II 

110TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3077 

To strengthen transparency and accountability in Federal spending. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 3, 2008 

Mr. REID (for Mr. OBAMA (for himself, Mr. COBURN, Mr. CARPER, and Mr. 

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

to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

A BILL 

To strengthen transparency and accountability in Federal 

spending. 

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 AND TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 

5 ‘‘Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Fed6 eral Spending Act of 2008’’. 

7 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 

8 this Act is as follows: 

Sec. 1. Short title and table of contents. 

Sec. 2. Improving application programming interface and website data elements. 

Sec. 3. Improving data quality. 

Sec. 4. Recipient performance transparency. 


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1 SEC. 2. IMPROVING APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTER2 FACE AND WEBSITE DATA ELEMENTS. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 2 of the Federal Funding 

4 Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (Public Law 

5 109–282; 31 U.S.C. 6101 note) (referred to in this Act 

6 as the ‘‘Act’’ for purposes of any amendment) is amend7 ed— 

8 (1) in subsection (a)— 

9 (A) in paragraph (2)(A)(ii), by striking 

10 ‘‘and delivery orders’’ and inserting ‘‘lease 

11 agreements and assignments, and delivery or12 ders’’; and 

13 (B) in paragraph (3)— 

14 (i) in subparagraph (C), by striking 

15 ‘‘and’’ after the semicolon; 

16 (ii) in subparagraph (D), by striking 

17 the period and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

18 (iii) by adding at the end the fol19 lowing: 

20 ‘‘(E) programmatically search and access 

21 all data in a serialized machine readable format 

22 (such as XML) via a web-services application 

23 programming interface.’’; 

24 (2) in subsection (b)— 

25 (A) in paragraph (1)— 


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1 (i) in subparagraph (E), by striking 

2 ‘‘and’’ after the semicolon; 

3 (ii) in subparagraph (F), by striking 

4 the period and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

5 (iii) by adding at the end the fol6 lowing: 

7 ‘‘(G) a unique award identifier that identi8 fies each individual award vehicle; 

9 ‘‘(H) the date that the financial award was 

10 made; 

11 ‘‘(I) the date that the financial award re12 quirements began; 

13 ‘‘(J) the date that the financial obligations 

14 are dispersed to the recipient; 

15 ‘‘(K) to the extent possible, the agency and 

16 department as well as subagencies and sub17 offices that have authorized the Federal award; 

18 ‘‘(L) in negotiated procurements, the high19 est, lowest, and median offered price among all 

20 technically acceptable proposals or bids; 

21 ‘‘(M) after January 1, 2010, for all con22 tracts, subcontracts, purchase orders, task or23 ders, lease agreements and assignments, and 

24 delivery orders— 


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1 ‘‘(i) both a copy in a format that re2 produces the original image of each page 

3 and a copy in searchable text format of the 

4 request for proposals, the announcement of 

5 the award, the contract, and the scope of 

6 work to be performed; 

7 ‘‘(ii) a product or service code that 

8 identifies the general category of product 

9 or service procured under the transaction; 

10 ‘‘(iii) information about the extent of 

11 competition in making the award, includ12 ing the number of qualified bids or pro13 posals during the competitive process, and 

14 if the award was not competed, the legal 

15 authority and specific rationale for making 

16 the award without full and open competi17 tion; 

18 ‘‘(iv) the full amount of money that is 

19 awarded under a contract or, in the case of 

20 lease agreements or assignments, the 

21 amount paid to the Government, and the 

22 full amount of any options to expand or 

23 extend under a contract; 

24 ‘‘(v) the amount and nature of the 

25 profit incentive offered to contractors for 


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1 achieving or exceeding specified goals such 

2 as fixed price, cost plus pricing, labor hour 

3 contracts, and time and materials con4 tracts; 

5 ‘‘(vi) an indication if the contract is 

6 the result of legislative mandates, set7 asides, preference program requirements, 

8 or other criteria, and whether the contract 

9 is multiyear, consolidated, or performance 

10 based; 

