The Congressional Budget Office has projected that there
would be no new costs to the government from enacting
HR-3826, the Program Assessment and Results Act that would
codify program reviews already being conducted under an
Office of Management and Budget initiative and that would
require agencies to submit comprehensive strategic plans by
September 2005 instead of the following year.
The CBO estimate boosts prospects for passing the bill,
which recently cleared the House Government Reform Committee.
The bill would require OMB to review each program activity
in the government at least once every five years, focusing
on the purpose, design, strategic plan, management, results
and other measures of each program. The results would be
submitted to Congress for consideration in funding and
program decisions.
CBO noted that most of the provisions of the bill would put
into law the current process OMB is using through the
Program Assessment Rating Tool, which was developed to
assess and improve program performance, and in which 20
percent of federal programs are being reviewed annually.
“To the extent that reviews lead to improved program
performance, subsequent legislation could change the cost of
program operations,” CBO said. However, it said that codifying
the requirements and speeding up the due date for strategic
plans would not affect direct spending or revenues, and
important point in the current fiscal environment.
