[Senate Report 118-125]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                  Calendar No. 269

118th Congress}                                           { Report
                                 SENATE
  1st Session }                                           { 118-125

======================================================================
 
                     GRANT TRANSPARENCY ACT OF 2023

                               __________

                              R E P O R T

                                 OF THE

                   COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND

                          GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                              TO ACCOMPANY

                                S. 2260

             TO REQUIRE TRANSPARENCY IN NOTICES OF FUNDING
                  OPPORTUNITY, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


               December 11, 2023.--Ordered to be printed
               
               
                               __________

                                
                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
                           WASHINGTON : 2023                    
          
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------     
             
               
        COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                   GARY C. PETERS, Michigan, Chairman
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware           RAND PAUL, Kentucky
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire         RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona              JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada                  MITT ROMNEY, Utah
JON OSSOFF, Georgia                  RICK SCOTT, Florida
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut      JOSH HAWLEY, Missouri
LAPHONZA R. BUTLER, California       ROGER MARSHALL, Kansas

                   David M. Weinberg, Staff Director
            Lena C. Chang, Director of Governmental Affairs
                  James F. Hiebert, Research Assistant
           William E. Henderson III, Minority Staff Director
              Christina N. Salazar, Minority Chief Counsel
                  Andrew J. Hopkins, Minority Counsel
                     Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                                                  Calendar No. 269

118th Congress}                                           { Report
                                 SENATE
  1st Session }                                           { 118-125

======================================================================
              
                    GRANT TRANSPARENCY ACT OF 2023

                                _______
                                

               December 11, 2023.--Ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

 Mr. Peters, from the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
                    Affairs, submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                         [To accompany S. 2260]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 2260) to require 
transparency in notices of funding opportunity, and for other 
purposes, having considered the same, reports favorably thereon 
without amendment and recommends that the bill do pass.

                                CONTENTS

                                                                   Page
  I. Purpose and Summary..............................................1
 II. Background and Need for the Legislation..........................1
III. Legislative History..............................................2
 IV. Section-by-Section Analysis of the Bill, as Reported.............3
  V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact..................................3
 VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate........................4
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............4

                         I. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY

    S. 2260, the Grant Transparency Act of 2023, strengthens 
transparency requirements around competitive grant application 
evaluations by requiring each grant-making agency to describe 
the evaluation process and criteria for each notice of funding 
opportunity.

              II. BACKGROUND AND THE NEED FOR LEGISLATION

    Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations governs the 
awarding of federal grants. These regulations include a 
detailed description of the required contents of notices of 
funding opportunities--content that includes information about 
selection criteria for the award.\1\ Even though these 
regulations are binding, award programs adhere to them with 
different degrees of fidelity. For example, a recent survey of 
notices of funding opportunities from the Department of Health 
and Human Services found notable inconsistencies in the ways 
that awarding agencies present information, and numerous GAO 
reports recommend improving transparency and uniformity in 
adhering to regulations.\2\ This legislation would require 
agencies to adhere to the notice of funding opportunity 
transparency requirements by putting those requirements 
directly into law. This bill seeks to help potential grant 
applicants understand how their application will be evaluated 
and make better decisions about which funding opportunities to 
pursue.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\2 CFR Sec. 200.
    \2\National Academy of Public Administration, Keynote Address by 
Deputy Assistant Secretary Dale Bell, Office of Grants, Health and 
Humans Services, Grants Management Symposium (Dec. 8, 2022); Government 
Accountability Office, Intercity Passenger Rail: Recording Clearer 
Reasons for Awards Decisions Would Improve Otherwise Good Grantmaking 
Practices (GAO-11-283) (Mar. 2011); Government Accountability Office, 
Discretionary Transportation Grants: DOT Should Clarify Application 
Requirements and Oversight Activities (GAO-22-104532) (Apr. 2022); 
Government Accountability Office, Transit Security: FEMA Should Improve 
Transparency of Grant Decisions (GAO-23-105956) (July 2023).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

