Tap any paragraph to write a margin note. Your notes collect in the Desk below the text and file under cases with @. The side-by-side margin rail opens on a larger screen.

Code · BILL · 119th Congress · S. 3902 (Introduced in Senate) — To provide for auditable financial statements for the Department of Defense, and for other purposes. · Sec. 2

Sec. 2. Findings

457 words·~2 min read·/bill/119/s/3902/is/section-2

A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.

Congress makes the following findings: Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution of the United States requires all agencies of the Federal Government, including the Department of Defense, to publish a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money . Section 3515(a) of title 31, United States Code, requires the agencies of the Federal Government, including the Department of Defense, to present auditable financial statements beginning not later than March 1, 2003.
The Department has not complied with this law. The Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 (title VIII of division A of Public Law 104–208 ; 31 U.S.C. 3512 note) requires financial systems acquired by the Federal Government, including the Department of Defense, to be able to provide information to leaders to manage and control the cost of Government. The Department has not complied with this law. The financial management of the Department of Defense has been on the High-Risk list of the Government Accountability Office, which means that the Department is not consistently able to control costs; ensure basic accountability; anticipate future costs and claims on the budget; measure performance; maintain funds control; [and] prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse .
In 2005, the Department of Defense created a Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness
(FIAR)Plan, overseen by a directorate within the office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), to improve Department business processes with the goal of producing timely, reliable, and accurate financial information that could generate an audit-ready annual financial statement. In December 2005, that directorate, known as the FIAR Directorate, issued the first of a series of semiannual reports on the status of the Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness Plan. Section 1003 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 ( Public Law 111–84 ; 123 Stat. 2439) required regular status reports on the Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness Plan described in paragraph (5), and codified as a statutory requirement the goal of the Plan in ensuring that Department of Defense financial statements were validated as ready for audit not later than September 30, 2017. In addition, section 1005 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 ( Public Law 112–239 ) required that the statement of budgetary resources of the Department of Defense be validated as ready for audit by not later than September 30, 2014. The Department of Defense did not meet these deadlines. At a June 2025 hearing in the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate, the Department’s Acting Comptroller committed to audit-ready budget statements for the Department of War by 2028 by stating, Within the next three years, under the secretary's guidance, the remainder of the department will achieve the clean audit opinion. .
Connectionstraces to 1
4 references not yet in our index
  • Pub. L. 104-208
  • Pub. L. 111-84
  • 123 Stat. 2439
  • Pub. L. 112-239
Citation graph
cites case law
Sec. 2
Findings
Pub. L.Pub. L. 104-208
Pub. L.Pub. L. 111-84
Stat.123 Stat. 2439
Pub. L.Pub. L. 112-239
Cites 5Cited by 0 across 0 sources
★   the supreme law of the land   ★
Don't Tread on Me
E Pluribus Unum — out of many, one

"If you don't know your rights, you don't have any."

Marginalia · a citizen's law index
A research desk, not legal advice. Always read the cited source before relying on a summary.
Questions or an issue? support@self-law.org
disclaimerMarginalia is a research index, not a law firm. Nothing on this site is legal, tax, or financial advice and no attorney–client relationship is formed by using it. Statutes, regulations, and case law change; summaries, search results, AI output, and member posts may be incomplete, out of date, or wrong. Any interpretation drawn from material on this site should be validated by a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction before you act on it.