H.R. 2781 — Introduced in House

I 113th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 2781 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES July 22, 2013 Mr. Peters of California (for himself and Ms. Kuster) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and in addition to the Committee on Appropriations, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To require the closure of expired grants accounts, and for other purposes. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Stop Paying Something for Nothing Act of 2013. 2. Expired grant account report (a) Report required Beginning 6 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, not later than March 31 of each year, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall submit to the Chairs and Ranking Members of the Budget Committees a report that lists— (1) each grant account that is more than 3 months past the grant end date; and (2) the total unexpended balance, the amount of obligated but unexpended funds, and the amount of unobligated funds in each such account for each agency. (b) Report required To be published on OMB website Not later than 15 days after the report is submitted under subsection (a), the report shall be made public on the website of the Office of Management and Budget, in a searchable, human-readable, and machine readable format. (c) Return of funds On the date that the report is submitted under this section, any unobligated amounts in an expired grant account not listed in the report are rescinded and shall be returned to the general fund of the Treasury. 3. Account closing procedures (a) In general (1) Closure Not later than 4 months after the date on which a grant account is published under section 2(b), the head of the relevant agency shall close such grant account in the Payment Management System if the final report required by OMB Circular No. A–110 was filed more than 36 months before such date. (2) Return of funds On the date that such grant account is closed, the unobligated amounts in such grant account (if any) are rescinded and shall be returned to the general fund of the Treasury. (b) Payment Management System The head of the relevant agency shall close any grant account in the Payment Management System that has no unexpended balance remaining for the previous six months and, not later than June 15 of each year, submit to the Chairs and Ranking Members of the Budget Committees a report that lists each account closed pursuant to this subsection. (c) Automated Standard Application for Payments system The Secretary of the Treasury shall close any account in the Automated Standard Application for Payments system that has had no unexpended balance remaining for the previous six months. On June 15 of each year, the Secretary of the Treasury shall submit to the Budget Committees a report that lists each account closed pursuant to this subsection and the agency that controlled the account. (d) Exception to closure The Director of the Office of Management and Budget may prevent the closure of an account under this Act only after submitting to the Chair and Ranking Member of the Budget Committees a report that describes the reason for not closing such account. 4. Definitions In this Act: (1) Agency The term agency has the meaning given that term in section 551 of title 5, United States Code. (2) Budget Committees The term Budget Committees means the Committee on the Budget of the House of Representatives and the Senate Budget Committee. (3) Grant account The term grant account includes any account in— (A) the Payment Management System or the Automated Standard Application for Payments system; or (B) any other system that may be created or administered by the Financial Management System of the Department of the Treasury.