I 
115TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4887 
To modernize Federal grant reporting, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 29, 2018 
Ms. FOXX (for herself, Mr. GOMEZ, Mr. ISSA, Mr. QUIGLEY, and Mr. KIL-
MER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Oversight and Government Reform 
A BILL 
To modernize Federal grant reporting, and for other 
purposes. 
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 ‘‘Grant Reporting Effi-
ciency and Agreements Transparency Act of 2018’’ or the 
‘‘GREAT Act’’. 
SEC. 2. PURPOSES. 
The purposes of this Act are to— 
(1) modernize reporting by recipients of Federal 
grants and cooperative agreements by creating and 
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imposing data standards for the information that 
grants and cooperative agreement recipients must 
report to the Federal Government; 
(2) implement the recommendation by the Di-
rector of the Office of Management and Budget, 
under section 5(b)(6) of the Federal Funding Ac-
countability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 
U.S.C. 6101 note), which includes the development 
of a ‘‘comprehensive taxonomy of standard defini-
tions for core data elements required for managing 
Federal financial assistance awards’’; 
(3) reduce burden and compliance costs of re-
cipients of Federal grants and cooperative agree-
ments by enabling technology solutions, existing or 
yet to be developed, by both the public and private 
sectors, to better manage data recipients already 
provide to the Federal Government; and 
(4) to strengthen oversight and management of 
Federal grants and cooperative agreements by agen-
cies through consolidated collection and display of 
and access to open data that has been standardized, 
and where appropriate, transparency to the public. 
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SEC. 3. DATA STANDARDS FOR GRANT REPORTING. 
(a) AMENDMENT.—Subtitle V of title 31, United 
States Code, is amended by inserting after chapter 63 the 
following new chapter: 
‘‘CHAPTER 64—DATA STANDARDS FOR 
GRANT REPORTING 
‘‘Sec. 
‘‘6401. Definitions. 
‘‘6402. Data standards for grant reporting. 
‘‘6403. Guidance applying standard data elements for grant reporting. 
‘‘6404. Agency requirements. 
‘‘§ 6401. Definitions 
‘‘In this chapter: 
‘‘(1) AGENCY.—The term ‘agency’ has the 
meaning given that term in section 551 of title 5. 
‘‘(2) CORE STANDARD DATA ELEMENTS.—The 
term ‘core standard data elements’ means data ele-
ments that are not program-specific in nature and 
are required by all or the vast majority of Federal 
grant and cooperative assistance recipients for pur-
poses of reporting. 
‘‘(3) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘Director’ means 
the Director of the Office of Management and Budg-
et. 
‘‘(4) FEDERAL
AWARD.—The term ‘Federal 
award’— 
‘‘(A) means the transfer of anything of 
value for a public purpose of support or stimu-
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lation authorized by a law of the United States, 
including financial assistance and Government 
facilities, services, and property; 
‘‘(B) includes grants, subgrants, awards, 
and cooperative agreements; and 
‘‘(C) does not include— 
‘‘(i) conventional public information 
services or procurement of property or 
services for the direct benefit or use of the 
Government; or 
‘‘(ii) an agreement that provides 
only— 
‘‘(I) direct Government cash as-
sistance to an individual; 
‘‘(II) a subsidy; 
‘‘(III) a loan; 
‘‘(IV) a loan guarantee; or 
‘‘(V) insurance. 
‘‘(5) SECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ means 
the head of the standard-setting agency. 
‘‘(6) STANDARD-SETTING AGENCY.—The term 
‘standard-setting agency’ means the Executive de-
partment designated under section 6402(a)(1). 
‘‘§ 6402. Data standards for grant reporting 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.— 
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‘‘(1) DESIGNATION
OF
STANDARD-SETTING 
AGENCY.—The Director shall designate the Execu-
tive department (as defined in section 101 of title 5) 
that issues the most Federal awards as the stand-
ard-setting agency. 
‘‘(2) ESTABLISHMENT
OF
STANDARDS.—Not 
later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of 
this chapter, the Secretary and the Director shall es-
tablish Governmentwide data standards for informa-
tion reported by recipients of Federal awards. 
‘‘(3) DATA
ELEMENTS.—The data standards 
established under paragraph (2) shall include, at a 
minimum— 
‘‘(A) a comprehensive taxonomy of stand-
ard definitions for data elements required for 
managing Federal awards; and 
‘‘(B) unique and nonproprietary identifiers 
for Federal awards and entities receiving Fed-
eral awards that can be consistently applied 
Governmentwide. 
‘‘(b) SCOPE.—The data standards established under 
subsection (a) shall include core standard data elements 
and may cover any information required to be reported 
to any agency by recipients of Federal awards, including 
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audit-related information reported under chapter 75 of 
this title. 
