On October 21, 2019, the Senate passed the GREAT (Grant Reporting Efficiency and Agreements) Act, which has now been referred to the Oversight & Government Reform Committee for further action. The bill requires the use of standards for grants related data which applies to grantees, including state and local governments. The Senate version differs from the House version of the bill slightly. If passed, the Senate version of the GREAT Act will require:
- Two years after enactment, standard definitions will be established for federal awards and recipients of federal awards (House version had one year)
- Data standards must:
- Render data fully searchable and machine-readable
- Be nonproprietary
- Incorporate standards developed and maintained by voluntary consensus standards body
- Consistent with applicable accounting standards
- Include standards developed under FFATA
- Developed under consultation with Treasury, grants recipients, private sector experts, and auditors (Senate version added auditors)
- Three years after enactment, guidance shall be issued to all agencies and it shall minimize disruption and not increase the reporting burden on agencies or recipients (House version was two years; Senate version added “burden” clause)
- Every 10 years, the Director must update the guidance provided to agencies (newly added in Senate version)
- Three years after enactment, Director shall give guidance requiring audit data (Single Audit Package) to be reporting using standards (House version was two years)
- Five years after enactment, data to be made available on single public portal (House version was four years)
- One year after enactment, they shall determine if nonproprietary identifiers should be used.
