(7) to provide agencies with the information 
needed to track low-performing programs; and 
(8) to provide agencies with the information 
needed to quickly respond to poor performance of 
agency programs. 
SEC. 5. 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 head of each Federal agen-
cy, in consultation with the Director of the Office of Man-
agement and Budget, shall, to the maximum extent prac-
ticable, conduct an assessment of each program of the 
agency at least once every 5 fiscal years. 
‘‘(b) ASSESSMENT REQUIREMENTS.—In conducting 
an assessment of a program under subsection (a), the 
head of a Federal agency, in consultation with the Direc-
tor of the Office of Management and Budget, shall— 
‘‘(1) coordinate to determine the programs to 
be assessed; and 
‘‘(2) evaluate the purpose, design, strategic 
plan, management, efficiency, effectiveness, account-
ability, performance measures, and results of the 
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
00:56 Mar 12, 2009
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1436.IH
H1436
jbell on PROD1PC69 with BILLS
program, and such other matters as the head of the 
agency considers appropriate. 
‘‘(c) ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS.—After a fiscal 
year during which one or more programs of a Federal 
agency have been assessed under subsection (a), the head 
of the agency shall— 
‘‘(1) determine how the information gathered 
from the assessments can help save taxpayers 
money; 
‘‘(2) with respect to any assessed programs that 
have duplicative outcomes or missions, develop a 
plan for merging the programs to make them more 
effective and to save money; 
‘‘(3) identify, within any program assessed, the 
best practices conducted in the program for allo-
cating resources in an efficient and effective manner 
that resulted in positive outcomes, and the key rea-
sons why such practices resulted in positive out-
comes; and 
‘‘(4) determine the level of performance of any 
program assessed, determine the reasons for any 
substantial variation from the targeted level of per-
formance of the program, and develop a quick re-
sponse to improve any low-performing program. 
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
00:56 Mar 12, 2009
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00006
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1436.IH
H1436
jbell on PROD1PC69 with BILLS
‘‘(d) CRITERIA FOR IDENTIFYING PROGRAMS TO AS-
SESS.—The head of each Federal agency, in consultation 
with the Director of the Office of Management and Budg-
et, shall develop criteria for identifying programs to be as-
sessed within the agency each fiscal year. In developing 
the criteria, the head of the agency shall take into account 
the advantages of assessing during the same fiscal year 
any programs that are performing similar functions, have 
similar purposes, share common goals, or have similar out-
comes. 
‘‘(e) CRITERIA
FOR
MORE
FREQUENT
ASSESS-
MENTS.—The head of each Federal agency, in consulta-
tion with 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 agency and the Director deter-
mine that more frequent assessment is warranted. 
‘‘(f) CROSS-REFERENCING SYSTEM.—The Direction 
of the Office of Management and Budget shall develop a 
government-wide system to cross reference programs with-
in each Federal agency for the following purposes: 
‘‘(1) To enable the identification of programs 
with missions and outcomes that are duplicative. 
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
00:56 Mar 12, 2009
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00007
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1436.IH
H1436
jbell on PROD1PC69 with BILLS
‘‘(2) To identify best practices within the pro-
grams for allocating resources in an efficient and ef-
fective manner. 
‘‘(3) To make the programs more effective and 
efficient. 
‘‘(4) To save money. 
‘‘(g) NOTICE AND COMMENT REQUIREMENT.—At the 
beginning of each fiscal year, the Director of the Office 
of Management and Budget shall, by publication in the 
Federal Register, provide notice and an opportunity for 
public comment on a detailed description in draft form 
of each program to be assessed in that fiscal year by Fed-
eral agencies, the performance goals in draft form for each 
such program, and the criteria in draft form that will be 
used to evaluate each such program. Upon conclusion of 
the comment period, which shall be at least 60 days, the 
Director shall publish in the Federal Register a final de-
tailed description of each program to be assessed in that 
fiscal year, the final performance goals for each such pro-
gram, and the final criteria that will be used to evaluate 
each such program, including a summary of all public 
comments and their disposition. 
‘‘(h) REPORT.—(1) The results of the assessments 
conducted during a fiscal year shall be submitted in a re-
port to Congress at the same time that the President sub-
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
00:56 Mar 12, 2009
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00008
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1436.IH
H1436
jbell on PROD1PC69 with BILLS
mits the next budget under section 1105 of this title after 
the end of that fiscal year. 
‘‘(2) The report shall— 
‘‘(A) include the performance goals and per-
formance measures for each program assessment; 
‘‘(B) specify the criteria used for each assess-
ment; 
‘‘(C) describe the results of each assessment, 
including any significant limitation in the assess-
ments; 
‘‘(D) describe significant modifications to the 
Federal Government performance plan required 
under section 1105(a)(28) of this title made as a re-
sult of the assessments; 
‘‘(E) describe best practices identified during 
program assessments for allocating resources in an 
efficient and effective manner; 
‘‘(F) include recommendations for the resources 
necessary to improve any low performing programs; 
‘‘(G) include a summary of the actions taken by 
the head of the Federal agency under subsection (c) 
with respect to program assessments conducted by 
that agency, including a summary of any plan for 
merging programs and for quickly responding to im-
prove a low-performing program; and 
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
00:56 Mar 12, 2009
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00009
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1436.IH
H1436
jbell on PROD1PC69 with BILLS
‘‘(H) be available in electronic form through the 
Office of Management and Budget website or any 
successor website. 
‘‘(i) CLASSIFIED INFORMATION.—(1) With respect to 
program assessments conducted during a fiscal year that 
contain classified information, the President shall submit 
on the same date as the report is submitted under sub-
section (f)— 
‘‘(A) a copy of each such assessment (including 
the classified information), to the appropriate com-
mittees of jurisdiction of the House of Representa-
tives and the Senate; and 
‘‘(B) consistent with statutory law governing 
the disclosure of classified information, an appendix 
containing a list of each such assessment and the 
committees to which a copy of the assessment was 
submitted under subparagraph (A), to the Com-
mittee on Government Reform of the House of Rep-
resentatives and the Committee on Governmental 
Affairs of the Senate. 
‘‘(2) Upon request from the Committee on Govern-
ment Reform of the House of Representatives or the Com-
mittee on Governmental Affairs of the Senate, the Direc-
tor of the Office of Management and Budget shall, con-
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
00:56 Mar 12, 2009
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00010
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1436.IH
H1436
jbell on PROD1PC69 with BILLS