I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 185 
To require the review of Government programs at least once every 5 years 
for purposes of evaluating their performance. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 4, 2005 
Mr. PLATTS (for himself and Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Government Reform 
A BILL 
To require the review of Government programs at least once 
every 5 years for purposes of evaluating their performance. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Program Assessment 
and Results Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that— 
(1) inefficiency and ineffectiveness in Federal 
programs undermines the confidence of the Amer-
ican people in the Government and reduces the Fed-
eral Government’s ability to adequately address vital 
public needs; 
(2) insufficient information on program per-
formance seriously disadvantages Federal managers 
in their efforts to improve program efficiency and ef-
fectiveness; 
(3) congressional policy making, spending deci-
sions, and program oversight are handicapped by in-
sufficient attention to program performance and re-
sults; 
(4) programs performing similar or duplicative 
functions that exist within a single agency or across 
multiple agencies should be identified and their per-
formance and results shared among all such pro-
grams to improve their performance and results; 
(5) advocates of good government continue to 
seek ways to improve accountability, focus on re-
sults, and integrate the performance of programs 
with decisions about budgets; 
(6) with the passage of the Government Per-
formance and Results Act of 1993, the Congress di-
rected the executive branch to seek improvements in 
the effectiveness, efficiency, and accountability of 
Federal programs by having agencies focus on pro-
gram results; and
(7) the Government Performance and Results 
Act of 1993 provided a strong framework for the ex-
ecutive branch to monitor the long-term goals and 
annual performance of its departments and agencies. 
SEC. 3. PURPOSE. 
The purposes of this Act are— 
(1) to improve the Government Performance 
and Results Act of 1993 by implementing a program 
assessment and evaluation process that attempts to 
determine the strengths and weaknesses of Federal 
programs with a particular focus on the results pro-
duced by individual programs; 
(2) to use the information gathered in the as-
sessment and evaluation process to build on the 
groundwork laid in the Government Performance 
and Results Act of 1993 to help the executive 
branch make informed management decisions and 
evidence-based funding requests aimed at achieving 
positive results; and 
(3) to provide congressional policy makers the 
information needed to conduct more effective over-
sight, to make better-informed authorization deci-
sions, and to make more evidence-based spending 
decisions that achieve positive results for the Amer-
ican people.
SEC. 4. PROGRAM ASSESSMENT. 
(a) REQUIREMENT FOR PROGRAM ASSESSMENTS.— 
Chapter 11 of title 31, United States Code, as amended 
by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, 
is amended by adding at the end the following new section: 
‘‘§ 1120. Program assessment 
‘‘(a) ASSESSMENT.—The Director of the Office of 
Management and Budget to the maximum extent prac-
ticable shall conduct, jointly with agencies of the Federal 
Government, an assessment of each program at least once 
every 5 fiscal years. 
‘‘(b) ASSESSMENT REQUIREMENTS.—In conducting 
an assessment of a program under subsection (a), the Di-
rector of the Office of Management and Budget and the 
head of the relevant agency shall— 
‘‘(1) coordinate to determine the programs to 
be assessed; and 
‘‘(2) evaluate the purpose, design, strategic 
plan, management, and results of the program, and 
such other matters as the Director considers appro-
priate. 
‘‘(c) CRITERIA FOR IDENTIFYING PROGRAMS TO AS-
SESS.—The Director of the Office of Management and 
Budget shall develop criteria for identifying programs to 
be assessed each fiscal year. In developing the criteria, the 
Director shall take into account the advantages of assess-
ing during the same fiscal year any programs that are per-
forming similar functions, have similar purposes, or share 
common goals, such as those contained in strategic plans 
under section 306 of title 5. To the maximum extent pos-
sible, the Director shall assess a representative sample of 
Federal spending each fiscal year. 
‘‘(d) CRITERIA
FOR
MORE
FREQUENT
ASSESS-
MENTS.—The Director of the Office of Management and 
Budget shall make every effort to assess programs more 
frequently than required under subsection (a) in cases in 
which programs are determined to be of higher priority, 
special circumstances exist, improvements have been 
made, or the head of the relevant agency and the Director 
determine that more frequent assessment is warranted. 
‘‘(e) PUBLICATION.—At least 90 days before com-
pleting the assessments under this section to be conducted 
during a fiscal year, the Director of the Office of Manage-
ment and Budget shall— 
‘‘(1) make available in electronic form through 
the Office of Management and Budget website or 
any successor website, and provide to the Committee 
on Government Reform of the House of Representa-
tives and the Committee on Governmental Affairs of 
the Senate—