Bob Beattie

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WELCOME Bob Beattie UMich e-Business Point of
Contact UMich Grants.gov Liaison Managing Senior
Project Representative for Electronic Research
Administration Division of Research Development
and Administration University of
Michigan Editor, eRA Corner, NCURA Magazine
beattie_at_umich.edu [phone]
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I AM GOING TO DISCUSS Public Law No. 109-282
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Federal Funding Accounting and Transparency Act
OF 2006
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Federal Funding Accounting and Transparency Act
OF 2006
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BACKGROUND PART 1 Prime Awards January,
2008 Where to look. What is there. PART 2
Sub-awards January, 2009 What is supposed to be
there. Who is doing what.
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http//www.ncura.edu/content/news/newsletter/docs/
news_septoct07.pdf
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BACKGROUND
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Congressional Record September 13, 2006
(House) Page H6498-H6501 FEDERAL FUNDING
ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY ACT OF 2006 Mr.
TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I move to
suspend the rules and pass the Senate bill (S.
2590) to require full disclosure of all entities
and organizations receiving Federal funds. The
Clerk read as follows S. 2590 Be it enacted by
the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
. . .
The question was taken and (two-thirds having
voted in favor thereof) the rules were suspended
and the Senate bill was passed.
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Tom Davis of Virginia This legislation puts
into place a framework that sheds light on the
Federal grant process, allowing anyone with
access to the Internet the ability to review and
search financial assistance rewards. Sunshine,
Mr. Speaker, is the best disinfectant. This
legislation will provide greater transparency in
the grant-making process and require continued
improvement of the already existing, but
inadequate transparency, in Federal contract
awards.
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Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, the bill we are
considering today, S. 2950, requires the Office
of Management and Budget to create a searchable
database of federal grants and contracts
accessible to the public on the Internet. I am
pleased to support this bill. The bill before us
today is stronger and more comprehensive than the
bill passed by the House in June. While the
House bill covered only grants, the database
created under this legislation will include all
federal grants and contracts. If this bill is
implemented properly, any citizen with Internet
access will be able to examine a comprehensive
set of records for information about federal
spending. For each grant or contract awarded,
the database will include details about the
recipient of the award, as well as the amount of
the award, the purpose of the funding action,
and other relevant information.
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Do these guys really think that American
citizens will be empowered with ability to hold
the government accountable for each spending
decision? Will there be a reduction in wasteful
spending in the government?
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The Federal Funding Accountability and
Transparency Act of 2006 (S. 2590) is an Act of
Congress that requires the full disclosure of all
entities or organizations receiving federal funds
beginning in fiscal year (FY) 2007 on a website
maintained by the Office of Management and
Budget. This bill was introduced by Senator Tom
Coburn and Senators ,
Tom Carper and on
April 6, 2006 and passed unanimously in the
Senate on September 7, 2006 and was passed in the
House on September 13, 2006. The bill was signed
into law by President George W. Bush on September
26, 2006. The Congressional Budget Office
estimates S. 2590 will cost 15 million over its
authorized time period of 2007 - 2011. The
website USAspending.gov opened in December 2007
as a result of the act.
Barack Obama
John McCain
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President Bush signs the bill.
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HIGHLIGHTS
Not later than January 1, 2008, the Office of
Management and Budget shall, in accordance with
this section, section 204 of the E-Government Act
of 2002 (Public Law 107-347 44 U.S.C. 3501
note), and the Office of Federal Procurement
Policy Act (41 U.S.C. 403 et seq.), ensure the
existence and operation of a single searchable
website, accessible by the public at no cost to
access, that includes for each Federal award--
(A) the name of the entity receiving the
award (B) the amount of the award
(C) information on the award including
transaction type, funding agency, the North
American Industry Classification System code or
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance number
(where applicable), program source, and an award
title descriptive of the purpose of each funding
action (D) the location of the entity
receiving the award and the primary location of
performance under the award, including the city,
State, congressional district, and country
(E) a unique identifier of the entity receiving
the award and of the parent entity of the
recipient, should the entity be owned by another
entity and (F) any other relevant
information specified by the Office of Management
and Budget.
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Agencies now must organize and categorize this
information for access by the public and ensure
it is in a searchable and downloadable format
consistent with the technological solution the
Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency
Act Taskforce recommends. Agencies that do not
now collect these data elements in single or
multiple systems, or that do not update this
information at least monthly, must gather this
data and have a reliable process in place to
produce this data on at least a monthly basis no
later than June 1, 2007. This includes all
transactions executed on or after October 1, 2006
greater than 25,000 with organizations (not
individuals), including grants, loans, awards,
cooperative agreements, other forms of financial
assistance, contracts, purchase orders, task
orders, and delivery orders. In limited cases
for which meeting this deadline is not practical,
your Taskforce member should provide your Agency
plan for consideration to the Chair of the
Taskforce, Robert Shea, Associate Director for
Management, so long as your plan meets the
requirements of Public Law No. 109-282.
http//www.grants.gov/assets/FFATAMemo2.pdf
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Where to look for the data?
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http//www.fedspending.org/
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http//www.ffata.org/ffata/
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http//www.usaspending.gov/
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(No Transcript)
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SUBAWARDS
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RULES FOR REPORTING SUBCONTRACTS
This rule applies to contracts with values equal
to or greater than 500 million awarded and
performed in the United States, and requires the
awardees to report all first tier subcontract
awards exceeding 1 million.
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• Transparency Act, Grant
• Sub-Award Pilot Update
• Andrea Brandon, USDA

