II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 3289 

To amend the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 

2006 to require the Director of the Office of Management and Budget 

and the Secretary of the Treasury to track and disclose funding and 

outlays relating to disasters and emergencies on a centralized website, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 1, 2021 

Mr. PETERS (for himself, Mr. PORTMAN, and Mr. PADILLA) 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 Director of the Office 

of Management and Budget and the Secretary of the 

Treasury to track and disclose funding and outlays relating to disasters and emergencies on a centralized website, 

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 ‘‘Disclosing All Spend5 ing That Ensures Relief Act’’ or the ‘‘DISASTER Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) At a time of constrained budgets, it is fis4 cally prudent to understand the amount and the 

5 scope of the Federal Government’s funding and out6 lays relating to disasters and emergencies affecting 

7 communities in need. 

8 (2) Understanding the funding and outlays of 

9 Federal agencies relating to disasters and emer10 gencies will help better inform the congressional 

11 funding process and presidential budget requests. 

12 (3) Knowledge about funding and outlay trends 

13 relating to disasters and emergencies will guide miti14 gation efforts that reduce vulnerabilities to future 

15 disasters and emergencies. 

16 (4) Any accounting mechanism to track outlays 

17 relating to disasters and emergencies should account 

18 for all funding sources, including both procurement 

19 and financial assistance funding, regardless of how 

20 that funding is appropriated. 

21 (5) The Federal Government’s fiscal exposure 

22 to disasters and emergencies is not limited to the 

23 funding and outlays of Federal agencies and should 

24 also include financial damages associated with disas25 ters and emergencies. For example, financial dam26 ages associated with wildfires may exceed the 


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1 amount that Federal agencies actually spend in re2 sponse to wildfires. The difference in damages and 

3 outlays illustrates the Federal Government’s fiscal 

4 exposure to wildfires. Although some Federal agen5 cies currently track financial damages associated 

6 with disasters and emergencies, this tracking should 

7 be consistent and standardized across all relevant 

8 Federal agencies. 

9 (6) Data quality issues in business systems 

10 used by Federal agencies and recipients of Federal 

11 awards hinder analysis and learning opportunities 

12 about funding and outlays relating to disasters and 

13 emergencies. 

14 SEC. 3. PURPOSE. 

15 The purpose of this Act is to require— 

16 (1) relevant Federal agencies and components 

17 of Federal agencies to track and report to the Direc18 tor of the Office of Management and Budget and 

19 the Secretary of the Treasury data on funding, out20 lays, and, to the extent practicable, financial dam21 ages relating to disasters and emergencies for publi22 cation on a centralized website; 

23 (2) the Comptroller General to study and rec24 ommend data quality remediation measures for the 


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1 data sources of the website described in paragraph 

2 (1); and 

3 (3) if applicable, the Director of the Office of 

4 Management and Budget and the Secretary of the 

5 Treasury to implement the data quality remediation 

6 measures described in paragraph (2). 

7 SEC. 4. ENHANCED DISCLOSURE OF FUNDING RELATING 

8 TO DISASTERS OR EMERGENCIES. 

9 (a) DEFINITION.— 

10 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 2(a) of the Federal 

11 Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 

12 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note) is amended— 

13 (A) by redesignating paragraphs (2) 

14 through (8) as paragraphs (4) through (10), re15 spectively; 

16 (B) by inserting after paragraph (1) the 

17 following: 

18 ‘‘(2) DISASTER OR EMERGENCY.—The term 

19 ‘disaster or emergency’ means— 

20 ‘‘(A) any major disaster or emergency de21 clared by the President under section 401 or 

22 501, respectively, of the Robert T. Stafford Dis23 aster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 

24 U.S.C. 5170, 5191); 


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1 ‘‘(B) any fire for which assistance is pro2 vided under section 420 of the Robert T. Staf3 ford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance 

4 Act (42 U.S.C. 5187); 

5 ‘‘(C) any fire for which fire suppression ac6 tivities are carried out by the Department of 

7 the Interior or the Department of Agriculture; 

