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Union Calendar No. 474 

108TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 3826 

[Report No. 108–768] 

To require the review of Government programs at least once every 5 years 

for purposes of evaluating their performance. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 25, 2004 

Mr. PLATTS (for himself and Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Government Reform 

OCTOBER 8, 2004 

Additional sponsor: Mr. SESSIONS

OCTOBER 8, 2004 

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 February 25, 2004] 

A BILL 

To require the review of Government programs at least once 

every 5 years for purposes of evaluating their performance. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Program Assessment and 

3 Results Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

5 Congress finds that— 

6 (1) inefficiency and ineffectiveness in Federal 

7 programs undermines the confidence of the American 

8 people in the Government and reduces the Federal 

9 Government’s ability to adequately address vital pub10 lic needs; 

11 (2) insufficient information on program per12 formance seriously disadvantages Federal managers 

13 in their efforts to improve program efficiency and ef14 fectiveness; 

15 (3) congressional policy making, spending deci16 sions, and program oversight are handicapped by in17 sufficient attention to program performance and re18 sults; 

19 (4) programs performing similar or duplicative 

20 functions that exist within a single agency or across 

21 multiple agencies should be identified and their per22 formance and results shared among all such programs 

23 to improve their performance and results; 

24 (5) advocates of good government continue to 

25 seek ways to improve accountability, focus on results, 
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1 and integrate the performance of programs with deci2 sions about budgets; 

3 (6) with the passage of the Government Perform4 ance and Results Act of 1993, the Congress directed 

5 the executive branch to seek improvements in the effec6 tiveness, efficiency, and accountability of Federal pro7 grams by having agencies focus on program results; 

8 and 

9 (7) the Government Performance and Results Act 

10 of 1993 provided a strong framework for the executive 

11 branch to monitor the long-term goals and annual 

12 performance of its departments and agencies. 

13 SEC. 3. PURPOSE. 

14 The purposes of this Act are— 

15 (1) to improve the Government Performance and 

16 Results Act of 1993 by implementing a program as17 sessment and evaluation process that attempts to de18 termine the strengths and weaknesses of Federal pro19 grams with a particular focus on the results produced 

20 by individual programs; 

21 (2) to use the information gathered in the assess22 ment and evaluation process to build on the ground23 work laid in the Government Performance and Re24 sults Act of 1993 to help the executive branch make 

25 informed management decisions and evidence-based 
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1 funding requests aimed at achieving positive results; 

2 and 

3 (3) to provide congressional policy makers the 

4 information needed to conduct more effective over5 sight, to make better-informed authorization decisions, 

6 and to make more evidence-based spending decisions 

7 that achieve positive results for the American people. 

8 SEC. 4. PROGRAM ASSESSMENT. 

9 (a) REQUIREMENT FOR PROGRAM ASSESSMENTS.— 

10 Chapter 11 of title 31, United States Code, as amended by 

11 the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, is 

12 amended by adding at the end the following new section: 

13 ‘‘§ 1120. Program assessment 

14 ‘‘(a) ASSESSMENT.—The Director of the Office of Man15 agement and Budget to the maximum extent practicable 

16 shall conduct, jointly with agencies of the Federal Govern17 ment, an assessment of each program at least once every 

18 5 fiscal years. 

19 ‘‘(b) ASSESSMENT REQUIREMENTS.—In conducting an 

20 assessment of a program under subsection (a), the Director 

21 of the Office of Management and Budget and the head of 

22 the relevant agency shall— 

23 ‘‘(1) coordinate to determine the programs to be 

24 assessed; and 
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1 ‘‘(2) evaluate the purpose, design, strategic plan, 

2 management, and results of the program, and such 

3 other matters as the Director considers appropriate. 

