About the bill
When Americans pay to enter a national park or file a patent, should the legislative branch or executive branch agencies have primary say over that money’s allocation?
Context
Federal agencies and departments are primarily funded through taxes, but not entirely. Examples include entry fees for federal parks to the National Parks Services, fees for obtaining or renewing a passport to the State Department, filing fees when registering a patent or creative creation through the Patent and Trademark Office, and stamps when sending an envelope or package through the Postal Service.
About $369.9 billion in federal user fees were collected in 2019 (see page 156 in that linked PDF). That represents about 10% of all federal receipts.
What the legislation does
The Agency Accountability Act would deposit most federal funds collected …
Sponsor and status
116th Congress (2019–2021)
This bill was introduced on January 29, 2019, in a previous session of Congress, but it did not receive a vote.
Although this bill was not enacted, its provisions could have become law by being included in another bill. It is common for legislative text to be introduced concurrently in multiple bills (called companion bills), re-introduced in subsequent sessions of Congress in new bills, or added to larger bills (sometimes called omnibus bills).
84 Cosponsors (83 Republicans, 1 Independent)
Position statements
What legislators are saying
“Palmer Introduces Agency Accountability Act”
—
Rep. Gary Palmer [R-AL6]
(Sponsor)
on Jan 30, 2019
History
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Jun 16, 2016
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Earlier Version —
Introduced
This activity took place on a related bill, H.R. 5499 (114th). |
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Feb 3, 2017
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Earlier Version —
Introduced
This activity took place on a related bill, H.R. 850 (115th). |
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Jan 29, 2019
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Introduced
Bills and resolutions are referred to committees which debate the bill before possibly sending it on to the whole chamber. |
H.R. 850 (116th) was a bill in the United States Congress.
A bill must be passed by both the House and Senate in identical form and then be signed by the President to become law.
Bills numbers restart every two years. That means there are other bills with the number H.R. 850. This is the one from the 116th Congress.
This bill was introduced in the 116th Congress, which met from Jan 3, 2019 to Jan 3, 2021. Legislation not passed by the end of a Congress is cleared from the books.
How to cite this information.
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“H.R. 850 — 116th Congress: Agency Accountability Act of 2019.” www.GovTrack.us. 2019. March 30, 2023 <https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr850>
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Where is this information from?
GovTrack automatically collects legislative information from a variety of governmental and non-governmental sources. This page is sourced primarily from Congress.gov, the official portal of the United States Congress. Congress.gov is generally updated one day after events occur, and so legislative activity shown here may be one day behind. Data via the congress project.