11 ‘‘(vii) an indication if the contract is 

12 a congressionally directed spending item as 

13 defined in Public Law 110–81; and 

14 ‘‘(viii) socioeconomic characteristics of 

15 the entity that receives an award including 

16 its size, industrial classification (NAICS 

17 code), and whether the entity is owned by 

18 minority individuals, women, veterans, or 

19 other special categories; and 

20 ‘‘(N) after January 1, 2009, for all grants, 

21 subgrants, loans, awards, cooperative agree22 ments, and other forms of financial assist23 ance— 

24 ‘‘(i) the type of recipient receiving the 

25 award, such as State government, local 


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1 government, Indian tribe, individual, small 

2 business, for-profit, or nonprofit; 

3 ‘‘(ii) the type of financial assistance 

4 each transaction represents including di5 rect payments, insurance, loans, grants, 

6 and cooperative agreements; 

7 ‘‘(iii) the amount of money from non8 Federal sources that is required to obtain 

9 the award; and 

10 ‘‘(iv) an indication if the funding is a 

11 congressionally directed spending item as 

12 defined in Public Law 110–81.’’; 

13 (B) by redesignating paragraphs (2), (3), 

14 and (4) as paragraphs (3), (4), and (5), respec15 tively; and 

16 (C) by adding after paragraph (1) the fol17 lowing: 

18 ‘‘(2) PRESENTATION OF DATA.—The website 

19 shall present information about Federal awards and 

20 recipients of Federal awards in ways that meet the 

21 needs of users with different levels of understanding 

22 about government spending and abilities using 

23 searching websites by— 

24 ‘‘(A) providing search results for novices 

25 displayed in summary form and with top level 


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1 information such as amount of money received 

2 in a fiscal year, basic information about the re3 cipient, purpose of the Federal award, what 

4 Federal agencies are providing the money, 

5 where the work is performed, and extent of 

6 competition, if applicable; and 

7 ‘‘(B) providing more detailed information 

8 for more sophisticated users, including all data 

9 in paragraph (1).’’; and 

10 (3) in subsection (c), by striking paragraph (4) 

11 and inserting the following: 

12 ‘‘(4) shall be updated at least once every 30 

13 days with new information required by this Act; 

14 and’’. 

15 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Except as otherwise pro16 vided, amendments made by subsection (a) shall be imple17 mented not later than 6 months after the date of enact18 ment of this Act. 

19 SEC. 3. IMPROVING DATA QUALITY. 

20 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Act is amended by adding at 

21 the end the following: 

22 ‘‘SEC. 5. IMPROVING DATA QUALITY. 

23 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Office of 

24 Management and Budget shall ensure the following: 


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1 ‘‘(1) A simple method for the public to report 

2 errors is available on the website created by this Act 

3 which should— 

4 ‘‘(A) allow the public to report errors on 

5 single records as well as problems affecting 

6 multiple records; 

7 ‘‘(B) allow the public to provide contact in8 formation, including e-mail address, mail ad9 dress, or telephone number, to be used for in10 forming the reporter of the outcome of the 

11 records review; 

12 ‘‘(C) send copies of the error report to 

13 both an official responsible for the data quality 

14 at the agency that generated the data and to 

15 the Office of Management and Budget; 

16 ‘‘(D) if reported errors are deemed to be 

17 nonfrivolous, place an indicator on the records 

18 on the website that informs users that the accu19 racy of the record has been brought into ques20 tion, until the information is either confirmed 

21 as correct or updated to be correct; and 

22 ‘‘(E) maintain a public record organized by 

23 agency of the total number of records which 

24 have had nonfrivolous reports of errors, the 

25 number of records which have been corrected, 


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1 and number of records for which error reports 

2 remain unresolved. 

3 ‘‘(2) Each agency inspector general— 

4 ‘‘(A) reviews a statistically representative 

5 sample of agency Federal awards every 6 

6 months to verify accuracy of the data and that 

7 data standards are being followed; 

8 ‘‘(B) reports to the Director of the Office 

9 of Management and Budget the findings of the 

10 review; and 

11 ‘‘(C) makes publicly available, including 

12 through the website created by this Act, the 

13 findings of the review. 

