[Senate Report 118-157]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                       Calendar No. 334
                                                       
118th Congress }                                              { Report
                                 SENATE
 2d Session    }                                              { 118-157
_______________________________________________________________________






                       BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE 
                              ACT OF 2023

                               __________

                              R E P O R T

                                 of the

                   COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND

                          GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                              to accompany

                                S. 1258

                TO REQUIRE THE DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF
             MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET TO SUBMIT TO CONGRESS AN
             ANNUAL REPORT ON PROJECTS THAT ARE OVER BUDGET
              AND BEHIND SCHEDULE, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES






                February 9, 2024.--Ordered to be printed

                             __________


                  U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

49-010                   WASHINGTON : 2024 


[[Page (ii)]]



        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
                  Michelle M. Benecke, Senior Counsel
           William E. Henderson III, Minority Staff Director
              Christina N. Salazar, Minority Chief Counsel
                  Andrew J. Hopkins, Minority Counsel
                     Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk




[[Page (1)]]


                                                       Calendar No. 334
118th Congress }                                              { Report
                                 SENATE
 2d Session    }                                              { 118-157

======================================================================



 
                 BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE ACT OF 2023

                                _______
                                

                February 9, 2024.--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. 1258]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 1258) to require 
the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to submit 
to Congress an annual report on projects that are over budget 
and behind schedule, 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..........................2
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............5

                         I. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY

    S. 1258, the Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act of 2023, directs 
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to issue guidance 
requiring federal agencies to report annually to Congress 
regarding certain federally funded projects that (1) are more 
than five years behind schedule, or (2) have expenditures that 
are at least $1 billion more than the original cost estimate 
for the project. The reported information must include a brief 
description of each project; an explanation of any change to 
the original scope of the project; the original and current 
expected dates of completion; the original and

[[Page 2]]

current cost estimates; an explanation of the delay in 
completion or increase in cost estimate; and if applicable, the 
amount of and rationale for any award, incentive fee, or bonus 
paid for the project. The bill requires the Director of OMB to 
issue guidance to agencies implementing the reporting 
requirement within one year of the enactment of this Act.

              II. BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR THE LEGISLATION

    The federal government has an obligation to provide the 
oversight necessary to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent 
responsibly. Although various reporting and oversight 
mechanisms exist for federal spending and projects, there are 
still examples of projects that become delayed or significantly 
exceed their original expected costs. For example, federal 
information technology (IT) projects, which total more than 
$100 billion in investments per year, often fail to deliver 
needed capabilities timely and within budget. This has resulted 
in management of IT acquisitions and operations appearing on 
the General Accountability Office's (GAO) High Risk List every 
year since being added in 2015, with no improvement in GAO's 
ratings in this area since 2017.\1\ In another example, GAO 
found that as of March 2023, a group of 18 ``major projects'' 
at the National Nuclear Security Administration were 
collectively projected to exceed their cost estimates by over 
$2 billion.\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\Government Accountability Office, High-Risk Series: Efforts Made 
to Achieve Progress Need to Be Maintained and Expanded to Fully Address 
All Areas (GAO-23-106203) (Apr. 20, 2023).
    \2\Government Accountability Office, National Nuclear Security 
Administration: Assessments of Major Projects (GAO-23-104402) (Aug. 17, 
2023).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act of 2023 would help ensure 
Congress is informed when federally-funded projects are well 
behind schedule or substantially over budget. A similar 
requirement for the Department of Transportation to report to 
Congress on agency projects that are behind schedule or over 
budget passed in a provision of the Infrastructure Investment 
and Jobs Act in 2022.\3\ The Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act of 
2023 would apply reporting requirements for overdue and over-
budget projects across the federal government.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\Section 11319, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Pub. L. 
No. 117-58.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

                        III. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

    Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) introduced S. 1258, the Billion 
Dollar Boondoggle Act of 2023, on April 25, 2023, with original 
cosponsors Senator Margaret Wood Hassan (D-NH), Senator Rand 
Paul (R-KY), Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), and Senator Mike Braun 
(R-IN). Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) joined as a cosponsor on 
October 25, 2023. The bill was referred to the Committee on 
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
    The Committee considered S. 1258 at a business meeting on 
October 25, 2023. During the business meeting, the bill was 
ordered reported favorably by roll call vote of 11 yeas to 0 
nays, with Senators Peters, Hassan, Sinema, Rosen, Ossoff, 
Blumenthal, Butler, Paul, Lankford, Romney, and Scott voting in 
the affirmative. Senators Carper, Johnson, Hawley, and Marshall 
voted yea by proxy, for the record only.

[[Page 3]]

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

Section 1. Short title

    This section establishes the short title of the bill as the 
``Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act of 2023.''

Section 2. Annual report

    Subsection (a) defines the terms ``covered agency,'' 
``covered project,'' and ``project.'' A ``covered project'' 
means a project that is more than five years behind schedule, 
as measured against the original expected date for completion, 
or a project for which the amount spent is at least $1 billion 
more than its original cost estimate.
    Subsection (b) directs the Director of OMB to issue 
guidance, not later than one year after the date of enactment, 
for covered agencies to include information in annual reporting 
to Congress about covered projects. The reported information 
must include: (1) a brief description of the project, including 
its purpose, location, award number, year of initiation, 
federal share of cost, and each contractor and recipient of the 
covered project; (2) an explanation of any change to the scope 
of the project; (3) the original and current expected dates for 
completion; (4) the original and current cost estimates, as 
adjusted to reflect increases in the Consumer Price Index; (5) 
an explanation for a delay in completion or an increase in the 
cost estimate, including any impact of insufficient or delayed 
appropriations; and (6) the amount of and rationale for any 
award, incentive fee, or other type of bonus awarded for the 
project.

                   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.

[[Page 4]]

             VI. CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE COST ESTIMATE



    S. 1258 would require agencies to report on any of their 
projects that are $1 billion or more over budget or more than 
five years behind schedule. Those reports would include a 
description of the project, any changes to the project's 
requirements, the original due date and expected completion 
date, and some financial information. The bill also would 
require the Office of Management and Budget to issue guidance 
on the reporting requirements.
    While CBO does not have comprehensive information on the 
number of projects governmentwide that are at least $1 billion 
over budget or are more than five years behind schedule, we 
expect that such projects are tracked closely by agencies and 
that the bulk of the additional work under the bill would be 
from compiling and reporting on that information. Therefore, 
using information about similar reporting requirements, CBO 
estimates that implementing S. 1258 would cost less than 
$500,000 over the 2024-2028 period. That spending would be 
subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
    Enacting S. 1258 also could affect direct spending by some 
agencies that are allowed to use fees, receipts from the sale 
of goods, and other collections to cover operating costs. CBO 
estimates that any net changes in direct spending by those 
agencies would be negligible because most of them can adjust 
amounts collected to reflect changes in operating costs.
    The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Matthew 
Pickford. The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, 
Deputy 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

[[Page 5]]

of the Standing Rules of the Senate, because this legislation 
would not repeal or amend any provision of current law.