’. 

6 SEC. 2. COST AND PERFORMANCE OF GOVERNMENT PRO7 GRAMS. 

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

9 United States Code, is amended— 


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

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

3 (2) by inserting before paragraph (2), as so re4 designated, the following: 

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

6 of this subsection, the term ‘program’ means an or7 ganized set of activities by 1 or more agencies di8 rected toward a common purpose or goal.’’; 

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

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

11 than October 1, 2012, the Office of Manage12 ment and Budget shall’’ and inserting 

13 ‘‘WEBSITE AND PROGRAM INVENTORY.—The 

14 Director of the Office of Management and 

15 Budget shall’’; and 

16 (B) by striking subparagraph (C) and in17 serting the following: 

18 ‘‘(C) include on the website— 

19 ‘‘(i) a program inventory that shall 

20 identify each program of the Federal Gov21 ernment, which shall include— 

22 ‘‘(I) any activity that is com23 monly referred to as a program; 


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1 ‘‘(II) any activity specifically cre2 ated by law, or referenced in law, as 

3 a program; 

4 ‘‘(III) each program that has an 

5 application process; 

6 ‘‘(IV) each program for which fi7 nancial awards are made on a com8 petitive basis; and 

9 ‘‘(V) any activity identified as a 

10 program activity in a budget request; 

11 and 

12 ‘‘(ii) for each program identified in 

13 the program inventory, the information re14 quired under paragraph (3).’’; and 

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

16 (A) in the matter preceding subparagraph 

17 (A), by striking ‘‘described under paragraph 

18 (1)’’ and inserting ‘‘identified in the program 

19 inventory required under paragraph (2)’’; 

20 (B) by striking subparagraph (A) and in21 serting the following: 

22 ‘‘(A) the program activities that are con23 sidered a program by the agency;’’; 

24 (C) in subparagraph (B), by striking 

25 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 


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1 (D) in subparagraph (C), by striking the 

2 period at the end and inserting a semicolon; 

3 and 

4 (E) by adding at the end the following: 

5 ‘‘(D) an identification of the specific stat6 ute that authorizes the program and any regu7 lations specific to the program; 

8 ‘‘(E) for any program that provides grants 

9 or other financial assistance to individuals or 

10 entities, for the most recent fiscal year— 

11 ‘‘(i) an estimate of the number of in12 dividuals served by the program and bene13 ficiaries who received financial assistance 

14 under the program; and 

15 ‘‘(ii) an estimate of— 

16 ‘‘(I) the number of full-time 

17 equivalents who administer the pro18 gram; and 

19 ‘‘(II) the number of full-time 

20 equivalents whose salary is paid in 

21 part or full by the Federal Govern22 ment through a grant, contract, coop23 erative agreement, or another form of 

24 financial award or assistance who adVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:05 Feb 06, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H598.IH H598

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1 minister or assist in any way in ad2 ministering the program; 

3 ‘‘(F) links to any evaluation, assessment, 

4 or program performance reviews by the agency, 

5 an Inspector General, or the Government Ac6 countability Office (including program perform7 ance reports required under section 1116) re8 leased during the preceding 5 years; and 

9 ‘‘(G) to the extent available, financial in10 formation for each program required to be re11 ported under section 3(b) of the Federal Fund12 ing Accountability and Transparency Act of 

13 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note), or a direct link to 

14 such information for a specific program on the 

15 website established under section 2 of that 

16 Act.’’. 

17 (b) GUIDANCE.—Not later than 1 year after the date 

18 of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Office of 

19 Management and Budget— 

20 (1) shall issue guidance to agencies to identify 

21 how the program activities used in budget or appro22 priations accounts correspond with programs identi23 fied in the program inventory required under section 

24 1122(a)(2)(A) of title 31, United States Code, as 

25 amended by subsection (a); and 


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1 (2) may issue guidance to agencies on more 

2 closely aligning program activities to the programs 

3 in the program inventory for purposes of the budget 

4 of the President submitted to Congress under sec5 tion 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code. 

6 (c) EXPIRED GRANT FUNDING.—Not later than Feb7 ruary 1 of each fiscal year, the Director of the Office of 

8 Management and Budget shall publish on the public 

9 website of the Office of Management and Budget the total 

10 amount of undisbursed grant funding remaining in grant 

11 accounts for which the period of availability to the grantee 

12 has expired. 

13 SEC. 3. REGULATIONS AND IMPLEMENTATION. 

14 (a) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 120 days after 

15 the date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Of16 fice of Management and Budget shall prescribe regula17 tions or other guidance to implement this Act, and the 

18 amendments made by this Act. 

19 (b) IMPLEMENTATION.—This Act, and the amend20 ments made by this Act, shall be implemented not later 

21 than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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