I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4272 
To require the public tracking of undisbursed balances in expired grant 
accounts. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 10, 2009 
Mr. HODES introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Oversight and Government Reform 
A BILL 
To require the public tracking of undisbursed balances in 
expired grant accounts. 
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 ‘‘Government Grants 
Accountability Act’’. 
SEC. 2. REPORTS ON USE OF GRANT FUNDS. 
(a) RECIPIENT REPORTS.—Not later than 10 days 
after the end of a fiscal year, each recipient that received 
grant funds during that fiscal year from an agency shall 
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submit a report to that agency that contains, with respect 
to that fiscal year— 
(1) the total amount of grant funds received 
from that agency; 
(2) the amount of grant funds received that 
were expended or obligated to projects or activities; 
and 
(3) a detailed list of all projects or activities for 
which grant funds were expended or obligated, in-
cluding— 
(A) the name of the project or activity; 
(B) a description of the project or activity; 
(C) an evaluation of the completion status 
of the project or activity; 
(D) an estimate of the number of jobs cre-
ated and the number of jobs retained by the 
project or activity; and 
(E) for infrastructure investments made by 
State and local governments, the purpose, total 
cost, and rationale of the agency for funding 
the infrastructure investment with grant funds. 
(b) AGENCY REPORTS.—Not later than 30 days after 
the end of a fiscal year, each agency that made grant 
funds available to any recipient during that fiscal year 
shall make the information in reports submitted under 
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subsection (a) publicly available by posting the informa-
tion on a website. The agency shall include with such in-
formation the name of the person to contact at the agency 
if there are concerns with the grant funds. 
(c) OTHER REPORTS.—The Congressional Budget 
Office and the Government Accountability Office shall 
comment on the information described in subsection 
(a)(3)(D) for any reports submitted under subsection (a). 
Such comments shall be due to Congress within 45 days 
after the end of the fiscal year for which such reports are 
submitted and made publicly available by posting the com-
ments on the websites of such Offices. 
(d) GUIDANCE.—The Director of the Office of Man-
agement and Budget shall issue guidance for agencies on 
compliance with this section. The Director also shall re-
quire each agency to create a standard form for use within 
the agency for the reports required under subsection (a). 
(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) GRANT FUNDS.—The term ‘‘grant funds’’ 
means any funds available for a grant from the Fed-
eral Government if the period of availability of such 
funds for the grant is not greater than one fiscal 
year. 
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(2) AGENCY.—The term ‘‘agency’’ has the 
meaning given under section 551 of title 5, United 
States Code. 
(f) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section shall apply to 
the first fiscal year beginning after the date of the enact-
ment of this Act and each fiscal year thereafter. 
SEC. 3. IDENTIFICATION AND RETURN OF UNDISBURSED 
BALANCES IN EXPIRED GRANT ACCOUNTS. 
(a) TREATMENT
OF UNDISBURSED BALANCES
IN 
EXPIRED GRANT ACCOUNTS.—Notwithstanding section 
1554 of title 31, United States Code, during the first 
quarter of each fiscal year, each agency with grant ac-
counts shall identify any undisbursed balances in the 
grant accounts as of the end of the preceding fiscal year. 
The agency shall return such undisbursed balances to the 
Treasury of the United States by the end of the first quar-
ter of the fiscal year. 
(b) APPLICABILITY TO ONE-YEAR GRANT FUNDS.— 
Subsection (a) applies to grant accounts whose period of 
availability is not greater than one fiscal year. 
(c) AGENCY.—In this section, the term ‘‘agency’’ has 
the meaning given under section 551 of title 5, United 
States Code. 
Æ 
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