1.This Act may be cited as the
Government Efficiency, Effectiveness,
and Accountability Act
.
2.Congress finds that—
(1)inefficiency,
ineffectiveness, and unaccountability in Federal programs undermines the
confidence of the American people in the Government and reduces the Federal
Government’s ability to adequately address vital public needs;
(2)insufficient
information on program performance seriously disadvantages Federal managers in
their efforts to improve program efficiency, effectiveness, and
accountability;
(3)congressional
policy making, spending decisions, and program oversight are handicapped by
insufficient attention to program performance and results;
(4)programs
performing similar or duplicative functions that exist within a single agency
or across multiple agencies should be identified and their performance and
results shared among all such programs to improve their performance and
results;
(5)advocates of good
government continue to seek ways to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and
accountability; focus on results; and integrate the performance of programs
with decisions about budgets;
(6)with the passage
of the Government Performance and Results Act
of 1993, the Congress directed the executive branch to seek
improvements in the effectiveness, efficiency, and accountability of Federal
programs by having agencies focus on program results; and
(7)the
Government Performance and Results Act of
1993 provided a strong framework for the executive branch to monitor
the long-term goals and annual performance of its departments and
agencies.
3.Sense of Congress
regarding strategic and performance plans of the GovernmentIt is the sense of Congress that—
(1)the President
should establish a government-wide strategic plan and a government-wide
performance plan; and
(2)the head of each
Federal agency should consult with the committees with jurisdiction over the
agency and other interested members of Congress at the beginning of each
Congress regarding the performance plan of the agency (required by section 1115
of title 31, United States Code).
4.The purposes of this Act are—
(1)to improve the
Government Performance and Results Act of
1993 by implementing a program assessment and evaluation process
that attempts to determine the strengths and weaknesses of Federal programs
with a particular focus on the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of
Federal programs and to identify programs that have missions or outcomes that
are duplicative;
(2)to
use the information gathered in the assessment and evaluation process to build
on the groundwork laid in the Government
Performance and Results Act of 1993 to help the executive branch
make informed management decisions and results-based funding requests aimed at
achieving positive results;
(3)to provide
congressional policy makers the information needed to conduct more effective
oversight, to make better-informed authorization decisions, and to make more
results-based spending decisions that achieve positive results for the American
people;
(4)to encourage the
wise expenditure of funds on the most effective Federal programs in an effort
to save money;
(5)to eliminate
Federal programs subject to waste, fraud, and abuse;
(6)to identify best practices in Federal
programs for allocating resources in an efficient and effective manner;
(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.
5.
(a)Requirement for
program assessmentsChapter 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.
(a)The
head of each Federal agency, in consultation with the Director of the Office of
Management and Budget, shall, to the maximum extent practicable, conduct an
assessment of each program of the agency at least once every 5 fiscal
years.
(b)In conducting an assessment of a program under
subsection (a), the head of a Federal agency, in consultation with the Director
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,
accountability, performance measures, and results of the program, and such
other matters as the head of the agency considers appropriate.
(c)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
allocating resources in an efficient and effective manner that resulted in
positive outcomes, and the key reasons why such practices resulted in positive
outcomes; and
(4)determine the level of performance of any
program assessed, determine the reasons for any substantial variation from the
targeted level of performance of the program, and develop a quick response to
improve any low-performing program.
(d)Criteria for
identifying programs to assessThe head of each Federal agency,
in consultation with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, shall
develop criteria for identifying programs to be assessed 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 outcomes.
(e)Criteria for
more frequent assessmentsThe head of each Federal agency, in
consultation 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 determine that more frequent assessment is
warranted.
(f)The Direction of the Office of Management and Budget shall
develop a government-wide system to cross reference programs within each
Federal agency for the following purposes:
(1)To enable the
identification of programs with missions and outcomes that are
duplicative.
(2)To identify best practices within the
programs for allocating resources in an efficient and effective manner.
(3)To make the
programs more effective and efficient.
(4)To save
money.
(g)Notice and
comment requirementAt 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 Federal 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 detailed
description of each program to be assessed in that fiscal year, the final
performance goals for each such program, and the final criteria that will be
used to evaluate each such program, including a summary of all public comments
and their disposition.
(h)(1)The results of the
assessments conducted during a fiscal year shall be submitted in a report to
Congress at the same time that the President submits 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
performance measures for each program assessment;
(B)specify the criteria used for each
assessment;
(C)describe the results of each
assessment, including any significant limitation in the assessments;
(D)describe significant modifications to
the Federal Government performance plan required under section 1105(a)(28) of
this title made as a result 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 improve a low-performing
program; and
(H)be available in electronic form
through the Office of Management and Budget website or any successor
website.
(i)(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
subsection (f)—
(A)a copy of each such assessment
(including the classified information), to the appropriate committees of
jurisdiction of the House of Representatives 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 Committee on Government
Reform of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Governmental
Affairs of the Senate.
(2)Upon request from the Committee on
Government Reform of the House of Representatives or the Committee on
Governmental Affairs of the Senate, the Director of the Office of Management
and Budget shall, consistent with statutory law governing the disclosure of
classified information, provide to the Committee a copy of—
(A)any assessment described in
subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) (including any assessment not listed in any
appendix submitted under subparagraph (B) of such paragraph); and
(B)any appendix described in subparagraph
(B) of paragraph (1).
(3)In this subsection, the term
classified information refers to matters described in section
552(b)(1)(A) of title 5.
(j)Inherently
Governmental functionsThe functions and activities authorized or
required by this section shall be considered inherently governmental functions
and shall be performed only by Federal employees.
(k)Quality control
and certification of dataThe Director of the Office of Managment
and Budget, in consultation with the heads of Federal agencies, shall develop a
process for controlling the quality of data produced from the conduct of
assessments under this section and shall certify the quality of such
data.
(l)The
requirements of this section shall terminate on September 30,
2017.
.
(b)Not
later than 6 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director
of the Office of Management and Budget shall prescribe guidance to implement
the requirements of section 1120 of title 31, United States Code, as added by
subsection (a), including guidance on a definition of the term
program.
(c)Conforming and
clerical amendments
(1)Section 1115(g) of
title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking 1119
and
inserting 1120
.
(2)The table of
sections at the beginning of chapter 11 of title 31, United States Code, is
amended by adding at the end the following:
1120. Program
assessment.
.
6.Strategic
planning amendments
(a)Change in
deadline for strategic planSubsection (a) of section 306 of
title 5, United States Code, is amended by striking No later than
September 30, 1997,
and inserting Not later than September 30 of
each year following a year in which an election for President occurs, beginning
with September 30, 2009,
.
(b)Change in period
of coverage of strategic planSubsection (b) of section 306 of
title 5, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:
(b)Each strategic
plan shall cover the 4-year period beginning on October 1 of the year following
a year in which an election for President
occurs.
.