[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 96 (Tuesday, June 16, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S4209]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 2057. Mr. SANDERS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed 
to amendment SA 1463 proposed by Mr. McCain to the bill H.R. 1735, to 
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2016 for military activities 
of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for 
defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military 
personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which 
was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the end of subtitle A of title X, add the following:

     SEC. 1005. INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT OF DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 
                   AUDIT AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT PROCESSES.

       (a) Independent Assessment.--
       (1) Assessment required.--The Secretary of Defense shall 
     obtain from an entity independent of the Department of 
     Defense selected by the Secretary for purposes of this 
     section an assessment of the audit and financial management 
     processes of the Department.
       (2) Composition of assessment team.--The assessment team 
     used by the entity selected by the Secretary pursuant to 
     paragraph (1) to conduct the assessment required pursuant to 
     that paragraph shall be composed of individuals with 
     extensive experience in audit and financial management of 
     private sector and Federal agencies who are not currently 
     participating in Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness 
     (FIAR) activities for the Department or affiliated with 
     organizations who are supporting such activities.
       (3) Elements.--The assessment required pursuant to 
     paragraph (1) shall include the following:
       (A) A comparison of the audit and financial management 
     processes of the Department with the audit and financial 
     management processes of other appropriate Federal agencies, 
     and appropriate private sector entities, including the 
     qualifications of officials responsible for audit oversight 
     and compliance, for purposes of identifying best practices to 
     be adopted by the Department for its audit and financial 
     management processes.
       (B) An analysis of the progress and investments made by the 
     Department under its Financial Improvement and Audit 
     Readiness Plan, and a comparison of such progress and 
     investment with the progress and investments made by other 
     Federal agencies and appropriate private sector entities in 
     audit and financial management processes, for purposes of 
     determining the extent to which Department progress on 
     financial management and audit readiness is consistent with 
     results achieved by other appropriate Federal agencies and 
     appropriate private sector entities.
       (C) An identification of recommendations on policies and 
     management and other activities that could be undertaken by 
     the Department to enhance its audit and financial management 
     processes in order to obtain and maintain clean audit 
     opinions of its financial statement as effectively and 
     efficiently as possible.
       (4) Access to information.--The Secretary shall ensure that 
     the entity conducting the assessment required by paragraph 
     (1) has access to all the information, data, and resources 
     necessary to conduct the assessment in a timely manner.
       (5) Report.--The Secretary shall require the entity 
     conducting the assessment required by paragraph (1) to submit 
     to the Secretary and the congressional defense committees a 
     report on the assessment by not later than one year after the 
     date of the enactment of this Act.
       (b) Transmittal.--Not later than 60 days after receiving 
     the report described in subsection (a)(5), the Secretary 
     shall transmit the report to Congress, together with the 
     following:
       (1) An analysis by the Secretary of the findings and 
     recommendations of the report.
       (2) A description of the response of the Department to such 
     finding and recommendations.
       (3) Such other matters with respect to the audit and 
     financial management processes of the Department as the 
     Secretary considers appropriate.

                          ____________________