S. 1998 (112th): DART Act

Introduced:
Dec 15, 2011 (112th Congress, 2011–2013)
Sponsor:
Sen. Scott Brown [R-MA]
Status:
Signed by the President
Slip Law:
This bill became Pub.L. 112-217.

The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. S. stands for Senate bill.

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Status

This bill was enacted after being signed by the President on December 20, 2012.

Progress
Introduced Dec 15, 2011
Referred to Committee Dec 15, 2011
Reported by Committee Apr 25, 2012
Passed Senate Nov 28, 2012
Passed House Dec 12, 2012
Signed by the President Dec 20, 2012
Cosponsors
2 cosponsors (1R, 1D) (show)
Committees

House Homeland Security

House Oversight and Government Reform

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

The committee chair determines whether a bill will move past the committee stage.

Full Title

A bill to obtain an unqualified audit opinion, and improve financial accountability and management at the Department of Homeland Security.

Summary

No summaries available.

Text

Read Bill Text »

Last updated Jan 01, 2012.
2 pages

Primary Source

View on THOMAS (The Library of Congress)

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Citation

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GovTrack’s Bill Summary

We don’t have a summary available yet.

Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.

12/20/2012--Public Law. (This measure has not been amended since it was passed by the Senate on November 28, 2012.
The summary of that version is repeated here.) DHS Audit Requirement Target Act of 2012 or the DART Act - Directs the Secretary of Homeland Security, in order to ensure compliance with the Department of Homeland Security Financial Accountability Act, to take the necessary steps to ensure that the full set of consolidated financial statements of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for FY2013 and each fiscal year thereafter are ready in a timely manner and in preparation for an audit as part of preparing required performance and accountability reports in order to obtain an unqualified opinion.
Requires each annual report on the status of financial management of DHS submitted by the Chief Financial Officer of DHS to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) during the period between the enactment of this Act and the date such an unqualified opinion is submitted to include a plan:
(1) to obtain such opinion;
(2) that addresses how and by when DHS will eliminate material weaknesses and significant deficiencies in internal controls over financial reporting; and
(3) to modernize DHS's financial management systems.

House Republican Conference Summary

The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.

This summary can be found at http://www.gop.gov/bill/112/2/s1998.

Background

According to Senate report 112-230, “Since its inception almost ten years ago, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS or the Department) has been unable to obtain a so-called clean or unqualified audit of its financial statements—that is, a finding by an objective reviewer that the Department's finances are in conformity with generally accepted accounting standards.  S. 1998 seeks to remedy that situation by directing the Department to take the steps necessary to obtain a clean audit by the end of fiscal year 2013.  So that Congress can monitor and oversee DHS's efforts in this area, the bill also requires DHS to provide Congress with specific details on its plans to achieve a clean audit, through eliminating material weaknesses in its internal financial controls and by modernizing its financial management systems.”

Summary

S. 1998 would require that the Secretary of Homeland Security prepare and have ready for submission all the relevant documents related to the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) full set of financial statements by the end of fiscal year 2013.  The bill would also order DHS to report to Congress on the progress of meeting the audit requirements.  Such report would include a plan:

(1) to obtain an unqualified opinion on the full set of financial statements, which shall discuss plans and resources needed to meet the deadlines of the bill;

(2) that addresses how the Department will eliminate material weaknesses and significant deficiencies in internal controls over financial reporting and provide deadlines for the elimination of such weaknesses and deficiencies; and

(3) to modernize the financial management systems of the Department, including timelines, goals, alternatives, and costs of the plan, which shall include consideration of alternative approaches, including modernizing the existing financial management systems and associated financial controls of the Department and establishing new financial management systems and associated financial controls.

Cost

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that implementing S. 1998 would have no significant cost to the federal government.  Enacting the legislation would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.

House Democratic Caucus Summary

The House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.

So, yes, we display the House Republican Conference’s summaries when available even if we do not have a Democratic summary available. That’s because we feel it is better to give you as much information as possible, even if we cannot provide every viewpoint.

We’ll be looking for a source of summaries from the other side in the meanwhile.

The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:

Slip Laws

Slip laws refer to enacted bills and joint resolutions in their original form as enacted by Congress, that is, before other laws amend them. Slip laws are cited as “Public Law XXX-YYY”, where XXX is the number of the Congress in which the bill or resolution was introduced.

  • Public Law 108-330

United States Code

The United States Code is the compilation of permanent laws enacted by Congress. Temporary and other non-permanent laws do not appear in the United States Code. (About half of the United States Code is the law itself, called positive law. The other half is merely a compilation of the laws but has no legal significance.)

Statutes at Large

The United States Statutes at Large is the compilation of all laws enacted by Congress.

  • 118 Stat. 1275