§7504 — Title 31 Money and Finance | U.S. Code

Summary

Federal agencies must watch how non-federal groups use federal award money. They must check audit quality when they are the single federal agency assigned to a recipient, help with governmentwide reviews, and tell the Director about recipients that spend $300,000 or more in federal awards in a year but were not audited as required. The Director will set the rules for how agencies do this and will pick one federal agency to be the single contact for each non-federal entity to give help and guidance. The Director will also pick a federal clearinghouse to collect all audit reporting packages and run analyses on the data. The Director must send a list of the recipients who missed required audits to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability within 2 years after this becomes law and every 2 years after that. The Director must pick one or more agencies to do a governmentwide study of single-audit quality, which can use reviews from federal agencies, inspectors general, state auditors, and external peer reviews. That study must be finished within 3 years and repeated every 6 years. The Director must publish a summary of each study for the same two committees and the public. Within 2 years, GSA and partners must build tools and a plan to use clearinghouse audit data to find cross-government risks. Within 4 years, the Comptroller General must evaluate those tools and the plan, audit burdens and capacity, and how agencies handle repeat audit problems.

Title 31, §7504

Money and Finance — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Each Federal agency shall, in accordance with guidance issued by the Director under section 7505, with regard to Federal awards provided by the agency—

(1)monitor non-Federal entity use of Federal awards;

(2)assess the quality of audits conducted under this chapter for audits of entities for which the agency is the single Federal agency determined under subsection (b);

(3)participate in and furnish information for the review under subsection (e); and

(4)identify recipients that expend $300,000 or more in Federal awards or such other amount specified by the Director under section 7502(a)(3) during the recipient’s fiscal year but did not undergo an audit in accordance with this chapter.

(b)Each non-Federal entity shall have a single Federal agency, determined in accordance with criteria established by the Director, to provide the non-Federal entity with technical assistance and assist with implementation of this chapter.

(c)The Director shall designate a Federal clearinghouse to—

(1)receive copies of all reporting packages developed in accordance with this chapter; and

(2)perform analyses to assist the Director in carrying out responsibilities under this chapter.

(d)Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this subsection, and every 2 years thereafter, the Director shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and Accountability of the House of Representatives a report listing the recipients identified under subsection (a)(4).

(e)(1)The Director shall designate 1 or more Federal agencies to conduct a Government-wide analysis of single audit quality, which may include a consideration of the results of reviews of single audit quality by—

(A)Federal agencies;

(B)inspectors general of Federal agencies;

(C)State auditors; and

(D)external peer reviews conducted in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

(2)Not later than 3 years after the date of enactment of this subsection, and every 6 years thereafter, the Federal agencies designated under paragraph (1) shall complete a Government-wide analysis of single audit quality.

(3)The Director shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and Accountability of the House of Representatives and make publicly available a summary of the results of each review under paragraph (2).

(f)Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this subsection—

(1)the Administrator of General Services, in coordination with the Director, the Council on Federal Financial Assistance (or any successor thereto), and key management single audit liaisons of Federal agencies designated as described in section 200.513 of title 2, Code of Federal Regulations (or any successor thereto), shall develop analytic tools to use audit data in the Federal clearinghouse to identify cross-Governmental risks to Federal award funds; and

(2)the Director, in coordination with the Administrator of General Services, the Council on Federal Financial Assistance (or any successor thereto), and key management single audit liaisons of Federal agencies designated as described in section 200.513 of title 2, Code of Federal Regulations (or any successor thereto), shall develop a strategy to use audit data in the Federal clearinghouse to identify cross-Governmental risks to Federal award funds.

(g)Not later than 4 years after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Comptroller General of the United States shall complete an evaluation of—

(1)the effectiveness of the strategy and analytic tools developed under subsection (f);

(2)reporting burdens for auditors and audited entities and the capacity of auditors and audited entities to fulfill the requirements under this chapter; and

(3)the responsiveness of Federal agencies to repeat single audit findings and corrective action plans.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

The date of enactment of this subsection, referred to in subsecs. (d), (e)(2), (f), and (g), is the date of enactment of Pub. L. 118–207, which was approved Dec. 23, 2024.

Amendments

2024—Subsec. (a)(3), (4). Pub. L. 118–207, § 2(1), added pars. (3) and (4). Subsec. (c)(2), (3). Pub. L. 118–207, § 2(2), redesignated par. (3) as (2) and struck out former par. (2) which read as follows: “identify recipients that expend $300,000 or more in Federal awards or such other amount specified by the Director under section 7502(a)(3) during the recipient’s fiscal year but did not undergo an audit in accordance with this chapter; and”. Subsecs. (d) to (g). Pub. L. 118–207, § 2(3), added subsecs. (d) to (g). 1996—Pub. L. 104–156 substituted “Federal agency responsibilities and relations with non-Federal entities” for “Cognizant agency responsibilities” in section catchline and amended text generally. Prior to amendment, text read as follows: “(a) The Director shall designate cognizant agencies for audits conducted pursuant to this chapter. “(b) A cognizant agency shall— “(1) ensure that audits are made in a timely manner and in accordance with the requirements of this chapter; “(2) ensure that the audit reports and corrective action plans made pursuant to section 7502 of this title are transmitted to the appropriate Federal officials; and “(3)(A) coordinate, to the extent practicable, audits done by or under contract with Federal agencies that are in addition to the audits conducted pursuant to this chapter; and (B) ensure that such additional audits build upon the audits conducted pursuant to this chapter.”

§7504 Federal agency responsibilities and relations with non-Federal entities