[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 158 (Monday, September 14, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H4348-H4350]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION TRANSPARENCY ACT OF 2020

  Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend 
the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4894) to amend the Federal Funding 
Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, to require the budget 
justifications and appropriation requests of agencies be made publicly 
available, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 4894

       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 ``Congressional Budget 
     Justification Transparency Act of 2020''.

     SEC. 2. PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF BUDGET JUSTIFICATIONS AND 
                   APPROPRIATION REQUESTS.

       (a) In General.--Section 3 of the Federal Funding 
     Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (Public Law 109-
     282; 31 U.S.C. 6101 note) is amended to read as follows:

     ``SEC. 3. FULL DISCLOSURE OF FEDERAL FUNDS.

       ``(a) In General.--Not less frequently than monthly when 
     practicable, and in any event not less frequently than 
     quarterly, the Secretary (in consultation with the Director 
     and, with respect to information described in subsection 
     (b)(2), the head of the applicable agency) shall ensure that 
     updated information with respect to the information described 
     in subsection (b) is posted on the website established under 
     section 2.
       ``(b) Information To Be Posted.--
       ``(1) Funds.--For any funds made available to or expended 
     by a Federal agency or component of a Federal agency, the 
     information to be posted shall include--
       ``(A) for each appropriations account, including an expired 
     or unexpired appropriations account, the amount--
       ``(i) of budget authority appropriated;
       ``(ii) that is obligated;
       ``(iii) of unobligated balances; and
       ``(iv) of any other budgetary resources;
       ``(B) from which accounts and in what amount--
       ``(i) appropriations are obligated for each program 
     activity; and
       ``(ii) outlays are made for each program activity;
       ``(C) from which accounts and in what amount--
       ``(i) appropriations are obligated for each object class; 
     and
       ``(ii) outlays are made for each object class; and
       ``(D) for each program activity, the amount--
       ``(i) obligated for each object class; and
       ``(ii) of outlays made for each object class.
       ``(2) Budget justifications.--
       ``(A) Definition.--In this paragraph, the term `budget 
     justification materials' means the annual budget 
     justification materials of an agency that are submitted, in 
     conjunction with the budget of the United States Government 
     submitted under section 1105(a) of title 31, United States 
     Code, but does not include budget justification materials 
     that are classified.
       ``(B) Information.--The information to be posted shall 
     include any budget justification materials--
       ``(i) for the second fiscal year beginning after the date 
     of enactment of this paragraph, and each fiscal year 
     thereafter; and
       ``(ii) to the extent practicable, that were released for 
     any fiscal year before the date of enactment of this 
     paragraph.

[[Page H4349]]

       ``(C) Format.--Budget justification materials shall be 
     posted under subparagraph (B)--
       ``(i) as an open Government data asset (as defined under 
     section 3502 of title 44, United States Code);
       ``(ii) in a manner that enables users to download 
     individual reports, download all reports in bulk, and 
     download in bulk the results of a search, to the extent 
     practicable; and
       ``(iii) in a structured data format, to the extent 
     practicable.
       ``(D) Deadline.--The budget justification materials 
     required to be posted under subparagraph (B)(i) shall be 
     posted not later than 2 weeks after the date on which the 
     budget justification materials are first submitted to 
     Congress.
       ``(E) Rule of construction.--Nothing in this paragraph 
     shall be construed to authorize an agency to destroy any 
     budget justification materials relating to a fiscal year 
     before the fiscal year described in subparagraph (B)(i).''.
       (b) Information Regarding Agency Budget Justifications.--
     Section 1105 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by 
     adding at the end the following:
       ``(i)(1) The Director of the Office of Management and 
     Budget shall make publicly available on a website, and 
     continuously update, a tabular list for each fiscal year of 
     each agency that submits budget justification materials, 
     which shall include--
       ``(A) the name of the agency;
       ``(B) a unique identifier that identifies the agency;
       ``(C) to the extent practicable, the date on which the 
     budget justification materials of the agency are first 
     submitted to Congress;
       ``(D) the date on which the budget justification materials 
     of the agency are posted online under section 3 of the 
     Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006;
       ``(E) the uniform resource locator where the budget 
     justification materials are published on the website of the 
     agency; and
       ``(F) a single data set that contains the information 
     described in subparagraphs (A) through (E) with respect to 
     the agency for all fiscal years for which budget 
     justifications of the agency are made available under section 
     3 of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act 
     of 2006 in a structured data format.
       ``(2)(A) Each agency that submits budget justification 
     materials shall make the materials available on the website 
     of the agency, in accordance with the policies established by 
     the Director of the Office of Management and Budget under 
     subparagraph (B).
       ``(B) The Director of the Office of Management and Budget, 
     in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, shall 
     establish policies for agencies relating to making available 
     materials under subparagraph (A), which shall include 
     guidelines for making budget justification materials 
     available in a format aligned with the requirements of 
     section 3(b)(2)(C) of the Federal Funding Accountability and 
     Transparency Act of 2006 and using a uniform resource locator 
     that is in a consistent format across agencies and is 
     descriptive, memorable, and pronounceable, such as the format 
     of `agencyname.gov/budget.
       ``(C) If the Director of the Office of Management and 
     Budget maintains a public website that contains the budget of 
     the United States Government submitted under subsection (a) 
     and any related materials, such website shall also contain a 
     link to the tabular list required under paragraph (1).
       ``(3) In this subsection, the term `budget justification 
     materials' has the meaning given that term in section 3 of 
     the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 
     2006.''.