14 ‘‘(3) The data used on the website created by 

15 this Act is audited for quality every 6 months with 

16 the audit to include at least the following steps: 

17 ‘‘(A) Review and report publicly on the ac18 tivity in the error reporting system created by 

19 this section with an analysis for each agency 

20 and combined for agencies that includes at least 

21 the following indicators: 

22 ‘‘(i) Number of errors reported. 

23 ‘‘(ii) Number of reported errors re24 solved. 


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1 ‘‘(iii) Number of reported errors that 

2 remain unresolved. 

3 ‘‘(iv) Number of reported errors that 

4 led to corrections. 

5 ‘‘(v) Number of reported errors on 

6 records that proved to be correct. 

7 ‘‘(vi) Average number of days to re8 solve error report. 

9 ‘‘(vii) Longest number of days to re10 solve an error report. 

11 ‘‘(viii) Longest held reported error 

12 that remains unresolved. 

13 ‘‘(B) An independent review every 6 

14 months of data used for the website to verify 

15 accuracy of the data and assess the process 

16 used for improving data quality with an ability 

17 for the public to review these findings. 

18 ‘‘(C) Identify and report new standards 

19 that should be implemented by agencies to im20 prove data quality. 

21 ‘‘(4)(A) No personally identifiable information 

22 is made available through the website created by this 

23 Act and a common standard is created across the 

24 Government for assigning a unique award identifier 


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1 across both contract and Federal assistance award 

2 transactions. 

3 ‘‘(B) A report is submitted within 6 months of 

4 the date of enactment of this Act to Congress (and 

5 made publicly available on the Internet) that no per6 sonally identifiable information is available on the 

7 website. 

8 ‘‘(C) Agencies are required to correct data for 

9 past years when personally identifiable information 

10 was used. 

11 ‘‘(D) The unique recipient identifier and parent 

12 company identifier are— 

13 ‘‘(i) accurate; 

14 ‘‘(ii) able to identify past and current sub15 sidiary ownership; and 

16 ‘‘(iii) publicly available through the 

17 download and application programming inter18 faces in section 2(a)(3). 

19 ‘‘(5) The data on the website created by this 

20 Act is normalized to correct nonstandard ways of re21 porting names and other information. 

22 ‘‘(6) The Consolidated Federal Funds Report is 

23 published not later than 6 months after the end of 

24 the fiscal year. 


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1 ‘‘(7) A plan for improving the management and 

2 accuracy of agency financial information about Fed3 eral awards, including public access to such data, is 

4 submitted to the Committee on Homeland Security 

5 and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the 

6 Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of 

7 the House of Representatives and made publicly 

8 available through the Internet not later than Decem9 ber 31, 2009. 

10 ‘‘(8) Findings from the agency inspectors gen11 eral reports, the data quality audits, and other infor12 mation are used to develop standards or guidance 

13 for agency implementation of, and compliance with, 

14 the requirements of this Act. 

15 ‘‘(b) STATUTORY OBLIGATIONS.—Nothing in this Act 

16 relieves the director or any Federal agency of any statu17 tory obligation to develop, maintain, or provide access to 

18 complete, accurate, and timely Federal financial data.’’. 

19 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Except as otherwise pro20 vided, the amendments made by subsection (a) shall be 

21 implemented not later than June 30, 2009. 

