1.Short
title and table of contents
(a)This Act may be cited
as the Strengthening Transparency and
Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008
.
(b)The table of
contents for this Act is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title and table
of contents.
Sec. 2. Improving application programming interface and website
data elements.
Sec. 3. Improving data quality.
Sec. 4. Recipient performance transparency.
2.Improving
application programming interface and website data elements
(a)Section 2 of the
Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (Public Law
109–282; 31 U.S.C. 6101 note) (referred to in this Act as the
Act
for purposes of any amendment) is amended—
(1)in subsection
(a)—
(A)in paragraph
(2)(A)(ii), by striking and delivery orders
and inserting
lease agreements and assignments, and delivery orders
;
and
(B)in paragraph
(3)—
(i)in
subparagraph (C), by striking and
after the semicolon;
(ii)in
subparagraph (D), by striking the period and inserting ; and
;
and
(iii)by adding at
the end the following:
(E)programmatically
search and access all data in a serialized machine readable format (such as
XML) via a web-services application programming
interface.
;
(2)in subsection
(b)—
(A)in paragraph
(1)—
(i)in
subparagraph (E), by striking and
after the semicolon;
(ii)in
subparagraph (F), by striking the period and inserting ; and
;
and
(iii)by adding at
the end the following:
(G)a unique award
identifier that identifies each individual award vehicle;
(H)the date that the
financial award was made;
(I)the date that the
financial award requirements began;
(J)the date that the
financial obligations are dispersed to the recipient;
(K)to the extent
possible, the agency and department as well as subagencies and suboffices that
have authorized the Federal award;
(L)in negotiated
procurements, the highest, lowest, and median offered price among all
technically acceptable proposals or bids;
(M)after January 1,
2010, for all contracts, subcontracts, purchase orders, task orders, lease
agreements and assignments, and delivery orders—
(i)both a copy in a
format that reproduces the original image of each page and a copy in searchable
text format of the request for proposals, the announcement of the award, the
contract, and the scope of work to be performed;
(ii)a product or
service code that identifies the general category of product or service
procured under the transaction;
(iii)information
about the extent of competition in making the award, including the number of
qualified bids or proposals during the competitive process, and if the award
was not competed, the legal authority and specific rationale for making the
award without full and open competition;
(iv)the full amount
of money that is awarded under a contract or, in the case of lease agreements
or assignments, the amount paid to the Government, and the full amount of any
options to expand or extend under a contract;
(v)the amount and
nature of the profit incentive offered to contractors for achieving or
exceeding specified goals such as fixed price, cost plus pricing, labor hour
contracts, and time and materials contracts;
(vi)an indication if
the contract is the result of legislative mandates, set-asides, preference
program requirements, or other criteria, and whether the contract is multiyear,
consolidated, or performance based;
(vii)an indication
if the contract is a congressionally directed spending item as defined in
Public Law 110–81; and
(viii)socioeconomic
characteristics of the entity that receives an award including its size,
industrial classification (NAICS code), and whether the entity is owned by
minority individuals, women, veterans, or other special categories; and
(N)after January 1,
2009, for all grants, subgrants, loans, awards, cooperative agreements, and
other forms of financial assistance—
(i)the type of
recipient receiving the award, such as State government, local government,
Indian tribe, individual, small business, for-profit, or nonprofit;
(ii)the type of
financial assistance each transaction represents including direct payments,
insurance, loans, grants, and cooperative agreements;
(iii)the amount of
money from non-Federal sources that is required to obtain the award; and
(iv)an indication if
the funding is a congressionally directed spending item as defined in Public
Law
110–81.
;
(B)by redesignating
paragraphs (2), (3), and (4) as paragraphs (3), (4), and (5), respectively;
and
(C)by adding after
paragraph (1) the following:
(2)The website shall present information about Federal awards
and recipients of Federal awards in ways that meet the needs of users with
different levels of understanding about government spending and abilities using
searching websites by—
(A)providing search
results for novices displayed in summary form and with top level information
such as amount of money received in a fiscal year, basic information about the
recipient, purpose of the Federal award, what Federal agencies are providing
the money, where the work is performed, and extent of competition, if
applicable; and
(B)providing more
detailed information for more sophisticated users, including all data in
paragraph (1).
;
and
(3)in subsection
(c), by striking paragraph (4) and inserting the following:
(4)shall be updated
at least once every 30 days with new information required by this Act;
and
.
(b)Except as otherwise provided, amendments made by subsection
(a) shall be implemented not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of
this Act.
3.
(a)The Act is amended by
adding at the end the following:
5.
(a)The Director of the
Office of Management and Budget shall ensure the following:
(1)A simple method
for the public to report errors is available on the website created by this Act
which should—
(A)allow the public
to report errors on single records as well as problems affecting multiple
records;
(B)allow the public
to provide contact information, including e-mail address, mail address, or
telephone number, to be used for informing the reporter of the outcome of the
records review;
(C)send copies of
the error report to both an official responsible for the data quality at the
agency that generated the data and to the Office of Management and
Budget;
(D)if reported
errors are deemed to be nonfrivolous, place an indicator on the records on the
website that informs users that the accuracy of the record has been brought
into question, until the information is either confirmed as correct or updated
to be correct; and
(E)maintain a public
record organized by agency of the total number of records which have had
nonfrivolous reports of errors, the number of records which have been
corrected, and number of records for which error reports remain
unresolved.