     SEC. 3. DETERMINATION OF BUDGETARY EFFECTS.

       The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of 
     complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, shall 
     be determined by reference to the latest statement titled 
     ``Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation'' for this Act, 
     submitted for printing in the Congressional Record by the 
     Chairman of the House Budget Committee, provided that such 
     statement has been submitted prior to the vote on passage.

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


                             General Leave

  Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous 
consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise 
and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the measure 
before us.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from New York?
  There was no objection.
  Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such 
time as I may consume.
  The bill before us, the Congressional Budget Justification 
Transparency Act, is a commonsense, good government measure every 
Member should support.
  It would require the congressional budget justification documents 
that agencies prepare for congressional committees to be posted online 
in a centralized, searchable database.
  This would make these detailed plain-language explanations of how 
agencies plan to spend taxpayer dollars more accessible to the public.
  I thank Representatives   Mike Quigley and Doug Collins for their 
work on this bill.
  Representative Quigley, in particular, has a long history as a strong 
advocate of transparency in the operations of the Federal Government.
  Representative Quigley is the founder and chair of the bipartisan 
Congressional Transparency Caucus, which shines a light on the 
importance of government transparency and accountability.
  This legacy of championing good government stems from his time 
serving as Cook County Commissioner where government reform was one of 
his major legislative priorities.
  H.R. 4894 builds on the work of the committee to improve government 
transparency by allowing the public to more easily learn how Federal 
agencies spend their taxpayer dollars.
  Mr. Speaker, I support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I rise in support of H.R. 4894, the Congressional Budget 
Justification Transparency Act.
  The Congressional Budget Justification Transparency Act is a long 
overdue reform to ensure that the Congress and the public can 
understand the full scope of the Federal budget.
  This bipartisan bill will make it possible for the public and every 
Member of Congress to readily find and compare the annual budget 
justification and supporting materials that each agency prepares and 
sends to Congress.
  Taxpayers should know how agencies plan to spend their hard-earned 
money.
  Last year, the Federal Government spent more than $4.4 trillion.
  We have transparency tools like USAspending.gov to track Federal 
spending after Congress appropriates taxpayer dollars.
  However, the annual Federal agency budget justifications provide 
detailed and plain-language explanations of how agencies plan to spend 
congressionally appropriated funds.
  In other words, an agency Congressional Budget Justification provides 
the necessary details in context to actually understand how agency 
missions connect to eventual Federal spending.
  Currently, agencies send these plans directly to congressional 
appropriators.
  However, if the rest of us wish to review these valuable government 
budget materials, we are left to manually search through hundreds of 
individual agency websites.
  H.R. 4894 solves this problem by requiring the budget justifications 
of every agency be publicly available at a central, single website.
  The bill would require the Office of Management and Budget to provide 
a comprehensive list of each agency's budget justification with a 
stable link to where the documents are published on agency websites.
  This way Congress and the public can know that they are looking at 
the complete picture of the budget request materials.
  Each agency would also be required to publish their materials at a 
consistently named web address to further simplify the public's 
discovery of these budget documents.
  The bill would also require the U.S. Treasury to centrally publish 
all materials themselves on USAspending.gov as open data.
  USAspending is a current one-stop shop for the public to find 
information on how the government is using their tax dollars.
  It tracks all Federal spending activity, as required by the 2014 DATA 
Act, which is an example of the strong bipartisan work the House 
Committee on Oversight and Reform and Congress has accomplished in the 
past.
  Adding congressional budget justifications to USAspending.gov for 
future generations will provide greater context to Federal spending 
information.
  Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this bipartisan 
bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

[[Page H4350]]

  

  Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman 
from Pennsylvania has no further speakers, I am prepared to close. I 
reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield 
myself the balance of my time.
  Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss without mentioning another interesting 
benefit of the Congressional Budget Justification Transparency Act.
  Thanks to another law that the House Oversight and Reform Committee 
has previously produced in the last Congress, the 2018 Good Accounting 
Obligation in Government Act, congressional budget justifications also 
list unimplemented inspector general audit and GAO report 
recommendations.

  Therefore, H.R. 4894 will also centralize documents containing 
valuable IG and GAO recommendations for the public and Congress to 
easily find.
  This will empower better oversight over a sprawling and complicated 
Federal Government. I hope we can continue to find ways to continue 
building on such good government reforms in a bipartisan fashion.
  Mr. Speaker, I strongly urge my colleagues to support this 
commonsense legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I likewise, urge 
passage of H.R. 4894, as amended, and I yield back the balance of my 
time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney) that the House 
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4894, as amended.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand 
the yeas and nays.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to section 3 of House Resolution 
965, the yeas and nays are ordered.
  Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on this motion 
will be postponed.

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