22 SEC. 4. RECIPIENT PERFORMANCE TRANSPARENCY. 

23 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Act as amended by section 

24 4 is amended by adding at the end the following: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 7. RECIPIENT PERFORMANCE TRANSPARENCY AND 

2 TAX COMPLIANCE. 

3 ‘‘(a) PERFORMANCE TRANSPARENCY.—The Director 

4 of the Office of Management and Budget shall ensure that 

5 the unique identifier required in section 2(b)(1)(E) that 

6 is used to link information on the website described in sec7 tion 2 is also used to link information about performance 

8 of individual contractors and recipients of financial assist9 ance starting with awards given in fiscal year 2008 includ10 ing— 

11 ‘‘(1) an assessment of the quality of work per12 formed on Federal awards during the past 5 years, 

13 but not before fiscal year 2008; 

14 ‘‘(2) information about Federal audit disputes 

15 and resolutions; 

16 ‘‘(3) information regarding civil, criminal, and 

17 administrative actions initiated or concluded by the 

18 Federal Government or a State government against 

19 Federal awards recipients or violations of Federal or 

20 State laws or regulations during the preceding 5 

21 years including, but not limited to— 

22 ‘‘(A) with respect to each proceeding— 

23 ‘‘(i) a brief description of the pro24 ceeding and its disposition; 


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1 ‘‘(ii) any amount paid by the person 

2 to the Federal Government or a State gov3 ernment; and 

4 ‘‘(iii) any violation of law or regula5 tions, if applicable, related to the work6 place, environmental protection, fraud, se7 curities, and consumer protections includ8 ing— 

9 ‘‘(I) those affecting worker safety 

10 and health; 

11 ‘‘(II) working pay and leave 

12 rights; 

13 ‘‘(III) workplace discrimination, 

14 including trafficking in persons; 

15 ‘‘(IV) labor relations; 

16 ‘‘(V) the Clean Air Act, Clean 

17 Water Act, the Resource Conservation 

18 and Recovery Act, and other environ19 mental enforcement actions; 

20 ‘‘(VI) whistleblower protections; 

21 ‘‘(VII) Security and Exchange 

22 Commission actions; and 

23 ‘‘(VIII) Federal Trade Commis24 sion actions; 


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1 ‘‘(B) all Federal contracts and assistance 

2 awarded to the Federal awards recipient that 

3 were terminated in such period due to default; 

4 ‘‘(C) all Federal suspensions and 

5 debarments of the Federal awards recipient in 

6 that period; 

7 ‘‘(D) all Federal suspension and debar8 ment show cause orders received by the Federal 

9 awards recipient in that period; and 

10 ‘‘(E) all administrative agreements signed 

11 with such Federal awards recipient in that pe12 riod; and 

13 ‘‘(4) publicly available Government reports, in14 cluding those from the Government Accountability 

15 Office, Congressional Research Service, Congres16 sional Budget Office, and agency inspectors general, 

17 concerning general contractor or assistance recipient 

18 performance or specific instances of waste, fraud, 

19 and abuse. 

20 ‘‘(b) TAX COMPLIANCE.— 

21 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The chief executive officer 

22 of an entity that receives a Federal award shall be 

23 required to certify whether— 

24 ‘‘(A) the entity has filed all Federal tax re25 turns required during the preceding 5 years; 


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1 ‘‘(B) the entity has been convicted of a 

2 criminal offense under the Internal Revenue 

3 Code of 1986; and 

4 ‘‘(C) the entity has an outstanding debt 

5 under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 for 

6 which a notice of lien has been filed in public 

7 records pursuant to section 6323 of such Code 

8 that is not— 

9 ‘‘(i) being paid in a timely manner 

10 pursuant to an agreement under section 

11 6159 or section 7122 of such Code; or 

12 ‘‘(ii) a debt with respect to which a 

13 collection due process hearing under sec14 tion 6330 of such Code, or relief under 

15 subsection (a), (b), or (f) of section 6015 

16 of such Code, is requested or pending. 

17 ‘‘(2) OMB.—The Director of the Office of Man18 agement and Budget shall— 

19 ‘‘(A) develop the certification forms re20 quired by paragraph (1); 

21 ‘‘(B) ensure that each agency providing 

22 Federal awards complies with the requirements 

23 of this subsection; and 


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1 ‘‘(C) after January 1, 2009, ensure that 

2 the website described in section 2 contains in3 formation collected under paragraph (1).’’. 

4 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

5 subsection (a) shall be implemented not later than June 

6 30, 2009. 

Æ 


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