‘‘(c) REQUIREMENTS.—The data standards required 
to be established under subsection (a) shall, to the extent 
reasonable and practicable— 
‘‘(1) render information reported by recipients 
of Federal grant and cooperative agreement awards 
fully searchable and machine-readable; 
‘‘(2) be nonproprietary; 
‘‘(3) incorporate standards developed and main-
tained by voluntary consensus standards bodies; 
‘‘(4) be consistent with and implement applica-
ble accounting and reporting principles; and 
‘‘(5) incorporate the data standards established 
under the Federal Funding Accountability and 
Transparency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note). 
‘‘(d) CONSULTATION.—In establishing the core 
standard data elements under subsection (a), the Sec-
retary and the Director shall consult with, as appro-
priate— 
‘‘(1) the Secretary of the Treasury, to ensure 
that the data standards incorporate the data stand-
ards created under the Federal Funding Account-
ability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 
6101 note); 
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‘‘(2) the head of each agency that issues Fed-
eral awards; 
‘‘(3) recipients of Federal awards and organiza-
tions representing recipients of Federal awards; 
‘‘(4) software providers seeking to build tools 
that automatically compile and submit grant-related 
reports and organizations representing such software 
providers; and 
‘‘(5) members of the public, including privacy 
experts and privacy advocates. 
‘‘§ 6403. Guidance applying standard data elements 
for grant reporting 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after the 
date of the enactment of this chapter— 
‘‘(1) the Secretary and the Director shall issue 
guidance to all agencies directing the agencies to 
apply the data standards established under section 
6402 to all applicable reporting by recipients of Fed-
eral grant and cooperative agreement awards; and 
‘‘(2) the Director shall prescribe guidance ap-
plying the data standards to audit-related informa-
tion reported under chapter 75. 
‘‘(b) GUIDANCE.—The guidance issued under this 
section shall— 
‘‘(1) to the extent reasonable and practicable— 
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‘‘(A) minimize the disruption to existing 
reporting practices for agencies and for recipi-
ents of Federal grant and cooperative agree-
ment awards; and 
‘‘(B) explore opportunities to implement 
modern technologies within Federal award re-
porting; and 
‘‘(2) allow the Director to permit exceptions on 
a case-by-case basis. 
‘‘§ 6404. Agency requirements 
‘‘Not later than 3 years after the date of the enact-
ment of this chapter, the head of each agency shall ensure 
that all of the agency’s grants and cooperative agreements 
use data standards for all future information collection re-
quests and amend existing information collection requests 
covered by chapter 35 of title 44 (commonly referred to 
as the Paperwork Reduction Act) to comply with the data 
standards established under section 6402, consistent with 
the guidance issued by the Secretary and the Director 
under section 6403.’’. 
(b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.— 
The table of chapters for subtitle V of title 31, United 
States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relat-
ing to chapter 63 the following new item: 
‘‘64. Data standards for grant reporting .................................. 6401’’. 
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SEC. 4. SINGLE AUDIT ACT. 
(a) AMENDMENTS.— 
(1) Section 7502(h) of title 31, United States 
Code, is amended by inserting before ‘‘to a Federal 
clearinghouse’’ the following ‘‘in an electronic form 
consistent with the data standards established under 
chapter 64,’’. 
(2) Section 7505 of title 31, United States 
Code, is amended by adding at the end the following 
new subsection: 
‘‘(d) Such guidance shall require audit-related infor-
mation reported under this chapter to be reported in an 
electronic form consistent with the data standards estab-
lished under chapter 64.’’. 
(b) GUIDANCE.—Not later than 2 years after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Director shall issue 
guidance requiring audit-related information reported 
under chapter 75 of title 31, United States Code, to be 
reported in an electronic form consistent with the data 
standards established under chapter 64 of title 31, United 
States Code, as added by section 3. 
SEC. 5. CONSOLIDATION OF ASSISTANCE-RELATED INFOR-
MATION; PUBLICATION OF PUBLIC INFORMA-
TION AS OPEN DATA. 
(a) COLLECTION OF INFORMATION.—Not later than 
4 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
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Secretary and the Director shall enable the collection, pub-
lic display, and maintenance of Federal award information 
as a Governmentwide data set, using the data standards 
established under chapter 64 of title 31, United States 
Code, as added by section 3, subject to reasonable restric-
tions established by the Director to ensure protection of 
personally identifiable and otherwise sensitive information. 
(b) PUBLICATION OF INFORMATION.—The Secretary 
and the Director shall require the publication of recipient- 
reported data collected from all agencies on a single public 
website. Information may be published on an existing Gov-
ernmentwide website as determined appropriate by the Di-
rector. 
(c) FOIA.—Nothing in this section shall require the 
disclosure to the public of information that would be ex-
empt from disclosure under section 552 of title 5, United 
States Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Freedom of Infor-
mation Act’’). 
SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act, the terms ‘‘agency’’, ‘‘Director’’, ‘‘Fed-
eral award’’, and ‘‘Secretary’’ have the meaning given 
those terms in section 6401 of title 31, United States 
Code, as added by section 3(a). 
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SEC. 7. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 
Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this 
Act, shall be construed to require the collection of data 
that is not otherwise required pursuant to any Federal 
award. 
Æ 
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