8 ‘‘(D) any national emergency declared by 

9 the President under section 201 of the National 

10 Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1621); 

11 ‘‘(E) any disaster or emergency relating to 

12 assistance provided under section 7(b) of the 

13 Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 636(b)); 

14 ‘‘(F) any natural disaster declared by the 

15 Secretary of Agriculture under section 321(a) 

16 of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Develop17 ment Act (7 U.S.C. 1961(a)); 

18 ‘‘(G) any public health emergency declared 

19 by the Secretary of Health and Human Services 

20 under section 319 of the Public Health Service 

21 Act (42 U.S.C. 247d); 

22 ‘‘(H) any commercial fishery failure due to 

23 a fishery resource disaster or catastrophic re24 gional fishery disaster determined by the Sec25 retary of Commerce under section 312(a) or 


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1 315(a), respectively, of the Magnuson-Stevens 

2 Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 

3 U.S.C. 1861a(a), 1864(a)); and 

4 ‘‘(I) any other potential or actual disaster 

5 or emergency identified by the Director, in con6 sultation with the head of any relevant Federal 

7 agency. 

8 ‘‘(3) DISASTER-RELATED FINANCIAL DAM9 AGES.—The term ‘disaster-related financial dam10 ages’ means any financial or economic loss deter11 mined by the Director that may inform necessary 

12 Federal outlays relating to any disaster or emer13 gency.’’; and 

14 (C) in paragraph (9), as so redesignated— 

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

16 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 

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

18 the period at the end and inserting ‘‘; 

19 and’’; and 

20 (iii) by adding at the end the fol21 lowing: 

22 ‘‘(E) search and aggregate Federal fund23 ing and outlays relating to disasters or emer24 gencies and other relevant information.’’. 


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1 (2) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Section 2 of 

2 the Federal Funding Accountability and Trans3 parency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note), as 

4 amended by paragraph (1), is further amended— 

5 (A) in subsection (a)(9)— 

6 (i) in subparagraph (B), by striking 

7 ‘‘paragraph (2)(A)(i)’’ and inserting ‘‘para8 graph (6)(A)(i)’’; and 

9 (ii) in subparagraph (C), by striking 

10 ‘‘paragraph (2)(A)(ii)’’ and inserting 

11 ‘‘paragraph (6)(A)(ii)’’; and 

12 (B) in subsection (c)(5), by striking ‘‘sub13 section (a)(2)(A)(i) and those described in sub14 section (a)(2)(A)(ii)’’ and inserting ‘‘subsection 

15 (a)(6)(A)(i) and those described in subsection 

16 (a)(6)(A)(ii)’’. 

17 (b) FUNDING RELATING TO DISASTERS AND EMER18 GENCIES.—Section 3 of the Federal Funding Account19 ability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 

20 note) is amended— 

21 (1) in subsection (b)(1)— 

22 (A) in subparagraph (C)(ii), by striking 

23 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 

24 (B) by redesignating subparagraph (D) as 

25 subparagraph (E); and 


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1 (C) by inserting after subparagraph (C) 

2 the following: 

3 ‘‘(D) from which accounts and in what 

4 amount— 

5 ‘‘(i) appropriations are obligated relat6 ing to any disaster or emergency, which 

7 shall be accompanied by the information 

8 described in subsection (c)(2)(A); and 

9 ‘‘(ii) outlays are made relating to any 

10 disaster or emergency, which shall be ac11 companied by the information described in 

12 subsection (c)(2)(A); and’’; and 

13 (2) by adding at the end the following: 

14 ‘‘(c) FULL DISCLOSURE OF FUNDING AND OUTLAYS

15 RELATING TO DISASTERS AND EMERGENCIES.— 

16 ‘‘(1) PILOT PROGRAM.— 

17 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 

18 days after the date of enactment of the DIS19 ASTER Act, the Director and the Secretary 

20 shall establish a pilot program to— 

21 ‘‘(i) test and evaluate the collection 

22 and accession of data involving and associ23 ated with amounts obligated or outlayed 

