United States S 778: COST Act of 2023

Bill Text

II
118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION S. 778
To require the disclosure of information relating to the cost of programs,
projects, or activities carried out using Federal funds.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH 14, 2023
Ms. ERNST (for herself and Mr. BRAUN) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To require the disclosure of information relating to the cost
of programs, projects, or activities carried out using Fed-
eral funds.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Cost Openness and 4
Spending Transparency Act of 2023’’ or the ‘‘COST Act 5
of 2023’’. 6
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SEC. 2. DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS FOR FEDERAL 1
FUNDS. 2
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter III of chapter 13 of 3
title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 4
end the following: 5
‘‘§ 1356. Disclosure requirements for Federal funds 6
‘‘(a) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘agency’ 7
means— 8
‘‘(1) an Executive agency, as defined in section 9
105 of title 5; and 10
‘‘(2) an independent regulatory agency, as de-11
fined in section 3502 of title 44. 12
‘‘(b) DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS.—An agency and 13
an individual or entity (including a State or local govern-14
ment and a recipient of a Federal research grant) carrying 15
out a program, project, or activity that is, in whole or in 16
part, carried out using Federal funds shall clearly state 17
in any statement, press release, request for proposals, bid 18
solicitation, or other document describing the program, 19
project, or activity, other than a communication con-20
taining not more than 280 characters— 21
‘‘(1) the percentage of the total costs of the 22
program, project, or activity which will be financed 23
with Federal funds; 24
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‘‘(2) the dollar amount of the Federal funds 1
made available for the program, project, or activity; 2
and 3
‘‘(3) the percentage of the total costs of, and 4
dollar amount for, the program, project, or activity 5
that will be financed by nongovernmental sources. 6
‘‘(c) CERTIFICATION.—An individual or entity car-7
rying out a program, project, or activity that is, in whole 8
or in part, carried out using Federal funds shall, as part 9
of the performance progress reporting regarding the pro-10
gram, project, or activity, include a certification indicating 11
whether the individual or entity complied with the disclo-12
sure requirements under subsection (b) with respect to 13
communications containing not more than 280 characters 14
relating to the program, project, or activity. 15
‘‘(d) COMPLIANCE REVIEW.—The Director of the Of-16
fice of Management and Budget shall annually— 17
‘‘(1) review a random sampling of public com-18
munications issued by agencies and recipients of 19
Federal funds for compliance with the disclosure re-20
quirements under subsection (b); and 21
‘‘(2) make publicly available the findings of the 22
review under paragraph (1). 23
‘‘(e) PUBLIC REPORTING.—Not later than 1 year 24
after the date of enactment of this section, the Director 25
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of the Office of Management and Budget shall make avail-1
able to the public a mechanism to anonymously report 2
communications that do not comply with the disclosure re-3
quirements under subsection (b), which shall require that 4
such a report include— 5
‘‘(1) the noncompliant communication or, if 6
publicly available, the location of the noncompliant 7
communication; and 8
‘‘(2) identifying information regarding the pro-9
gram, project, or activity that is, in whole or in part, 10
carried out using Federal funds.’’. 11
(b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.— 12
The table of sections for subchapter III of chapter 13 of 13
title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 14
end the following: 15
‘‘1356. Disclosure requirements for Federal funds.’’.
Æ
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