S. 1115 would direct federal agencies to prepare reports on their efforts to close out financial accounts for expired federal grants. Information on the USASpending website maintained by the Treasury Department indicates that the government has awarded almost $600 billion annually in grants over the past five years. In 2012, the Government Accountability Office reported that about 80 percent of all grants are provided through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Treasury payment systems and that undisbursed grants totaled about $720 million in about 10,000 expired accounts. In 2012, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) advised that agencies should take appropriate action to close out such accounts in a timely manner.
Under current law, agencies are required to track expired grant accounts. CBO anticipates that under S. 1115, some agencies’ workloads would increase slightly. Based on information from OMB and HHS, CBO estimates that implementing S. 1115 would cost $8 million over the 2016-2020 period, primarily for increased administrative costs related to the new reports; such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
Enacting S. 1115 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
S. 1115 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
