[Senate Report 118-157]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
Calendar No. 334
118th Congress } { Report
SENATE
2d Session } { 118-157
_______________________________________________________________________
BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE
ACT OF 2023
__________
R E P O R T
of the
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND
GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
to accompany
S. 1258
TO REQUIRE THE DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF
MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET TO SUBMIT TO CONGRESS AN
ANNUAL REPORT ON PROJECTS THAT ARE OVER BUDGET
AND BEHIND SCHEDULE, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
February 9, 2024.--Ordered to be printed
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
49-010 WASHINGTON : 2024
[[Page (ii)]]
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
GARY C. PETERS, Michigan, Chairman
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware RAND PAUL, Kentucky
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada MITT ROMNEY, Utah
JON OSSOFF, Georgia RICK SCOTT, Florida
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut JOSH HAWLEY, Missouri
LAPHONZA R. BUTLER, California ROGER MARSHALL, Kansas
David M. Weinberg, Staff Director
Michelle M. Benecke, Senior Counsel
William E. Henderson III, Minority Staff Director
Christina N. Salazar, Minority Chief Counsel
Andrew J. Hopkins, Minority Counsel
Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk
[[Page (1)]]
Calendar No. 334
118th Congress } { Report
SENATE
2d Session } { 118-157
======================================================================
BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE ACT OF 2023
_______
February 9, 2024.--Ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Peters, from the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 1258]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 1258) to require
the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to submit
to Congress an annual report on projects that are over budget
and behind schedule, and for other purposes, having considered
the same, reports favorably thereon without amendment, and
recommends that the bill do pass.
CONTENTS
Page
I. Purpose and Summary..............................................1
II. Background and Need for the Legislation..........................2
III. Legislative History..............................................2
IV. Section-by-Section Analysis of the Bill, as Reported.............3
V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact..................................3
VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate........................4
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............5
I. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY
S. 1258, the Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act of 2023, directs
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to issue guidance
requiring federal agencies to report annually to Congress
regarding certain federally funded projects that (1) are more
than five years behind schedule, or (2) have expenditures that
are at least $1 billion more than the original cost estimate
for the project. The reported information must include a brief
description of each project; an explanation of any change to
the original scope of the project; the original and current
expected dates of completion; the original and
[[Page 2]]
current cost estimates; an explanation of the delay in
completion or increase in cost estimate; and if applicable, the
amount of and rationale for any award, incentive fee, or bonus
paid for the project. The bill requires the Director of OMB to
issue guidance to agencies implementing the reporting
requirement within one year of the enactment of this Act.
II. BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR THE LEGISLATION
The federal government has an obligation to provide the
oversight necessary to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent
responsibly. Although various reporting and oversight
mechanisms exist for federal spending and projects, there are
still examples of projects that become delayed or significantly
exceed their original expected costs. For example, federal
information technology (IT) projects, which total more than
$100 billion in investments per year, often fail to deliver
needed capabilities timely and within budget. This has resulted
in management of IT acquisitions and operations appearing on
the General Accountability Office's (GAO) High Risk List every
year since being added in 2015, with no improvement in GAO's
ratings in this area since 2017.\1\ In another example, GAO
found that as of March 2023, a group of 18 ``major projects''
at the National Nuclear Security Administration were
collectively projected to exceed their cost estimates by over
$2 billion.\2\
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\1\Government Accountability Office, High-Risk Series: Efforts Made
to Achieve Progress Need to Be Maintained and Expanded to Fully Address
All Areas (GAO-23-106203) (Apr. 20, 2023).
\2\Government Accountability Office, National Nuclear Security
Administration: Assessments of Major Projects (GAO-23-104402) (Aug. 17,
2023).
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The Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act of 2023 would help ensure
Congress is informed when federally-funded projects are well
behind schedule or substantially over budget. A similar
requirement for the Department of Transportation to report to
Congress on agency projects that are behind schedule or over
budget passed in a provision of the Infrastructure Investment
and Jobs Act in 2022.\3\ The Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act of
2023 would apply reporting requirements for overdue and over-
budget projects across the federal government.
