Improving Federal Financial Management Act

This bill updates how federal agencies plan, track, and report money. It replaces the old 5-year plan with a 4-year plan and tells the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to set clear goals and work with expert councils to build it. Agencies then have 90 days to write their own plan to follow it, make it public, and include ways to measure results. These plans must connect what programs cost with what they deliver and should cut duplicate systems and share services when it makes sense.

The bill also strengthens oversight and transparency. It gives agency Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) a clearer job: lead budgeting, planning, risk, internal controls, and financial systems; tie costs to performance; and coordinate with other senior leaders. If the CFO job is empty, the Deputy CFO serves as acting CFO. Every year, with the President’s budget, OMB must send Congress a status report on agency progress, audit results, and any agencies not meeting financial system rules. Each agency head must also check and report each year on how well their financial controls work, and auditors must test those controls.

• Who is affected: Federal agencies and their CFOs and deputies; OMB; agency heads; auditors.
• What changes: A governmentwide 4-year plan; 90-day agency plans; public reporting; clear metrics; linking cost and performance; cutting duplicate systems and sharing services; yearly status reports; stronger internal control checks and audits.
• When: OMB issues the 4-year plan and then sends a status report each year with the federal budget; agencies have 90 days after the OMB plan to submit their plans.