On the recordJanuary 11, 2016
I thank the chairman. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 1115, the Grants Oversight and New Efficiency Act, or as we call it, the GONE Act. As the lead House sponsor of this bill, I am proud of the bipartisan, bicameral effort that has gone into this legislation. I especially want to thank the Senate champion of this bill, my colleague in the Senate, Senator Deb Fischer, and also my Michigan colleague, Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence, along with the staff who have worked so hard to bring this bill to the floor today. Last year, we marked up this legislation in the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and passed it on to the House floor. After some additional fine-tuning made by our colleagues in the Senate, I am pleased to have the opportunity to see the GONE Act take the final step toward becoming law. Even as we debate this bill today, the Federal Government is racking up service fees to administer thousands of expired empty grant accounts--costing taxpayers millions of dollars per year. I introduced the GONE Act to bring some common sense to the grant management process and require Federal agencies to finally take action to identify these accounts with a zero balance which should be closed out. Specifically, the GONE Act will direct agencies to work with the Department of Health and Human Services to identify the total number of grant awards that remain open but have been expired for 2 years or more.…