(2)Each agency
inspector general—
(A)reviews a
statistically representative sample of agency Federal awards every 6 months to
verify accuracy of the data and that data standards are being followed;
(B)reports to the
Director of the Office of Management and Budget the findings of the review;
and
(C)makes publicly
available, including through the website created by this Act, the findings of
the review.
(3)The data used on
the website created by this Act is audited for quality every 6 months with the
audit to include at least the following steps:
(A)Review and report
publicly on the activity in the error reporting system created by this section
with an analysis for each agency and combined for agencies that includes at
least the following indicators:
(i)Number of errors
reported.
(ii)Number of
reported errors resolved.
(iii)Number of
reported errors that remain unresolved.
(iv)Number of
reported errors that led to corrections.
(v)Number of
reported errors on records that proved to be correct.
(vi)Average number
of days to resolve error report.
(vii)Longest number
of days to resolve an error report.
(viii)Longest held
reported error that remains unresolved.
(B)An independent
review every 6 months of data used for the website to verify accuracy of the
data and assess the process used for improving data quality with an ability for
the public to review these findings.
(C)Identify and
report new standards that should be implemented by agencies to improve data
quality.
(4)(A)No personally
identifiable information is made available through the website created by this
Act and a common standard is created across the Government for assigning a
unique award identifier across both contract and Federal assistance award
transactions.
(B)A report is submitted within 6 months
of the date of enactment of this Act to Congress (and made publicly available
on the Internet) that no personally identifiable information is available on
the website.
(C)Agencies are required to correct data
for past years when personally identifiable information was used.
(D)The unique recipient identifier and
parent company identifier are—
(i)accurate;
(ii)able to identify past and current
subsidiary ownership; and
(iii)publicly available through the
download and application programming interfaces in section 2(a)(3).
(5)The data on the
website created by this Act is normalized to correct nonstandard ways of
reporting names and other information.
(6)The Consolidated
Federal Funds Report is published not later than 6 months after the end of the
fiscal year.
(7)A plan for
improving the management and accuracy of agency financial information about
Federal awards, including public access to such data, is submitted to the
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives
and made publicly available through the Internet not later than December 31,
2009.
(8)Findings from the
agency inspectors general reports, the data quality audits, and other
information are used to develop standards or guidance for agency implementation
of, and compliance with, the requirements of this Act.
(b)Nothing in this Act relieves the director or any
Federal agency of any statutory obligation to develop, maintain, or provide
access to complete, accurate, and timely Federal financial
data.
.
(b)Except as otherwise provided, the amendments made by
subsection (a) shall be implemented not later than June 30, 2009.
4.Recipient
performance transparency
(a)The Act as amended by
section 4 is amended by adding at the end the following:
7.Recipient
performance transparency and tax compliance
(a)The Director of
the Office of Management and Budget shall ensure that the unique identifier
required in section 2(b)(1)(E) that is used to link information on the website
described in section 2 is also used to link information about performance of
individual contractors and recipients of financial assistance starting with
awards given in fiscal year 2008 including—
(1)an assessment of
the quality of work performed on Federal awards during the past 5 years, but
not before fiscal year 2008;
(2)information about
Federal audit disputes and resolutions;
(3)information
regarding civil, criminal, and administrative actions initiated or concluded by
the Federal Government or a State government against Federal awards recipients
or violations of Federal or State laws or regulations during the preceding 5
years including, but not limited to—
(A)with respect to
each proceeding—
(i)a
brief description of the proceeding and its disposition;
(ii)any amount paid
by the person to the Federal Government or a State government; and
(iii)any violation
of law or regulations, if applicable, related to the workplace, environmental
protection, fraud, securities, and consumer protections including—
(I)those affecting
worker safety and health;
(II)working pay and
leave rights;
(III)workplace
discrimination, including trafficking in persons;
(IV)labor
relations;
(V)the Clean Air
Act, Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and other
environmental enforcement actions;
(VI)whistleblower
protections;
(VII)Security and
Exchange Commission actions; and
(VIII)Federal Trade
Commission actions;
(B)all Federal
contracts and assistance awarded to the Federal awards recipient that were
terminated in such period due to default;
(C)all Federal
suspensions and debarments of the Federal awards recipient in that
period;
(D)all Federal
suspension and debarment show cause orders received by the Federal awards
recipient in that period; and
(E)all
administrative agreements signed with such Federal awards recipient in that
period; and
(4)publicly
available Government reports, including those from the Government
Accountability Office, Congressional Research Service, Congressional Budget
Office, and agency inspectors general, concerning general contractor or
assistance recipient performance or specific instances of waste, fraud, and
abuse.
(b)
(1)The chief executive officer of an entity that receives a
Federal award shall be required to certify whether—
(A)the entity has
filed all Federal tax returns required during the preceding 5 years;
(B)the entity has
been convicted of a criminal offense under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986;
and
(C)the entity has an
outstanding debt under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 for which a notice of
lien has been filed in public records pursuant to section 6323 of such Code
that is not—
(i)being paid in a
timely manner pursuant to an agreement under section 6159 or section 7122 of
such Code; or
(ii)a debt with
respect to which a collection due process hearing under section 6330 of such
Code, or relief under subsection (a), (b), or (f) of section 6015 of such Code,
is requested or pending.
(2)The
Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall—
(A)develop the
certification forms required by paragraph (1);
(B)ensure that each
agency providing Federal awards complies with the requirements of this
subsection; and
(C)after January 1,
2009, ensure that the website described in section 2 contains information
collected under paragraph
(1).
.
(b)The amendments made by subsection (a) shall be implemented
not later than June 30, 2009.