“A bill to amend chapter 33 of title 31, United States Code, to require adequate information regarding payments of Federal funds.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section establishes new requirements under 31 U.S.C. §3337 for mandatory reporting and verification of information on federal payments disbursed through Treasury systems. For each such payment, the head of the authorizing agency must provide the Secretary of the Treasury with (1) a brief description of the payment's purpose, (2) the appropriations account (Treasury Account Symbol or successor), and (3) the type of activity (Business Event Type Code or successor); at least once each fiscal year, certifying officials must evaluate and confirm the accuracy of this information, with disbursing officials consulting to improve system management; and, within 30 days of certification, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director must direct public posting of the data on the website operated under the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA). (As background, FFATA requires public disclosure of federal spending awards to promote accountability.) Subsections exempt payments adversely impacting sensitive operations (e.g., law enforcement or national security activities risking death, injury, or prohibited disclosures); require agencies to report aggregated data on prior fiscal year exemptions in budget justification materials (in controlled unclassified or classified annexes, as warranted); authorize Treasury regulations; clarify no liability for disbursing officials; and make conforming changes to the table of sections for 31 U.S.C. ch. 33. (Thus, the provision expands payment-level transparency on the FFATA website while protecting sensitive activities.)
This section authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to access and redisclose specified information from multiple sources to identify, prevent, and recover improper payments through the Do Not Pay working system (31 U.S.C. 3354(c)), which enables federal agencies to verify payee eligibility prior to disbursements. Specifically, the section: (1) grants Treasury access to the National Directory of New Hires (42 U.S.C. 653(j)) for such purposes, with redisclosure to Treasury agents/contractors, authorized federal/non-federal agencies, and others as agreed by the Secretaries of Treasury and HHS; (2) revises federal payment certification procedures (31 U.S.C. 3325) to require agency heads to verify bank account accuracy and compare against other records prior to voucher certification, replaces references to the "executive branch" with "an agency," and authorizes Treasury guidance; (3) amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681a(k), 1681b(a)) to (A) exclude federal disbursement changes or Do Not Pay actions based on consumer reports from the definition of "adverse action," and (B) permit Treasury access to consumer reports for improper payment purposes, with redisclosure to Treasury agents/contractors and authorized federal/non-federal entities; (4) requires the IRS, upon Treasury inquiry, to provide privacy-preserving taxpayer information (e.g., TIN, filing status, AGI, Schedule C income/loss, bank details, identity theft indicators, non-filing status) for at least the prior three taxable years (26 U.S.C. 6103(i)); and (5) directs disclosure of Social Security information for the Do Not Pay system (new 42 U.S.C. 435).