                        III. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

    Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced S. 2260, the Grant 
Transparency Act of 2023, on July 12, 2023 with original 
cosponsors Senators Margaret Wood Hassan (D-NH) and Gary Peters 
(D-MI). The bill was referred to the Committee on Homeland 
Security and Governmental Affairs. Senator John Thune (R-SD) 
joined as an additional cosponsor on July 13, 2023, Senator 
Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) joined as an additional cosponsor on July 
18, 2023, and Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) joined as an 
additional cosponsor on July 27, 2023.
    The Committee considered S. 2260 at a business meeting on 
July 26, 2023. At the business meeting, Senator Paul offered an 
amendment and a modification to the amendment. The Paul 
amendment, as modified, added requirements for agencies to 
report on the number and geographic locations of grant 
applications received in response to each notice of funding 
opportunity. The Committee adopted the modification to the Paul 
amendment by unanimous consent with Senators Peters, Hassan, 
Rosen, Padilla, Blumenthal, Paul, Lankford, and Scott present. 
The Committee did not adopt the Paul amendment, as modified by 
a roll call vote of 7 yeas and 8 nays, with Senators Paul, 
Lankford, and Scott voting in the affirmative, and Senators 
Peters, Hassan, Rosen, Padilla, and Blumenthal voting in the 
negative. Senators Johnson, Romney, Hawley, and Marshall voted 
yea by proxy, and Senators Carper, Sinema, and Ossoff voted nay 
by proxy.
    The bill was ordered reported favorably by a roll call vote 
of 8 yeas to 0 nays, with Senators Peters, Hassan, Rosen, 
Padilla, Blumenthal, Paul, Lankford, and Scott voting in the 
affirmative. Senators Carper, Sinema, Ossoff, Johnson, Romney, 
Hawley, and Marshall voted yea by proxy, for the record only.

        IV. SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS OF THE BILL, AS REPORTED

Section 1. Short title

    The section establishes the short title of the bill as the 
``Grant Transparency Act of 2023.''

Section 2. Notices of funding opportunity transparency

    Subsection (a) defines the terms ``agency,'' ``competitive 
grant,'' ``evaluation or selection criteria,'' ``notice of 
funding opportunity,'' and ``rating system.''
    Subsection (b) describes the transparency requirements for 
each notice of funding opportunity for a competitive grant. 
These requirements include a description of any rating system 
and evaluation and selection criteria used by the agency to 
assess applications for each notice of funding opportunity, 
including a description of the weights for each criterion of a 
weighted scoring metric.
    Subsection (c) provides a rule of construction.
    Subsection (d) establishes that no additional funds are 
authorized to be appropriated for the purpose of carrying out 
this bill.
    Subsection (e) establishes the effective date of the 
legislation to be 120 days after the date of enactment with no 
retroactive effect for notices of funding opportunity issued 
before the date of enactment.

                   V. EVALUATION OF REGULATORY IMPACT

    Pursuant to the requirements of paragraph 11(b) of rule 
XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has 
considered the regulatory impact of this bill and determined 
that the bill will have no regulatory impact within the meaning 
of the rules. The Committee agrees with the Congressional 
Budget Office's statement that the bill contains no 
intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the 
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would impose no costs 
on state, local, or tribal governments.

             VI. CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE COST ESTIMATE
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


    S. 2260 would require federal agencies to disclose their 
selection methods for awarding competitive grants to grant 
applicants. The agencies would be directed to list their rating 
systems, evaluation and selection criteria, weighted-scoring 
methods, and other quantitative or qualitative approaches used 
to assess grant applications. Using information from federal 
grant databases, CBO estimates that the administrative costs 
associated with providing that information would not be 
significant; any spending would be subject to the availability 
of appropriated funds.
    The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Katie Zhang. The 
estimate was reviewed by Chad Chirico, Director of Budget 
Analysis.

                                         Phillip L. Swagel,
                             Director, Congressional Budget Office.

       VII. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED

    This legislation would make no change in existing law, 
within the meaning of clauses (a) and (b) of subparagraph 12 of 
rule XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate, because this 
legislation would not repeal or amend any provision of current 
law.

                                  [all]