COST Act of 2023

Subjects: Government Operations and Politics


<html><body><pre>[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 778 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

&lt;DOC&gt;






118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 778

   To require the disclosure of information relating to the cost of 
   programs, projects, or activities carried out using Federal funds.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 14, 2023

 Ms. Ernst (for herself and Mr. Braun) introduced the following bill; 
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security 
                        and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To require the disclosure of information relating to the cost of 
   programs, projects, or activities carried out using Federal funds.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Cost Openness and Spending 
Transparency Act of 2023'' or the ``COST Act of 2023''.

SEC. 2. DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS FOR FEDERAL FUNDS.

    (a) In General.--Subchapter III of chapter 13 of title 31, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
``Sec. 1356. Disclosure requirements for Federal funds
    ``(a) Definition.--In this section, the term `agency' means--
            ``(1) an Executive agency, as defined in section 105 of 
        title 5; and
            ``(2) an independent regulatory agency, as defined in 
        section 3502 of title 44.
    ``(b) Disclosure Requirements.--An agency and an individual or 
entity (including a State or local government and a recipient of a 
Federal research grant) carrying out a program, project, or activity 
that is, in whole or in part, carried out using Federal funds shall 
clearly state in any statement, press release, request for proposals, 
bid solicitation, or other document describing the program, project, or 
activity, other than a communication containing not more than 280 
characters--
            ``(1) the percentage of the total costs of the program, 
        project, or activity which will be financed with Federal funds;
            ``(2) the dollar amount of the Federal funds made available 
        for the program, project, or activity; and
            ``(3) the percentage of the total costs of, and dollar 
        amount for, the program, project, or activity that will be 
        financed by nongovernmental sources.
    ``(c) Certification.--An individual or entity carrying out a 
program, project, or activity that is, in whole or in part, carried out 
using Federal funds shall, as part of the performance progress 
reporting regarding the program, project, or activity, include a 
certification indicating whether the individual or entity complied with 
the disclosure requirements under subsection (b) with respect to 
communications containing not more than 280 characters relating to the 
program, project, or activity.
    ``(d) Compliance Review.--The Director of the Office of Management 
and Budget shall annually--
            ``(1) review a random sampling of public communications 
        issued by agencies and recipients of Federal funds for 
        compliance with the disclosure requirements under subsection 
        (b); and
            ``(2) make publicly available the findings of the review 
        under paragraph (1).
    ``(e) Public Reporting.--Not later than 1 year after the date of 
enactment of this section, the Director of the Office of Management and 
Budget shall make available to the public a mechanism to anonymously 
report communications that do not comply with the disclosure 
requirements under subsection (b), which shall require that such a 
report include--
            ``(1) the noncompliant communication or, if publicly 
        available, the location of the noncompliant communication; and
            ``(2) identifying information regarding the program, 
        project, or activity that is, in whole or in part, carried out 
        using Federal funds.''.
    (b) Technical and Conforming Amendment.--The table of sections for 
subchapter III of chapter 13 of title 31, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following:

``1356. Disclosure requirements for Federal funds.''.
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