[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 31 (Tuesday, February 25, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H1902-H1904]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TAXPAYERS RIGHT-TO-KNOW ACT
Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 1423) to provide taxpayers with an annual report disclosing
the cost and performance of Government programs and areas of
duplication among them, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1423
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Taxpayers Right-To-Know
Act''.
SEC. 2. COST AND PERFORMANCE OF GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS.
(a) Amendment.--Section 1122(a) of title 31, United States
Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(3) Additional information.--
``(A) In general.--Information for each program described
under paragraph (1) shall include the following to be updated
not less than annually:
``(i) The total administrative cost of the program for the
previous fiscal year.
``(ii) The expenditures for services for the program for
the previous fiscal year.
``(iii) An estimate of the number of clients served by the
program and beneficiaries who received assistance under the
program (if applicable) for the previous fiscal year.
``(iv) An estimate of, for the previous fiscal year--
``(I) the number of full-time Federal employees who
administer the program; and
``(II) the number of full-time employees whose salary is
paid in part or full by the Federal Government through a
grant or contract, a subaward of a grant or contract, a
cooperative agreement, or another form of financial award or
assistance who administer or assist in administering the
program.
``(v) An identification of the specific statute that
authorizes the program, including whether such authorization
is expired.
``(vi) Any finding of duplication or overlap identified by
internal review, an Inspector
[[Page H1903]]
General, the Government Accountability Office, or other
report to the agency about the program.
``(vii) Any program performance reviews (including program
performance reports required under section 1116).
``(B) Definitions.--In this paragraph:
``(i) Administrative cost.--The term `administrative cost'
has the meaning as determined by the Director of the Office
of Management and Budget under section 504(b)(2) of Public
Law 111-85 (31 U.S.C. 1105 note), except the term shall also
include, for purposes of that section and this paragraph,
with respect to an agency--
``(I) costs incurred by the agency as well as costs
incurred by grantees, subgrantees, and other recipients of
funds from a grant program or other program administered by
the agency; and
``(II) expenses related to personnel salaries and benefits,
property management, travel, program management, promotion,
reviews and audits, case management, and communication about,
promotion of, and outreach for programs and program
activities administered by the agency.
``(ii) Services.--The term `services' has the meaning
provided by the Director of the Office of Management and
Budget and shall be limited to only activities, assistance,
and aid that provide a direct benefit to a recipient, such as
the provision of medical care, assistance for housing or
tuition, or financial support (including grants and
loans).''.
(b) Expired Grant Funding.--Not later than February 1 of
each fiscal year, the Director of the Office of Management
and Budget shall publish on the public website of the Office
of Management and Budget the total amount of undisbursed
grant funding remaining in grant accounts for which the
period of availability to the grantee has expired.
SEC. 3. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE REQUIREMENTS
RELATING TO IDENTIFICATION, CONSOLIDATION, AND
ELIMINATION OF DUPLICATIVE GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS.
Section 21 of the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 (31
U.S.C. 712 note) is amended by inserting ``(a)'' before the
first sentence and by adding at the end the following:
``(b) The Comptroller General shall maintain and provide
regular updates, on not less than an annual basis to a
publicly available website that tracks the status of
responses by Departments and the Congress to suggested
actions that the Comptroller General has previously
identified in annual reports under subsection (a). The status
of these suggested actions shall be tracked for an
appropriate period to be determined by the Comptroller
General. The requirements of this subsection shall apply
during the effective period of subsection (a).''.
SEC. 4. CLASSIFIED INFORMATION.
Nothing in this Act shall, or the amendments made by this
Act, be construed to require the disclosure of classified
information.
SEC. 5. REGULATIONS AND IMPLEMENTATION.
(a) Regulations.--Not later than 120 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Director of the Office of
Management and Budget shall prescribe regulations to
implement this Act, and the amendments made by this Act.
(b) Implementation.--This Act, and the amendments made by
this Act, shall be implemented not later than one year after
the date of the enactment of this Act.
(c) No Additional Funds Authorized.--No additional funds
are authorized to carry out the requirements of this Act, or
the amendments made by this Act.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Oklahoma (Mr. Lankford) and the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Oklahoma.
Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today because I believe that the American people
should know what their government spends and what their government
does. It is a reasonable request to be able to make of a government
that is designed to serve the people. The people should be able to look
back and be able to evaluate, Is this government serving the people,
and are they doing it in such away that is actually efficient and
making a difference?
Every company in America can tell you what their staff is spending
their time on and what the cost of their activities are, how many
customers they have, and whether they are successful at reaching their
basic goals. But we do not have that within the Federal Government.
H.R. 1423 asks just a few specific things of our government to be
able to delineate, again, what every business in America does. It is
just six specific things, such as the name of the program, the basic
description of that program, the administrative costs of that program,
the number of staff for that program, the number of beneficiaries of
that program, the statutory authority for that program, and, very
importantly, how that program is actually evaluated and what are the
metrics to determine if this program is getting the job done that it
needs to get done.
We have started in the right direction. OMB is working to comply with
the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010 by
publicly listing all of the programs that the government administers
and their performance goals, but that information is incomplete.
H.R. 1423 fills the gaps in the information provided to the public by
requiring OMB to include such vital information as the administrative
costs and expenditures of each Federal program, the number of people
the program serves, the number of employees working on the program, and
where in the statute the program is authorized.
{time} 1545
This bill offers a simple list that Congress can use to evaluate
Federal programs and to make informed decisions about how to make
government work smarter and better. Agencies could cut billions of
dollars in costs, without compromising services. In many cases, they
could improve their services while we are still saving money to the
taxpayer.
If we just cut duplicative administrative costs and eliminate the
programs that do not work, we can protect taxpayer dollars. We have an
enormous Federal deficit. We should do everything we can to be able to
evaluate what we are doing as a government and be able to determine
where are we wasting taxpayer dollars. There are not taxpayer dollars
left to waste.
