[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 145 (Wednesday, November 14, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H6351-H6352]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 CONSOLIDATION OF CERTAIN CBO REPORTING REQUIREMENTS RELATING TO ARRA 
                                AND TARP

  Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 6570) to amend the American Recovery Reinvestment Act of 
2009 and the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 to 
consolidate certain CBO reporting requirements.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 6570

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. CONSOLIDATION OF CERTAIN CBO REPORTING 
                   REQUIREMENTS RELATING TO ARRA AND TARP.

       (a) ARRA-Related Reports.--
       (1) In general.--Section 1512(e) of the American Recovery 
     and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5; 123 Stat. 
     288) is amended by amending the second sentence to read as 
     follows: ``Such comments on all reports for calendar quarters 
     in a year shall be due 45 days after the report for the last 
     calendar quarter of the year is submitted.''.
       (2) Effective date.--The amendment made by paragraph (1) 
     shall apply to comments on reports submitted on or after 
     October 1, 2012.
       (3) Repealer.--Effective on January 1, 2016, section 
     1512(e) of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 
     is repealed.
       (b) TARP-Related Reports.--
       (1) In general.--Section 202 of the Emergency Economic 
     Stabilization Act of 2008 (12 U.S.C. 5252) is amended--
       (A) in subsection (a), by striking ``semiannually'' and 
     inserting ``annually''; and
       (B) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
       ``(e) Sunset.--Notwithstanding the previous provisions of 
     this section, the reporting and comment requirements under 
     this

[[Page H6352]]

     section shall terminate with the annual period on the last 
     day of which all troubled assets acquired by the Secretary 
     under section 101 have been sold or transferred out of the 
     ownership or control of the Federal Government.''.
       (2) Effective date.--The amendments made by this subsection 
     shall take effect the first day after the date of enactment 
     of this Act.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Garrett) and the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey.


                             General Leave

  Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks 
and add extraneous material.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from New Jersey?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, under the current law, the Congressional Budget Office, 
the CBO, is statutorily required to submit semiannual and quarterly 
reports to Congress pursuant to TARP and stimulus requirements. 
Unfortunately, these reports have become mainly duplicative and 
repetitive in nature. They say the same thing over and over again, and 
do not provide a lot of new information to Congress. In addition, these 
reports consume a great deal of limited CBO staff resources. So to 
remedy this, we have H.R. 6570 before us. What this will do is reduce 
the frequency of the reports required each year by the CBO as well as 
required by the GAO.
  First, H.R. 6570 would change the quarterly stimulus reporting 
requirements for the CBO and GAO to annual report requirements due at 
the end of each calendar year. This legislation would also sunset the 
ARRA reporting requirements for CBO and GAO on January 1, 2016. H.R. 
6570 would not impact the current reporting requirements for recipients 
of ARRA funds or the reports required by the executive branch agencies, 
I would like to point out.
  Secondly, H.R. 6570 would change the TARP reporting requirements for 
CBO and the OMB to an annual basis from a semiannual basis. So this 
legislation would also sunset the reporting requirements for the CBO 
and OMB to when the last TARP asset has been sold or last transferred 
out of the ownership control of the Federal Government.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I think this is a commonsense bill to reduce 
government duplication and ensure that congressional support agencies 
such as CBO and the GAO are using their limited resources most 
effectively. With that, I urge support of this legislation.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I rise in support of H.R. 6570, which will amend the reporting 
requirements in two laws: the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 
2009, also known as the stimulus package, and the Emergency Economic 
Stabilization Act of 2008, which created TARP. I commend my colleague 
from the great State of New Jersey for bringing this bill to the floor.
  In both laws, the Congressional Budget Office, the Government 
Accountability Office, and the Office of Management and Budget have 
certain reporting and comment requirements. The goal of the bill before 
us today is to streamline those requirements and make them workable for 
all of the agencies and for the American public while preserving access 
to the information. It will make these agencies more efficient in their 
oversight of both the stimulus and of the TARP programs.
  First, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 requires 
recipients of grants made under the law to produce detailed quarterly 
reports on their use of the funds. These reports include the amount 
that was spent, the number of jobs that were created, and certain 
information about the subcontractors. The reports are publicly 
available, and the bill before us does not touch the reports themselves 
or the requirements that they are required to produce. However, CBO and 
GAO are also required under the law to comment each quarter on the 
content of the reports. This bill before us today simply says that they 
can provide those comments on an annual basis rather than quarterly. 
This will ease the burden on the CBO and GAO while maintaining their 
oversight responsibilities.
  Second, in the law that created the TARP fund, OMB was required to 
report on a semiannual basis the estimated cost of TARP, the 
assumptions behind that estimate, and estimate how the costs have 
changed. The bill before us today would amend the law to allow OMB to 
submit these reports annually rather than semiannually. This again 
lessens the burden on OMB, especially 4 years after TARP was enacted 
and when a large majority of those funds have been paid back.

                              {time}  1240

  Semiannual reports are simply no longer needed.
  Finally, the bill before us includes a commonsense provision to 
sunset OMB's reporting requirement once all remaining troubled assets 
acquired under the TARP program are no longer owned or controlled by 
the Federal Government.
  So I support this bill. I support this effort to lessen the burden on 
agencies that are stretched extremely thin and are already stretching 
every single dollar while ensuring that the public continues to have 
the valuable information the reports would provide and information that 
these agencies are providing.
  I support the bill. I have no further requests for time, and I 
reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. GARRETT. I also have no further requests for time. So I will just 
conclude by saying to the gentlelady, thank you very much for working 
with us on this bill. Thank you for the support for the legislation.
  And with that, I will yield back the balance of my time.
  Mrs. MALONEY. I join my colleague and commend his work on relieving 
unnecessary burdens and requirements on important agencies. I support 
this bill.
  And I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 6570.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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