Tracking bill could cost $75M, CBO says

A bill that would update how government work is tracked and what it yields would cost an additional $75 million governmentwide from 2011 to 2015, according to a report released Nov. 9.

The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993 outlined ways to measure federal work, and the Government Efficiency, Effectiveness and Performance Improvement Act of 2010, or the GPRA Modernization Act (H.R. 2142), would expand those assessments.

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To meet the new requirements, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that additional spending by the 23 major federal agencies would vary significantly but would average about $1 million a year each. CBO officials also wrote that the $75 million would be in addition to the $50 million to $100 million the government spends annually to meet current GPRA mandates.

The modernization bill would require agency officials to create plans and set priorities for the year, and they would have to submit those goals to the congressional committee that oversees them. The goals and the results of the assessments would have to be available on a public website, according to the bill.

CBO also projected that most agencies’ administrative workload would increase to comply with some of the requirements. Additional costs would accrue from expanding public reporting on agencies’ plans and performance, incorporating management goals and improvement plans into the GPRA measures, and providing additional training for employees, the report states.

The House passed the GRPA Modernization Act in June by a voice vote, and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee reported it favorably to the Senate in September.