31 USC § 717 - Evaluating programs and activities of the United States Government | Title 31 - Money and Finance | U.S. Code

USCPrelim is a preliminary release and may be subject to further revision before it is released again as a final version.

Current through Pub. L. 112-283. (See Public Laws for the current Congress.)

(a) In this section, “agency” means a department, agency, or instrumentality of the United States Government (except a mixed-ownership Government corporation) or the District of Columbia government.

(b) The Comptroller General shall evaluate the results of a program or activity the Government carries out under existing law—

(1) on the initiative of the Comptroller General;

(2) when either House of Congress orders an evaluation; or

(3) when a committee of Congress with jurisdiction over the program or activity requests the evaluation.

(c) The Comptroller General shall develop and recommend to Congress ways to evaluate a program or activity the Government carries out under existing law.

(d)

(1) On request of a committee of Congress, the Comptroller General shall help the committee to—

(A) develop a statement of legislative goals and ways to assess and report program performance related to the goals, including recommended ways to assess performance, information to be reported, responsibility for reporting, frequency of reports, and feasibility of pilot testing; and

(B) assess program evaluations prepared by and for an agency.

(2) On request of a member of Congress, the Comptroller General shall give the member a copy of the material the Comptroller General compiles in carrying out this subsection that has been released by the committee for which the material was compiled.

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(a) In this section, “agency” means a department, agency, or instrumentality of the United States Government (except a mixed-ownership Government corporation) or the District of Columbia government.

(b) The Comptroller General shall evaluate the results of a program or activity the Government carries out under existing law—

(1) on the initiative of the Comptroller General;

(2) when either House of Congress orders an evaluation; or

(3) when a committee of Congress with jurisdiction over the program or activity requests the evaluation.

(c) The Comptroller General shall develop and recommend to Congress ways to evaluate a program or activity the Government carries out under existing law.

(d)

(1) On request of a committee of Congress, the Comptroller General shall help the committee to—

(A) develop a statement of legislative goals and ways to assess and report program performance related to the goals, including recommended ways to assess performance, information to be reported, responsibility for reporting, frequency of reports, and feasibility of pilot testing; and

(B) assess program evaluations prepared by and for an agency.

(2) On request of a member of Congress, the Comptroller General shall give the member a copy of the material the Comptroller General compiles in carrying out this subsection that has been released by the committee for which the material was compiled.

Source

(Pub. L. 97–258, Sept. 13, 1982, 96 Stat. 893.)

Historical and Revision Notes
Revised Section	Source (U.S. Code)	Source (Statutes at Large)
717(a)	31:1157.	Oct. 26, 1970, Pub. L. 91–510, § 207, 84 Stat. 1168.
717(b)	31:1154(a).	Oct. 26, 1970, Pub. L. 91–510, § 204(a)–(c), 84 Stat. 1168; restated July 12, 1974, Pub. L. 93–344, § 702(a), 88 Stat. 326.
717(c)	31:1154(c).
717(d)	31:1154(b).

Subsection (a) restates the source provisions because of section 701 of the revised title and for consistency with section 101 of the revised title.

In subsection (b), before clause (1), the word “evaluate” is substituted for “review and evaluate” to eliminate unnecessary words. In clause (3), the words “a committee of Congress” are substituted for “any committee of the House of Representatives or the Senate, or any joint committee of the two Houses” for consistency and to eliminate unnecessary words.

In subsection (c), the word “evaluate” is substituted for “review and evaluation” to eliminate unnecessary words.

In subsection (d)(1), before clause (A), the words “committee of Congress” are substituted for “committee of either House or any joint committee of the two Houses” for consistency and to eliminate unnecessary words. In clause (A), the words “objectives and”, “actual”, and “but are not limited to” are omitted as surplus. In clause (B), the words “analyzing and” and “or evaluation studies” are omitted as surplus.

In subsection (d)(2), the word “Congress” is substituted for “either House” for clarity. The words “statement or other” are omitted as surplus.

The table below lists the classification updates, since Jan. 3, 2012, for this section. Updates to a broader range of sections may be found at the update page for containing chapter, title, etc.

The most recent Classification Table update that we have noticed was Friday, May 3, 2013

An empty table indicates that we see no relevant changes listed in the classification tables. If you suspect that our system may be missing something, please double-check with the Office of the Law Revision Counsel.

How To Use

Multiple entries for a section are listed most recent first, within the section.

The Session Year indicates which session of Congress was responsible for the changes classified. The Congress number forms the first part of the Public Law number; each Congress has two sessions.

Abbreviations used in the Description of Change column:

An empty field implies a standard amendment.
"new" means a new section or new note, or all new text of an existing section or note.
"nt" means note.
"nt [tbl]" means note [table].
"prec" means preceding.
"fr" means a transfer from another section.
"to" means a transfer to another section.
"omitted" means the section is omitted.
"repealed" means the section is repealed.
"nt ed change" and "ed change" - See the Editorial Classification Change Table [pdf].

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The Statutes at Large references have been rendered in the format used as page numbers in the Public Law web pages to which we link, to facilitate copy-paste into browser "find on this (web) page" tools. We are still working on a more direct link facility.

For serious comparison work, we suggest copying all or a portion of the Public Law text into your favorite text editor, for convenient content traversal and window control.

Sections with change type "new" are a special case, still under development. All are now listed, at the title level only.

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General Reference

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You can look for information about what it is and is not, which titles are positive law, the schedule of Supplements, etc. Under download you can find the source data we use here (GPO locator files), as well as, PDF files that look just like the paper books (these may be rather large).

Refer to the Thomas site for changes that have not yet made it into the classification tables.

31 USC	Description of Change	Session Year	Public Law	Statutes at Large

31 USC § 717 - Evaluating programs and activities of the United States Government

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