§11296 Oversight and Accountability

Summary

All Department of Justice grants under this subchapter must follow rules for audits, repayment, nonprofit checks, conference spending, and lobbying limits. The Inspector General must audit each grantee for two of the fiscal years between 2014 and 2023 to look for waste, fraud, or abuse. If a final IG report finds the grantee used funds for unauthorized or unallowable costs and that finding is not closed within 12 months from the final report date, the grantee cannot get any grants under this subchapter for the two fiscal years that start after that 12-month period. If a barred grantee still gets money, the Attorney General must put an amount equal to that grant into the General Fund of the Treasury and try to recover that money from the grantee. "Unresolved audit finding" means an IG final report finding of unauthorized or unallowable spending not fixed within 12 months. "Nonprofit" means an organization described in 26 U.S.C. 501(c)(3) and exempt under 501(a). The Attorney General must not give grants to nonprofits that keep funds offshore to avoid the tax in 26 U.S.C. 511(a). Nonprofits that use the procedures in 26 C.F.R. 53.4958–6 to justify executive pay must tell the Attorney General how they set pay, who reviewed it, the comparison data, and records of the decision; the Attorney General must make that information available on request. No grant money may pay for a conference that costs more than $20,000 unless the Deputy Attorney General or a designated senior official gives written approval beforehand. That approval must include an estimate of all conference costs, including food, A/V, speaker fees, and entertainment. The Deputy Attorney General must send an annual report to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce about approved conference spending. Grant funds may not be used to lobby Justice Department officials or other government officials about getting grants. If a grantee is found to have lobbied, the Attorney General must make them repay the grant in full and bar them from getting another grant under this subchapter for not less than 5 years. Filling out a grant application is not considered lobbying.