Bipartisan Lawmakers Introduce First Federal Financial Management Reform Since 1990
Senators from various Finance, Budget, and Oversight Committees have come together to introduce legislation to reform how federal officials spend taxpayer funds. The Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Vision Act of 2020 will standardize CFO responsibilities, among other reforms. The legislation, lawmakers note, is in response to the 115th Congress’ passage of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, which called upon agencies to use data to drive program reforms.
“Often times, the federal government cannot show the relationship between dollars spent and results achieved,” Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) said in a statement announcing the reform package. “This legislation will lead to better financial and performance data and increase accountability in government programs and operations. This will help improve government-wide financial management and ensure taxpayer dollars are safeguarded.”
Cosponsoring Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) added in a statement, “this legislation will help boost financial accountability in our government by promoting consistency across agencies, making it easier for them to carry out long-term initiatives and planning, and empowering them to make more informed and strategic policy decisions through the use of performance data.”
Major provisions of the proposal include measures for:
Standardizing CFO responsibilities across the entire executive branch.
Providing deputy CFOs new authority to ensure continuity in agency financial management operations in the event of CFO vacancies.
Revising and updating government-wide and agency-level financial management planning requirements to strengthen the links between spending decisions and performance data.
Requiring development of financial management performance measuring metrics to gauge progress toward improving government efficiency.
Strengthening internal controls to require agency managers to identify key financial management information and annually assess progress.
The legislation has been endorsed by the Data Coalition, Citizens Against Government Waste, Project on Government Oversight, the R Street Institute, Truth in Accounting (TIA), and Taxpayers for Common Sense.