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Transparency Act Grant Sub-Award Pilot

• Pilot currently set for June 23, 2008 through
  August 23, 2008
• Open to States, Local Governments, Universities,
  Tribes, Non-Profits, etc.
• Currently have 53 pilot participants (not
  counting duplicate representatives from the same
  organization)
• 10 Government 18 Non-profits 25 Colleges
  Universities. 0 Tribal Entities

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Transparency Act Grant Sub-Award Pilot

• FFATA Sub-Award Work Group will be working on
  DRAFT Regulations (will publish for 30 day
  comment period by the end of May 2008)
• 30 day reporting requirement
• Additional data elements
• How to report to the Sub-Award database
• Liability for data (First Tier vs. Sub-Awardee)
• How many tiers down to report
• Format for data elements
• Whether to include deobligation data or not
• Thresholds

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Transparency Act Grant Sub-Award Pilot

• GPC Pre-Award Work Group is finalizing the DRAFT
  regulations on the use of the DUNS number and
  CCR.gov for grant Sub-Awards and the Term and
  Condition to be used on all awards.
• DRAFT regulations will be sent to GPC and OMB
  simultaneously to be published for 30 day
  comment period by the end of March 2008.

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Transparency Act Grant Sub-Award Pilot

• The OMB E-Government office will soon look at
  possible IT Solutions for the grant Sub-Award
  pilot.
• Possible identification of IT solution before mid
  April 2008.
• Once IT solution is identified will work with
  pilot participants to finalize the instructions
  for how the pilot will take place.

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Transparency Act Grant Sub-Award Pilot

• Would like more pilot participants especially
  from the Tribal Community
• Would like to make sure that we can test multiple
  levels of Sub-Award reporting from the same grant
  in several instances during the pilot

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(No Transcript)
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Next Grants Policy Committee webcast June 19,
1pm-3pm
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WHO PAYS FOR THE SUBAWARD SYSTEM?
Another important issue that must be addressed is
how of the cost of compliance can be recovered by
universities and others. What the law means by
"reasonable costs" that can be included as
indirect in a grant or contract is uncertain. A
policy will have to be developed to address this,
but no timetable has been discussed. It is also
worth nothing that the law addresses only allow
for a recovery of costs associated with anything
other than subaward data collection--collection
on prime awards and contracts is not mentioned,
and, presumably, not permitted. Even if some
cost recovery is allowed, it is doubtful that it
will serve many universities the way the law is
written. Many have already hit its indirect cost
cap and would not be able to charge above that
for any costs associated with FFATA compliance.
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SPONSOR IMPLICATIONS
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NIH http//grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-file
s/NOT-OD-08-028.html
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NIH http//grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-file
s/NOT-OD-08-030.html
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NSF
January 2008 Grants Policy Guide