31 U.S.C. § 3321: Disbursing authority in the executive branch

Except as provided in this section or another law, only officers and employees of the Department of the Treasury designated by the Secretary of the Treasury as disbursing officials may disburse public money available for expenditure by an executive agency. For economy and efficiency, the Secretary may delegate the authority to disburse public money to officers and employees of other executive agencies. United States Marshal’s Office. The Department of Defense. The Department of Homeland Security. 1 (with respect to public money available for expenditure by the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Navy). 1 So in original. The period probably should not appear. On request of the Secretary and with the approval of the head of an executive agency referred to in subsection (c) of this section, facilities of the agency may be used to assist in disbursing public money available for expenditure by another executive agency. “This title may be cited as the ‘Saving Federal Dollars Through Better Use of Government Purchase and Travel Cards Act of 2017’. The term ‘improper payment’ has the meaning given the term in [former] section 2 of the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 [ Pub. L. 107–300 ] ([former] 31 U.S.C. 3321 note [see 33 U.S.C. 3351 ]). The term ‘questionable transaction’ means a charge card transaction that from initial card data appears to be high risk and may therefore be improper due to non-compliance with applicable law, regulation or policy. The term ‘strategic sourcing’ means analyzing and modifying a Federal agency’s spending patterns to better leverage its purchasing power, reduce costs, and improve overall performance. identifying questionable purchase and travel card transactions; and recovering improper payments made with purchase and travel cards; identifying potential opportunities for agencies to further leverage administrative process streamlining and cost reduction from purchase and travel card use, including additional agency opportunities for card-based strategic sourcing; developing a set of purchase and travel card metrics and benchmarks for high-risk activities, which shall assist agencies in identifying potential emphasis areas for their purchase and travel card management and oversight activities, including those required by the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 ( Public Law 112–194 ) [see Short Title of 2012 Amendment note set out under section 101 of Title 41 , Public Contracts]; and developing a plan, which may be based on existing capabilities, to create a library of analytics tools and data sources for use by Federal agencies (including inspectors general of those agencies). Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act [ Dec. 12, 2017 ], the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, in consultation with the Administrator of General Services and the interagency charge card data management group established under section 1805, shall issue guidance on improving information sharing by government agencies for the purposes of section 1803(a)(1). require relevant officials at Federal agencies to identify high-risk activities and communicate that information to the appropriate management levels within the agencies; require that appropriate officials at Federal agencies review the reports issued by charge card-issuing banks on questionable transaction activity (such as purchase and travel card pre-suspension and suspension reports, delinquency reports, and exception reports), including transactions that occur with high-risk activities, and suspicious timing or amounts of cash withdrawals or advances; provide for the appropriate sharing of information related to potential questionable transactions, fraud schemes, and high-risk activities with the General Services Administration and the appropriate officials in Federal agencies; consider the recommendations made by Inspectors General or the best practices Inspectors General have identified; and include other requirements determined appropriate by the Director for the purposes of carrying out this title. The Administrator of General Services and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall establish a purchase and travel charge card data management group to develop and share best practices for the purposes described in section 1803(a). cover rules, edits, and task order or contract modifications related to charge card-issuing banks; include the review of accounts payable information and purchase and travel card transaction data of agencies for the purpose of identifying potential strategic sourcing and other additional opportunities (such as recurring payments, utility payments, and grant payments) for which the charge cards or related payment products could be used as a payment method; and include other best practices as determined by the Administrator and Director. The purchase and travel charge card data management group shall meet regularly as determined by the co-chairs, for a duration of three years, and include those agencies as described in section 2 of the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 ( Public Law 112–194 ) [enacting section 1909 of Title 41 , Public Contracts and provisions set out as a note under section 1909 of Title 41 and amending section 2784 of Title 10 , Armed Forces] and others identified by the Administrator and Director. Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act [ Dec. 12, 2017 ], the Administrator for General Services shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform [now Committee on Oversight and Accountability] of the House of Representatives a report on the implementation of this title, including the metrics used in determining whether the analytic and benchmarking efforts have reduced, or contributed to the reduction of, questionable transactions or improper payments as well as improved utilization of card-based payment products. Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the head of each Federal agency described in section 2 of the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 ( Public Law 112–194 ) shall submit a report to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget on that agency’s activities to implement this title. The Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform [now Committee on Oversight and Accountability] of the House of Representatives a consolidated report of agency activities to implement this title, which may be included as part of another report submitted by the Director to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform [now Committee on Oversight and Accountability] of the House of Representatives. Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator of General Services shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform [now Committee on Oversight and Accountability] of the House of Representatives a report identifying and exploring further potential savings opportunities for government agencies under the Federal charge card programs. This report may be combined with the report required under subsection (a).”