I 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3262 

To amend title 31, United States Code, to increase Government transparency. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OCTOBER 26, 2011 

Mr. GUINTA (for himself and Mr. WALSH of Illinois) 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 increase 

Government transparency. 

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 ‘‘Government Results 

5 Transparency Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO INCREASE TRANSPARENCY OF 

7 GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE RESULTS. 

8 (a) TRANSPARENCY AMENDMENTS.—Section 1122 of 

9 title 31, United States Code, is amended— 


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1 (1) by redesignating subsections (c) and (d) as 

2 subsections (f) and (g), respectively; and 

3 (2) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol4 lowing new subsections: 

5 ‘‘(c) SIMULTANEOUS REPORTING TO THE BOARD ON

6 AGENCY PROGRAMS, PRIORITY GOALS, AND RESULTS.— 

7 ‘‘(1) AGENCY REQUIREMENT.—The head of 

8 each agency shall submit to the Board all informa9 tion concerning the agency’s programs, priority 

10 goals, and results that is required to be reported 

11 under this section. 

12 ‘‘(2) PUBLICATION ONLINE.—The Board shall 

13 publish all such information online in its original 

14 format. 

15 ‘‘(3) COMPARISON OF SPENDING TO PERFORM16 ANCE.—To the extent practicable, for each fiscal 

17 year the Board shall publish, for each program iden18 tified by an agency under subsection (a)(1)— 

19 ‘‘(A) the amount spent for the program; 

20 and 

21 ‘‘(B) performance information for the pro22 gram. 

23 ‘‘(d) COMMON DATA ELEMENTS FOR AGENCY PRI24 ORITY GOALS AND RESULTS.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) REQUIREMENT.—The Board shall, by rule, 

2 designate common data elements, such as codes, 

3 identifiers, and fields, for information required to be 

4 reported by agencies under this section, including 

5 common data elements that identify each agency, 

6 each priority goal, each program, each program ac7 tivity, performance indicators, and any other infor8 mation that the Board determines should be stand9 ardized. 

10 ‘‘(2) CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMON DATA ELE11 MENTS.—The common data elements designated 

12 under this subsection shall, to the extent practicable, 

13 be nonproprietary. 

14 ‘‘(3) EXISTING COMMON DATA ELEMENTS.—In 

15 designating common data elements under this sub16 section, the Board shall, to the extent practicable, 

17 incorporate codes, identifiers, and fields that are al18 ready in use within the Federal government. 

19 ‘‘(e) DATA REPORTING STANDARDS FOR AGENCY

20 PRIORITY GOALS AND RESULTS.— 

21 ‘‘(1) REQUIREMENT.—The Board shall des22 ignate data reporting standards to govern the re23 porting required to be performed by agencies under 

24 this section. 


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1 ‘‘(2) CHARACTERISTICS OF DATA REPORTING

2 STANDARDS.—The data reporting standards des3 ignated under this subsection shall, to the extent 

4 practicable— 

5 ‘‘(A) incorporate a widely accepted, non6 proprietary, searchable, platform-independent 

7 computer-readable format; 

8 ‘‘(B) be consistent with and implement ap9 plicable best practices; and 

10 ‘‘(C) be capable of being continually up11 graded as necessary. 

12 ‘‘(3) EXISTING DATA REPORTING STAND13 ARDS.—In designating reporting standards under 

14 this subsection, the Board shall, to the extent prac15 ticable, incorporate existing nonproprietary stand16 ards.’’. 

17 (b) DEFINITION OF BOARD.—Section 1122 of title 

18 31, United States Code, is further amended by adding at 

19 the end the following new subsection: 

20 ‘‘(h) DEFINITION OF BOARD.—In this section, the 

21 term ‘Board’ means the Recovery Accountability and 

22 Transparency Board or any successor entity.’’. 

23 (c) ASSIGNMENT OF TRANSPARENCY RESPONSIBIL24 ITIES.—Section 1122 of title 31, United States Code, is 


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1 further amended by adding at the end the following new 

2 subsection: 

3 ‘‘(i) ASSIGNMENT OF TRANSPARENCY RESPONSIBIL4 ITIES.—In the event that the Recovery Accountability and 

5 Transparency Board does not exist and there is no suc6 cessor entity to the Recovery Accountability and Trans7 parency Board, the Director of the Office of Management 

8 and Budget shall carry out the Board’s responsibilities 

9 under subsections (c), (d), and (e).’’. 

Æ 


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