24 relating to any disaster or emergency, as 


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1 those data are reported under subsection 

2 (b)(1)(D), which may include— 

3 ‘‘(I) outlays in the wake of any 

4 disaster or emergency; 

5 ‘‘(II) outlays in advance of any 

6 potential or actual disaster or emer7 gency; 

8 ‘‘(III) administrative outlays as9 sociated with outlays described in sub10 clause (I) or (II); or 

11 ‘‘(IV) any other category of out12 lays relating to any disaster or emer13 gency determined by the Director and 

14 the Secretary; 

15 ‘‘(ii) test and evaluate the collection 

16 and accession of data involving and associ17 ated with disaster-related financial dam18 ages, as those data are reported under 

19 paragraph (2)(A)(iii), which shall be pro20 vided as ancillary data to the data de21 scribed in clause (i); 

22 ‘‘(iii) determine the proper scope and 

23 standardization of data elements for the 

24 data described in clauses (i) and (ii); 


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1 ‘‘(iv) determine the proper frequency 

2 of reporting for the data described in 

3 clauses (i) and (ii), which shall be not less 

4 frequently than once every 2 weeks; 

5 ‘‘(v) produce a strategic plan, which 

6 shall be made publicly available not later 

7 than 90 days after the date on which the 

8 pilot program terminates, for implementing 

9 a program across the Federal Government 

10 for reporting the data described in clauses 

11 (i) and (ii) using the scope and standard12 ization determined under clause (iii) and 

13 the frequency determined under clause (iv); 

14 and 

15 ‘‘(vi) identify and propose solutions 

16 for any challenges in implementing the 

17 program described in clause (v), includ18 ing— 

19 ‘‘(I) as appropriate, recommenda20 tions for proposed legislation; and 

21 ‘‘(II) challenges in reporting 

22 funding or outlays that— 

23 ‘‘(aa) have been repro24 grammed from an existing pro25 gram; 


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1 ‘‘(bb) have been subject to a 

2 reporting requirement waiver; 

3 ‘‘(cc) involve a need for cost 

4 allocation methodology within 

5 any individual appropriations ac6 count in order to identify outlays 

7 associated with any disaster or 

8 emergency, such as an outlay for 

9 salaries of Federal employees 

10 who are engaged in response to 

11 any disaster or emergency; or 

12 ‘‘(dd) relate to any disaster 

13 or emergency that lacks a clear 

14 start or end date. 

15 ‘‘(B) CONSULTATION WITH EXPERTS.—In 

16 establishing the pilot program under subpara17 graph (A), the Director and the Secretary shall 

18 consult with individuals who are— 

19 ‘‘(i) representatives of relevant gov20 ernmental and nongovernmental organiza21 tions, including Federal agencies and com22 ponents of Federal agencies of diverse sizes 

23 and missions; and 

24 ‘‘(ii) experts in— 


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1 ‘‘(I) disaster relief and prepared2 ness; or 

3 ‘‘(II) Federal Government ac4 counting. 

5 ‘‘(C) TERMINATION.—The pilot program 

6 established under subparagraph (A) shall termi7 nate not later than 2 years after the date of the 

8 establishment of the pilot program. 

9 ‘‘(2) REPORTING OF DISASTER- AND EMER10 GENCY-RELATED FUNDING.—Using information 

11 learned from the pilot program established under 

12 paragraph (1)(A) and not later than 1 year after the 

13 date of the termination of the pilot program, the Di14 rector and the Secretary shall— 

15 ‘‘(A) establish data standards by which to 

16 identify, categorize, and describe each disaster 

17 or emergency, including— 

18 ‘‘(i) a label for the identification and 

19 categorization of the disaster or emer20 gency; 

21 ‘‘(ii) to the extent practicable— 

22 ‘‘(I) each State or locality af23 fected by the disaster or emergency; 

24 and 


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1 ‘‘(II) the start and end dates of 

2 the disaster or emergency; 

3 ‘‘(iii) to the extent practicable, the es4 timated disaster-related financial damages, 