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\3\Section 11319, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Pub. L.
No. 117-58.
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III. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) introduced S. 1258, the Billion
Dollar Boondoggle Act of 2023, on April 25, 2023, with original
cosponsors Senator Margaret Wood Hassan (D-NH), Senator Rand
Paul (R-KY), Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), and Senator Mike Braun
(R-IN). Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) joined as a cosponsor on
October 25, 2023. The bill was referred to the Committee on
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
The Committee considered S. 1258 at a business meeting on
October 25, 2023. During the business meeting, the bill was
ordered reported favorably by roll call vote of 11 yeas to 0
nays, with Senators Peters, Hassan, Sinema, Rosen, Ossoff,
Blumenthal, Butler, Paul, Lankford, Romney, and Scott voting in
the affirmative. Senators Carper, Johnson, Hawley, and Marshall
voted yea by proxy, for the record only.
[[Page 3]]
IV. SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS OF THE BILL, AS REPORTED
Section 1. Short title
This section establishes the short title of the bill as the
``Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act of 2023.''
Section 2. Annual report
Subsection (a) defines the terms ``covered agency,''
``covered project,'' and ``project.'' A ``covered project''
means a project that is more than five years behind schedule,
as measured against the original expected date for completion,
or a project for which the amount spent is at least $1 billion
more than its original cost estimate.
Subsection (b) directs the Director of OMB to issue
guidance, not later than one year after the date of enactment,
for covered agencies to include information in annual reporting
to Congress about covered projects. The reported information
must include: (1) a brief description of the project, including
its purpose, location, award number, year of initiation,
federal share of cost, and each contractor and recipient of the
covered project; (2) an explanation of any change to the scope
of the project; (3) the original and current expected dates for
completion; (4) the original and current cost estimates, as
adjusted to reflect increases in the Consumer Price Index; (5)
an explanation for a delay in completion or an increase in the
cost estimate, including any impact of insufficient or delayed
appropriations; and (6) the amount of and rationale for any
award, incentive fee, or other type of bonus awarded for the
project.
V. EVALUATION OF REGULATORY IMPACT
Pursuant to the requirements of paragraph 11(b) of rule
XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has
considered the regulatory impact of this bill and determined
that the bill will have no regulatory impact within the meaning
of the rules. The Committee agrees with the Congressional
Budget Office's statement that the bill contains no
intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would impose no costs
on state, local, or tribal governments.
[[Page 4]]
VI. CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE COST ESTIMATE
S. 1258 would require agencies to report on any of their
projects that are $1 billion or more over budget or more than
five years behind schedule. Those reports would include a
description of the project, any changes to the project's
requirements, the original due date and expected completion
date, and some financial information. The bill also would
require the Office of Management and Budget to issue guidance
on the reporting requirements.
While CBO does not have comprehensive information on the
number of projects governmentwide that are at least $1 billion
over budget or are more than five years behind schedule, we
expect that such projects are tracked closely by agencies and
that the bulk of the additional work under the bill would be
from compiling and reporting on that information. Therefore,
using information about similar reporting requirements, CBO
estimates that implementing S. 1258 would cost less than
$500,000 over the 2024-2028 period. That spending would be
subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
Enacting S. 1258 also could affect direct spending by some
agencies that are allowed to use fees, receipts from the sale
of goods, and other collections to cover operating costs. CBO
estimates that any net changes in direct spending by those
agencies would be negligible because most of them can adjust
amounts collected to reflect changes in operating costs.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Matthew
Pickford. The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss,
Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.
Phillip L. Swagel,
Director, Congressional Budget Office.
VII. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED
This legislation would make no change in existing law,
within the meaning of clauses (a) and (b) of subparagraph 12 of
rule XXVI
[[Page 5]]
of the Standing Rules of the Senate, because this legislation
would not repeal or amend any provision of current law.