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Union Calendar No. 227 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 598 

[Report No. 114–298] 

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 

OCTOBER 20, 2015 

Additional sponsors: Ms. MCSALLY, Mr. PITTENGER, Mr. ROSKAM, Mr. 

OLSON, Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin, and Mr. COSTA

OCTOBER 20, 2015 

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 

House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 

[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 

[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on January 28, 2015] 

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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. 

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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. INVENTORY OF GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS. 

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

8 States Code, is amended— 

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

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

11 (2) by inserting before paragraph (2), as so re12 designated, the following: 

13 ‘‘(1) DEFINITION OF PROGRAM.—For purposes of 

14 this subsection, the term ‘program’ means an orga15 nized set of activities by 1 or more agencies directed 

16 toward a common purpose or goal.’’; 

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

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

19 than October 1, 2012, the Office of Management 

20 and Budget shall’’ and inserting ‘‘WEBSITE AND

21 PROGRAM INVENTORY.—The Director of the Of22 fice of Management and Budget shall’’; 

23 (B) by striking subparagraph (C) and in24 serting the following: 

25 ‘‘(C) include on the website— 

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1 ‘‘(i) a program inventory that shall 

2 identify each program of the Federal Gov3 ernment for which there is more than 

4 $1,000,000 in annual budget authority, 

5 which shall include— 

6 ‘‘(I) any activity that is com7 monly referred to as a program by a 

8 Federal agency in communications 

9 with Congress, including any activity 

10 identified as a program in a budget re11 quest; 

12 ‘‘(II) any activity that is com13 monly referred to as a program by a 

14 Federal agency in communications 

15 with the public, including each pro16 gram for which financial awards are 

17 made on a competitive basis; and 

18 ‘‘(III) any activity referenced in 

19 law as a program after June 30, 2018; 

20 and 

21 ‘‘(ii) for each program identified in the 

22 program inventory, the information re23 quired under paragraph (3).’’; 

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

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1 (A) in the matter preceding subparagraph 

2 (A), by striking ‘‘described under paragraph (1)’’ 

3 and inserting ‘‘identified in the program inven4 tory required under paragraph (2)’’; 

5 (B) by striking subparagraph (C); 

6 (C) by redesignating subparagraph (B) as 

7 subparagraph (D); 

8 (D) by striking subparagraph (A) and in9 serting the following: 

10 ‘‘(A) an identification of the program ac11 tivities that are aggregated, disaggregated, or 

12 consolidated as part of identifying programs; 

13 ‘‘(B) for each program activity described in 

14 subparagraph (A), the amount of funding for the 

15 current fiscal year and previous 2 fiscal years; 

16 ‘‘(C) to the maximum extent practicable, the 

17 amount of funding for each program, determined 

18 using the pro rata share of the program activi19 ties that are aggregated, disaggregated, or con20 solidated as part of identifying programs;’’; 

21 (E) in subparagraph (D), as so redesig22 nated, by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; and 

23 (F) by adding at the end the following: 

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1 ‘‘(E) an identification of the statutes that 

2 authorize the program and any major regula3 tions specific to the program; 

4 ‘‘(F) for any program that provides grants 

5 or other financial assistance to individuals or 

6 entities, for the most recent fiscal year— 

7 ‘‘(i) a description of the individuals 

8 served by the program and beneficiaries who 

9 received financial assistance under the pro10 gram, including an estimate of the number 

11 of individuals and beneficiaries, to the ex12 tent practicable; 

13 ‘‘(ii) for each program for which the 

14 head of an agency determines it is not prac15 ticable to provide an estimate of the number 

16 of individuals and beneficiaries served by 

17 the program— 

18 ‘‘(I) an explanation of why data 

19 regarding the number of such individ20 uals and beneficiaries cannot be pro21 vided; and 

22 ‘‘(II) a discussion of the measures 

23 that could be taken to gather the data 

24 required to provide such an estimate; 

25 and 

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1 ‘‘(iii) a description of— 

2 ‘‘(I) the Federal employees who 

3 administer the program, including the 

4 number of full-time equivalents with a 

5 pro rata estimate for full-time equiva6 lents associated with multiple pro7 grams; and 

8 ‘‘(II) other individuals whose sal9 ary is paid in part or full by the Fed10 eral Government through a grant, con11 tract, cooperative agreement, or an12 other form of financial award or as13 sistance who administer or assist in 

14 any way in administering the pro15 gram, including the number of full16 time equivalents, to the extent prac17 ticable; 

18 ‘‘(G) links to any evaluation, assessment, or 

19 program performance reviews by the agency, an 

20 Inspector General, or the Government Account21 ability Office (including program performance 

22 reports required under section 1116) released 

23 during the preceding 5 years; and 

24 ‘‘(H) to the extent practicable, financial 

25 and other information for each program activity 

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1 required to be reported under the Federal Fund2 ing Accountability and Transparency Act of 

3 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note).’’; and 

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

5 ‘‘(4) ARCHIVING.—After the end of each fiscal 

6 year, the Director of the Office of Management and 

7 Budget shall archive and preserve the information in8 cluded in the program inventory required under 

9 paragraph (2) relating to that fiscal year.’’. 

10 (b) EXPIRED GRANT FUNDING.—Not later than Feb11 ruary 1 of each fiscal year, the Director of the Office of 

12 Management and Budget shall publish on a public website 

13 the total amount of undisbursed grant funding remaining 

14 in grant accounts for which the period of availability to 

15 the grantee has expired. 

16 SEC. 3. GUIDANCE AND IMPLEMENTATION. 

17 (a) GUIDANCE.—Not later than June 30, 2017, the Di18 rector of the Office of Management and Budget— 

19 (1) shall prescribe guidance to implement this 

20 Act, and the amendments made by this Act; 

21 (2) shall issue guidance to agencies to identify 

22 how the program activities used for reporting under 

23 the Federal Funding Accountability and Trans24 parency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note) are associ25 ated with programs identified in the program invenmstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with BILLS

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1 tory required under section 1122(a)(2)(C)(i) of title 

2 31, United States Code, as amended by subsection (a); 

3 (3) may issue guidance to agencies to ensure that 

4 the programs identified in the program inventory re5 quired under section 1122(a)(2)(C)(i) of title 31, 

6 United States Code, as amended by subsection (a), are 

7 presented at a similar level of detail across agencies 

8 and are not duplicative or overlapping; and 

9 (4) may, based on an analysis of the costs of im10 plementation, and after submitting to Congress a no11 tification of the action by the Director— 

12 (A) exempt from the requirements under 

13 section 1122(a) of title 31, United States Code, 

14 an agency that— 

15 (i) is not listed in section 901(b) of 

16 title 31, United States Code; and 

17 (ii) for the fiscal year during which the 

18 exemption is made, has budget authority (as 

19 defined in section 3 of the Congressional 

20 Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 622)) of not 

21 more than $10,000,000; and 

22 (B) extend the implementation deadline 

23 under subsection (b) by not more than 1 year. 

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1 (b) IMPLEMENTATION.—This Act, and the amendments 

2 made by this Act, shall be implemented not later than June 

3 30, 2018. 

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Union Calendar No. 227 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 598 

[Report No. 114–298] 

A BILL 

To provide taxpayers with an annual report disand for other purposes. programs and areas of duplication among them, closing the cost and performance of Government 

OCTOBER 20, 2015 

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Comand ordered to be printed mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, 

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