5 which shall be— 

6 ‘‘(I) disaggregated by affected 

7 States or localities; 

8 ‘‘(II) itemized by standardized 

9 categories to demonstrate the need for 

10 specific types of Federal outlays; and 

11 ‘‘(III) collected on an ongoing 

12 basis; and 

13 ‘‘(iv) any other information or cat14 egory determined by the Director and the 

15 Secretary; and 

16 ‘‘(B) issue guidance to Federal agencies 

17 and components of Federal agencies to— 

18 ‘‘(i) require the tracking and report19 ing of funds obligated or outlayed relating 

20 to any disaster or emergency in accordance 

21 with subsection (b)(1)(D); 

22 ‘‘(ii) require the tracking and pub23 lishing on the website established under 

24 section 2(b)(1) of— 


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1 ‘‘(I) to the extent practicable, 

2 any disaster-related financial dam3 ages, which shall be provided as ancil4 lary data to the data described in 

5 clause (i); and 

6 ‘‘(II) information relating to any 

7 disaster or emergency identified, cat8 egorized, and described under sub9 section (c)(2)(A); 

10 ‘‘(iii) eliminate any tracking, pub11 lishing, or reporting that would be duplica12 tive of the information tracked under 

13 clauses (i) and (ii); and 

14 ‘‘(iv) not less frequently than annu15 ally, give feedback to, and receive updated 

16 guidance from, the Director and the Sec17 retary relating to any outlays by Federal 

18 agencies and components of Federal agen19 cies that— 

20 ‘‘(I) are not tracked under clause 

21 (i); and 

22 ‘‘(II) may qualify as outlays re23 lating to any disaster or emergency. 

24 ‘‘(3) COMPTROLLER GENERAL REPORT.—Not 

25 later than 3 years after the date on which the DirecVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:00 Dec 10, 2021 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00014 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3289.IS S3289

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1 tor and the Secretary issue guidance under para2 graph (2)(B), the Comptroller General of the United 

3 States shall submit to the Committee on Homeland 

4 Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate 

5 and the Committee on Oversight and Reform of the 

6 House of Representatives a report that— 

7 ‘‘(A) assesses the completeness, timeliness, 

8 quality, accuracy, and usefulness of the infor9 mation described in paragraph (2)(B); and 

10 ‘‘(B) if appropriate, includes any rec11 ommendations to improve the information de12 scribed in paragraph (2)(B).’’. 

13 SEC. 5. DATA QUALITY REPORTS AND REMEDIATION 

14 PLANS. 

15 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

16 (1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT17 TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com18 mittees’’ means— 

19 (A) the Committee on Homeland Security 

20 and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; and 

21 (B) the Committee on Oversight and Re22 form of the House of Representatives. 

23 (2) COMPTROLLER GENERAL.—The term 

24 ‘‘Comptroller General’’ means the Comptroller Gen25 eral of the United States. 


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1 (3) DATA QUALITY ISSUE.—The term ‘‘data 

2 quality issue’’ means a situation in which a collec3 tion of quantitative or qualitative data represent or 

4 suggest inaccurate, misleading, or insufficiently clear 

5 information in a common way. 

6 (4) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 

7 the Director of the Office of Management and Budg8 et. 

9 (5) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 

10 the Secretary of the Treasury. 

11 (b) REPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the date 

12 of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall 

13 submit a publicly available report to the appropriate con14 gressional committees relating to current and ongoing 

15 data quality issues in the data sources of the website es16 tablished under section 2(b)(1) of the Federal Funding 

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

18 6101 note), including data quality issues of— 

19 (1) the Federal Funding Accountability and 

20 Transparency Act Subaward Reporting System; 

21 (2) the Federal Procurement Data System; 

22 (3) any business system operated by a Federal 

23 agency or a component of a Federal agency identi24 fied by the Comptroller General; 


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1 (4) any successor system of a system described 

2 in this subsection; and 

3 (5) any other data source identified by the 

4 Comptroller General. 

5 (c) CONTENTS.—The report submitted under sub6 section (b) shall include— 

7 (1) an identification of data quality issues of 

8 the data systems described in subsection (b), as ap9 plicable, including situations in which— 

