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cipients that do not share in the cost of conducting re-
search resulting from proposals not specifically solicited 
by the Government: Provided, That the extent of cost 
sharing by the recipient shall reflect the mutuality of in-
terest of the grantee or contractor and the Government 
in the research. 
SEC. 405. None of the funds provided in this Act may 
be used, directly or through grants, to pay or to provide 
reimbursement for payment of the salary of a consultant 
(whether retained by the Federal Government or a grant-
ee) at more than the daily equivalent of the rate paid for 
level IV of the Executive Schedule, unless specifically au-
thorized by law. 
SEC. 406. None of the funds provided in this Act may 
be used to pay the expenses of, or otherwise compensate, 
non-Federal parties intervening in regulatory or adjudica-
tory proceedings. Nothing herein affects the authority of 
the Consumer Product Safety Commission pursuant to 
section 7 of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 
2056 et seq.). 
SEC. 407. Except as otherwise provided under exist-
ing law, or under an existing Executive Order issued pur-
suant to an existing law, the obligation or expenditure of 
any appropriation under this Act for contracts for any 
consulting service shall be limited to contracts which are:
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(1) a matter of public record and available for public in-
spection; and (2) thereafter included in a publicly available 
list of all contracts entered into within 24 months prior 
to the date on which the list is made available to the public 
and of all contracts on which performance has not been 
completed by such date. The list required by the preceding 
sentence shall be updated quarterly and shall include a 
narrative description of the work to be performed under 
each such contract. 
SEC. 408. Except as otherwise provided by law, no 
part of any appropriation contained in this Act shall be 
obligated or expended by any executive agency, as referred 
to in the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act (41 
U.S.C. 401 et seq.), for a contract for services unless such 
executive agency: (1) has awarded and entered into such 
contract in full compliance with such Act and the regula-
tions promulgated thereunder; and (2) requires any report 
prepared pursuant to such contract, including plans, eval-
uations, studies, analyses and manuals, and any report 
prepared by the agency which is substantially derived from 
or substantially includes any report prepared pursuant to 
such contract, to contain information concerning: (A) the 
contract pursuant to which the report was prepared; and 
(B) the contractor who prepared the report pursuant to 
such contract.
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SEC. 409. (a) It is the sense of the Congress that, 
to the greatest extent practicable, all equipment and prod-
ucts purchased with funds made available in this Act 
should be American-made. 
(b) In providing financial assistance to, or entering 
into any contract with, any entity using funds made avail-
able in this Act, the head of each Federal agency, to the 
greatest extent practicable, shall provide to such entity a 
notice describing the statement made in subsection (a) by 
the Congress. 
SEC. 410. None of the funds appropriated in this Act 
may be used to implement any cap on reimbursements to 
grantees for indirect costs, except as published in Office 
of Management and Budget Circular A–21. 
SEC. 411. Such sums as may be necessary for fiscal 
year 2004 pay raises for programs funded by this Act shall 
be absorbed within the levels appropriated in this Act. 
SEC. 412. None of the funds made available in this 
Act may be used for any program, project, or activity, 
when it is made known to the Federal entity or official 
to which the funds are made available that the program, 
project, or activity is not in compliance with any Federal 
law relating to risk assessment, the protection of private 
property rights, or unfunded mandates.
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SEC. 413. Except in the case of entities that are 
funded solely with Federal funds or any natural persons 
that are funded under this Act, none of the funds in this 
Act shall be used for the planning or execution of any pro-
gram to pay the expenses of, or otherwise compensate, 
non-Federal parties to lobby or litigate in respect to adju-
dicatory proceedings funded in this Act. A chief executive 
officer of any entity receiving funds under this Act shall 
certify that none of these funds have been used to engage 
in the lobbying of the Federal Government or in litigation 
against the United States unless authorized under existing 
law. 
SEC. 414. No part of any funds appropriated in this 
Act shall be used by an agency of the executive branch, 
other than for normal and recognized executive-legislative 
relationships, for publicity or propaganda purposes, and 
for the preparation, distribution or use of any kit, pam-
phlet, booklet, publication, radio, television or film presen-
tation designed to support or defeat legislation pending 
before the Congress, except in presentation to the Con-
gress itself. 
SEC. 415. All departments and agencies funded under 
this Act are encouraged, within the limits of the existing 
statutory authorities and funding, to expand their use of 
‘‘E-Commerce’’ technologies and procedures in the con-
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duct of their business practices and public service activi-
ties. 
SEC. 416. None of the funds made available in this 
Act may be transferred to any department, agency, or in-
strumentality of the United States Government except 
pursuant to a transfer made by, or transfer authority pro-
vided in, this Act or any other appropriation Act. 
SEC. 417. None of the funds provided in this Act to 
any department or agency shall be obligated or expended 
to procure passenger automobiles as defined in 15 U.S.C. 
2001 with an EPA estimated miles per gallon average of 
less than 22 miles per gallon.
SEC. 418. Section 312 of the National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration of 1958, as amended, is further 
amended—
(1) by striking the second Sec. ‘‘312’’ and in-
serting ‘‘313’’; 
(2) by inserting the title, ‘‘Full Cost Appropria-
tions Account Structure’’, before Sec. 313; 
(3) in subsection (a)—
(A) by striking ‘‘Human space flight’’ and 
inserting ‘‘Space flight capabilities’’; 
(B) by striking ‘‘technology’’ and inserting 
‘‘exploration’’; and
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(C) by striking ‘‘2002’’ and inserting 
‘‘2004’’; and 
(4) by striking subsection (c), and inserting the 
following new subsection: 
‘‘(c) The unexpired balances of prior appropriations 
to the Administration for activities authorized under this 
Act may be transferred to the new account established for 
such activity in subsection (a). Balances so transferred 
may be merged with funds in the newly established ac-
count and thereafter may be accounted for as one fund 
under the same terms and conditions’’.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Departments of Vet-
erans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and 
Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2004’’.
Union Calendar No. 129
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 2861
[Report No. 108–235] 
A BILL 
Making appropriations for the Departments of Vet-
erans Affairs and Housing and Urban Develop-
ment, and for sundry independent agencies, 
boards, commissions, corporations, and offices 
for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2004, 
and for other purposes. 
JULY 24, 2003
Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the 
State of the Union and ordered to be printed