I 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5988 

To amend title 31, United States Code, to require each agency Chief Financial 

Officer to submit to the Office of Management and Budget a report 

on and recommendations concerning the adjustment or reduction of fees 

imposed by the agency for services and things of value it provides. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 30, 2010 

Ms. RICHARDSON introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 

A BILL 

To amend title 31, United States Code, to require each 

agency Chief Financial Officer to submit to the Office 

of Management and Budget a report on and recommendations concerning the adjustment or reduction 

of fees imposed by the agency for services and things 

of value it provides. 

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 ‘‘Cost Recovery and 

5 Fair Value for Services Act of 2010’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 The Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) The Federal Government has an obligation 

4 to United States citizens to be stewards of their 

5 hard-earned taxpayer dollars by operating in an effi6 cient manner. 

7 (2) There are hundreds of Federal agencies in 

8 the executive branch providing an array of services 

9 and programs. 

10 (3) It is critical, especially in times when na11 tional debt is high, for these agencies to ensure that 

12 the programs they provide are consistently assessed 

13 regarding their costs and self-financed to the great14 est extent possible. 

15 (4) By setting equitable user fee rates for serv16 ices provided, agencies as well as those who use the 

17 services can participate in the shared fiscal responsi18 bility needed to reduce the deficit without overbur19 dening users or constraining demand. 

20 SEC. 3. USER FEE REPORT. 

21 (a) AMENDMENT.—Section 902 of title 31, United 

22 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol23 lowing new subsection: 

24 ‘‘(c) USER FEE REPORT REQUIRED.— 

25 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than October 1 of 

26 each odd-numbered year, beginning with October 1, 


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1 2011, an agency Chief Financial Officer shall pre2 pare and submit a report to the Director of the Of3 fice of Management and Budget on the review and 

4 recommendations under subsection (a)(8) and shall 

5 include with regard to the recommendations con6 cerning the adjustment or reduction of fees imposed 

7 by the agency for services and things of value it pro8 vides for the matters described under paragraphs (2) 

9 and (3). 

10 ‘‘(2) MATTERS RELATED TO EQUITY.—The re11 port required by paragraph (1) shall include the fol12 lowing: 

13 ‘‘(A) An evaluation of whether each user is 

14 paying an equitable amount and the ability of 

15 the user to pay the fee. 

16 ‘‘(B) The extent to which use of such pro17 gram by certain users, or for certain types of 

18 uses, provides a public benefit. 

19 ‘‘(C) The extent to which the program for 

20 which the fee is funding benefits the public and 

21 identifiable users. 

22 ‘‘(3) MATTERS RELATED TO EFFICIENCY.—The 

23 report required by paragraph (1) shall include the 

24 following: 


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1 ‘‘(A) The amount of the fee sufficient to 

2 cover the full cost of the service or thing of 

3 value provided by the agency. 

4 ‘‘(B) Whether the agency has timely and 

5 reliable cost data to determine the amount of 

6 the fee to cover the full cost of the service or 

7 thing of value provided by the agency. 

8 ‘‘(C) The extent to which the fee will fully 

9 or partially recover costs of the service or thing 

10 of value provided by the agency. 

11 ‘‘(D) Whether the fee structure should in12 clude exemptions or reduced fees. 

13 ‘‘(E) Whether the fee should be set as a 

14 percentage or as a fixed dollar amount. 

15 ‘‘(F) How the fee will be structured to 

16 cover the intended share of the cost of the serv17 ice or thing of value provided by the agency 

18 over time. 

19 ‘‘(G) Whether fee collections are projected 

20 to change over time in relation to the cost of 

21 the service or thing of value provided by the 

22 agency. 

23 ‘‘(4) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 

24 ‘‘(A) EQUITABLE AMOUNT.—The term ‘eq25 uitable amount’ means an amount that is set at 


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1 a level so that a user with the ability to pay a 

2 higher fee pays more for the service and thing 

3 of value than a user with less ability to pay. 

4 ‘‘(B) USER.—The term ‘user’ means a per5 son that pays a fee imposed by an agency for 

6 services and things of value provided by the 

7 agency.’’. 

8 (b) SUBMISSION BY OMB.—Not later than December 

9 1 of each year in which a report is submitted under section 

10 902(c) of title 31, United States Code, as added by sub11 section (a), the Director of the Office of Management and 

12 Budget shall compile and transmit the reports, along with 

13 a summary prepared by the Director, including an identi14 fication of any recommendations in the report the Director 

15 does not agree with and the reasons for such disagree16 ment, to the Committee on Oversight and Government Re17 form of the House of Representatives and the Committee 

18 on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the 

19 Senate. 

Æ 


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