10 (A) outlayed amounts exceed obligated 

11 amounts; 

12 (B) subaward amounts exceed prime award 

13 amounts; 

14 (C) inappropriate variations exist for how 

15 a single entity or location is identified, such as 

16 a situation in which— 

17 (i) the same legal entity possesses 

18 multiple different unique identifiers; or 

19 (ii) the same geographic location pos20 sesses intentional or unintentional vari21 ations in spelling; 

22 (D) open text fields are insufficiently in23 formative, such as in award descriptions; 

24 (E) required or relevant information is 

25 missing, including— 


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1 (i) as a result of a reporting require2 ment waiver; and 

3 (ii) any information that is collected 

4 inconsistently across Federal award types 

5 or Federal program types, such an indus6 try information or demographic informa7 tion; 

8 (F) labels and other identifiers are incor9 rectly or inappropriately assigned, including— 

10 (i) any failure to produce or update 

11 labels and other identifiers for funding 

12 that has been reprogrammed from an ex13 isting program; and 

14 (ii) any inaccurate identification of 

15 funds obligated or outlayed relating to any 

16 disaster or emergency; and 

17 (G) any other potential or actual problem 

18 is identified by the Comptroller General; and 

19 (2) for each data quality issue identified under 

20 paragraph (1)— 

21 (A) a list of each relevant system in which 

22 the data quality issue is created and propa23 gated; 


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1 (B) a list of the stakeholder groups in2 volved in creating and reviewing the data in 

3 which the data quality issue is found; 

4 (C) an explanation of known and accepted 

5 exceptions to instances of the data quality issue 

6 that— 

7 (i) may appear problematic; and 

8 (ii) are justified in some cases; 

9 (D) an assessment of the root cause of the 

10 data quality issue; 

11 (E) a discussion of any tradeoffs on data 

12 quality versus cost or effort; 

13 (F) a list of existing mechanisms to detect 

14 or prevent instances of the data quality issue; 

15 and 

16 (G) any recommendations for relevant 

17 business systems and stakeholder groups to re18 mediate the data quality issue and explain to 

19 public data consumers the known and accepted 

20 exceptions, including— 

21 (i) a proposed timeline for implemen22 tation and evaluation by relevant stake23 holder groups, which shall not exceed 2 

24 years from the date of the submission of 

25 the report, unless justified in writing; 


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1 (ii) metrics to determine success; 

2 (iii) proposed solutions that may in3 volve technological, behavioral, institu4 tional, cultural, educational, regulatory, 

5 legislative, or resource allocation changes; 

6 and 

7 (iv) any other recommendation relat8 ing to the efficiency or effectiveness of the 

9 data systems described in subsection (b). 

10 (d) UPDATES.—Not later than 2 years after the date 

11 on which the report required under subsection (b) is sub12 mitted, and every 2 years thereafter until not less than 

13 6 years after such date, the Comptroller General shall sub14 mit to the appropriate congressional committees an up15 dated and publicly available report that includes— 

16 (1) the information required to be included in 

17 the report under subsection (c); 

18 (2) any newly identified data quality issues; 

19 (3) information relating to the success of the 

20 remediation recommendations included in previous 

21 reports; and 

22 (4) a determination of whether any additional 

23 updated reports with the same submission schedule 

24 and requirements as the report required under this 

25 subsection are needed. 


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1 (e) IMPLEMENTATION PLANS.—Not later than 90 

2 days after the date on which the Comptroller General sub3 mits a report required under subsection (b) or (d), the 

4 Director and the Secretary shall submit to the appropriate 

5 congressional committees a publicly available report that 

6 explains, with respect to a recommendation described in 

7 subsection (c)(2)(G)— 

8 (1) whether and how each relevant stakeholder 

9 group should implement the recommendation, in10 cluding any comments on the recommendation; and 

11 (2) if applicable, any challenges and related so12 lutions to implementing the recommendation. 

Æ 


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