Under the bill, any person anywhere in the country can, at any time,
access information about the cost, scope, and performance of every
Federal program.
H.R. 1423 requires OMB to report publicly any finding of duplication
by GAO, an inspector general or any other report. It also requires GAO
to maintain a database that tracks how quickly and how well Congress
and the administration respond to these findings of duplication.
It may come as a surprise: Congress occasionally finds duplication
and does nothing about it. This would provide the opportunity for the
American people to be able to look back and to be able to track, are we
doing something about inefficiencies that have already been isolated in
government?
The Vice President was asked during the State of the Union, in this
very Chamber, by the President of the United States, to begin a study
of job training programs. We know there are more than 57 job training
programs that already exist across the Federal Government in multiple
agencies. The Vice President was asked to be able to locate those
programs, evaluate those programs, and to help determine what is the
right process forward for those programs.
Now, that is something that we in the House did earlier last year,
the SKILLS Act, but it is something that we would welcome participation
from the administration on.
I ask the question: Why can't we already do that in every area, not
just duplicative job training programs?
We have multiple programs in multiple agencies that are duplicative.
Why do we just do it in job training programs?
Let's do it in all of them. This is the beginning of a process to get
after that duplication and that waste. No one here, on either side of
the aisle, wants to see a program that is unnecessary or ineffective.
Waste in government is not a Democrat or Republican issue; it is a
Big Government issue. With a government the size that we have, we have
duplication and we have waste. Let's identify it.
The Taxpayers Right-to-Know Act will ensure we do that. I urge my
colleagues to support this bill, and I remind my colleagues that
multiple groups have already leaned into this bill to say, please pass
this, including the Citizens Against Government Waste, the Small
Business and Entrepreneurship Council, and the National Taxpayers
Union.
America is watching us. Let's deal with our inefficiency.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I wanted to thank Chairman Issa and the sponsor of this bill,
Chairman
[[Page H1904]]
Lankford, for working with me to improve this legislation.
I respect the sponsor's goal with his bill, which is to provide
taxpayers more information about how their money is being spent by the
Federal Government. I think most people don't mind paying taxes, but
they want to know that they are spending them and that they are being
used in an effective and efficient manner and for the purpose intended.
However, the Congressional Research Service identified multiple areas
of potential overlap and duplication between the bill as it was
introduced and the current statutory requirements.
For example, the bill, as introduced, would have required each agency
to report information on improper payments, but the Improper Payments
Information Act already requires agencies to report information on
improper payments.
The current bill, as amended, eliminates much of that duplication.
This is a much better bill, and I applaud the majority for their work
on it.
There is one provision in the Taxpayers Right-to-Know Act that I want
to note because I think it will be a real improvement with regard to
transparency. The bill would require agencies to report the number of
full-time positions that are paid, in full or in part, through a grant
or a contract.
We do not currently know how many employees are working for the
Federal Government through contracts. This bill would require agencies
to disclose this information on an annual basis.
This bill also includes an amendment that was offered by
Representative Speier during our committee markup to require agencies
to report for their programs any findings of duplication or overlap
identified by internal review, an inspector general, the Government
Accountability Office, or other report to the agency.
This requirement will help agencies keep track of areas of
duplication. It also will increase accountability by making this
information easier to find for government watchdogs, including
Congress.
I appreciate the improvements that have been made to the bill. I
appreciate the bipartisan spirit by which we were able to come to the
floor today. I intend to support the legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
General Leave
Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Oklahoma?
There was no objection.
Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. Speaker, let me make one quick comment, then I
would like to yield a minute to my colleague.
This does allow us to be able to gather that information. It is a
good thing to have the information.
Over the past several years there has been a push to provide greater
transparency in the Federal Government, but the difficulty of bits of
information scattered in different parts in different reports has
forced the need for this; to say, let's put all that data together.
Not only the number of staff and the number of programs and
duplication reports, but let's gather that into one readable report so
that every American doesn't have to know where to chase down to get
bits of information. They can actually go to one spot and be able to
look at it, whether it is a watchdog group, Members of Congress, or any
citizen at any computer in America, they can be able to do that kind of
research.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr.
Issa).
Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I will be brief.
When our committee works together in the way they have, particularly
under the leadership of Chairman Lankford, we can do some amazing
reforms. This is, in fact, more amazing than people might at first
gather.
For example, this requires something as simple as to have the Office
of Management and Budget report what is called the all-in cost of
Federal programs. For too long, the American people have heard about
what a program costs, only to find out that if you go through all the
various budgets that a particular action is spread about, it might cost
five or six times as much.
That kind of single point accountability is just one of the many
reasons that this well-thought-out, bipartisan legislation, led by Mr.
Lankford, really needs to be passed today as part of this package of
reforms to get a government accountability to the American people.
I thank the chairman. I thank the ranking member.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, as I close, I urge all Members to vote in favor of the
legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate the conversation and the
debate today. This is something that Republicans and Democrats can
agree on. We should have transparency. Again, this is not a Republican
issue or a Democrat issue. This is a size and scope of our government
issue.
We have grown extremely large in the Federal Government. We have
duplication that none of us can even find, large budget categories with
no specific items underneath them to be able to identify how much
things cost, what their effectiveness includes.
This is a moment for us to begin to get the details of all these
programs that Congress has authorized back to the Congress for us to be
able to evaluate their effectiveness.
This is the right move to be able to make in the days ahead, for us
to be able to get our arms around an extremely large, extremely
complicated budget with a tremendous amount of duplication and waste
that we can't find until we shine some light on it through this bill. I
urge all Members to be able to support this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Lankford) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 1423, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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