4 ‘‘(c) CRITERIA FOR IDENTIFYING PROGRAMS TO AS5 SESS.—The Director of the Office of Management and 

6 Budget shall develop criteria for identifying programs to 

7 be assessed each fiscal year. In developing the criteria, the 

8 Director shall take into account the advantages of assessing 

9 during the same fiscal year any programs that are per10 forming similar functions, have similar purposes, or share 

11 common goals, such as those contained in strategic plans 

12 under section 306 of title 5. To the maximum extent pos13 sible, the Director shall assess a representative sample of 

14 Federal spending each fiscal year. 

15 ‘‘(d) CRITERIA FOR MORE FREQUENT ASSESS16 MENTS.—The Director of the Office of Management and 

17 Budget shall make every effort to assess programs more fre18 quently than required under subsection (a) in cases in 

19 which programs are determined to be of higher priority, 

20 special circumstances exist, improvements have been made, 

21 or the head of the relevant agency and the Director deter22 mine that more frequent assessment is warranted. 

23 ‘‘(e) PUBLICATION.—At least 90 days before com24 pleting the assessments under this section to be conducted 
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1 during a fiscal year, the Director of the Office of Manage2 ment and Budget shall— 

3 ‘‘(1) make available in electronic form through 

4 the Office of Management and Budget website or any 

5 successor website, and provide to the Committee on 

6 Government Reform of the House of Representatives 

7 and the Committee on Governmental Affairs of the 

8 Senate— 

9 ‘‘(A) a list of the programs to be assessed 

10 during that fiscal year; and 

11 ‘‘(B) the criteria that will be used to assess 

12 the programs; and 

13 ‘‘(2) provide a mechanism for interested persons 

14 to comment on the programs being assessed and the 

15 criteria that will be used to assess the programs. 

16 ‘‘(f) REPORT.—(1) The results of the assessments con17 ducted during a fiscal year shall be submitted in a report 

18 to Congress at the same time that the President submits 

19 the next budget under section 1105 of this title after the 

20 end of that fiscal year. 

21 ‘‘(2) The report shall— 

22 ‘‘(A) include the performance goals for each pro23 gram assessment; 

24 ‘‘(B) specify the criteria used for each assess25 ment; 
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1 ‘‘(C) describe the results of each assessment, in2 cluding any significant limitation in the assessments; 

3 ‘‘(D) describe significant modifications to the 

4 Federal Government performance plan required under 

5 section 1105(a)(28) of this title made as a result of 

6 the assessments; and 

7 ‘‘(E) be available in electronic form through the 

8 Office of Management and Budget website or any suc9 cessor website. 

10 ‘‘(3) Nothing in this section requires the publication 

11 of classified information or the inclusion of classified infor12 mation in a report under this subsection. 

13 ‘‘(g) TERMINATION.—This section shall not be in effect 

14 after September 30, 2013.’’. 

15 (b) GUIDANCE.—Not later than 6 months after the date 

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

17 Management and Budget shall prescribe guidance to imple18 ment the requirements of section 1120 of title 31, United 

19 States Code, as added by subsection (a), including guidance 

20 on a definition of the term ‘‘program’’. 

21 (c) CONFORMING AND CLERICAL AMENDMENTS.— 

22 (1) Section 1115(g) of title 31, United States 

23 Code, is amended by striking ‘‘1119’’ and inserting 

24 ‘‘1120’’. 
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1 (2) The table of sections at the beginning of 

2 chapter 11 of title 31, United States Code, is amended 

3 by adding at the end the following: 

‘‘1120. Program assessment.’’. 

4 SEC. 5. STRATEGIC PLANNING AMENDMENTS. 

5 (a) CHANGE IN DEADLINE FOR STRATEGIC PLAN.— 

6 Subsection (a) of section 306 of title 5, United States Code, 

7 is amended by striking ‘‘No later than September 30, 1997,’’ 

8 and inserting ‘‘Not later than September 30 of each year 

9 following a year in which an election for President occurs, 

10 beginning with September 30, 2005,’’. 

11 (b) CHANGE IN PERIOD OF COVERAGE OF STRATEGIC

12 PLAN.—Subsection (b) of section 306 of title 5, United 

13 States Code, is amended to read as follows: 

14 ‘‘(b) Each strategic plan shall cover the 4-year period 

15 beginning on October 1 of the year following a year in 

16 which an election for President occurs.’’. 

Union Calendar No. 474 

108TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 3826 

[Report No. 108–768] 

A BILL 

To require the review of Government programs at 

ating their performance. least once every 5 years for purposes of evaluOCTOBER 8, 2004 

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