COST Act

This Act may be cited as the Cost Openness and Spending Transparency Act of 2026 or the COST Act.
Subchapter III of chapter 13 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
In this section, the term agency means—
an Executive agency, as defined in section 105 of title 5; and
an independent regulatory agency, as defined in section 3502 of title 44.
An agency and an individual or entity (including a State or local government and a recipient of a Federal research grant) carrying out a program, project, or activity that is, in whole or in part, carried out using Federal funds shall clearly state in any statement, press release, request for proposals, bid solicitation, or other document describing the program, project, or activity, other than a communication containing not more than 280 characters—
the percentage of the total costs of the program, project, or activity which will be financed with Federal funds;
the dollar amount of the Federal funds made available for the program, project, or activity; and
the percentage of the total costs of, and dollar amount for, the program, project, or activity that will be financed by nongovernmental sources.
An individual or entity carrying out a program, project, or activity that is, in whole or in part, carried out using Federal funds shall, as part of the performance progress reporting regarding the program, project, or activity, include a certification indicating whether the individual or entity complied with the disclosure requirements under subsection (b) with respect to communications containing not more than 280 characters relating to the program, project, or activity.
The Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall annually—
review a random sampling of public communications issued by agencies and recipients of Federal funds for compliance with the disclosure requirements under subsection (b); and
make publicly available the findings of the review under paragraph (1).
Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this section, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall make available to the public a mechanism to anonymously report communications that do not comply with the disclosure requirements under subsection (b), which shall require that such a report include—
the noncompliant communication or, if publicly available, the location of the noncompliant communication; and
identifying information regarding the program, project, or activity that is, in whole or in part, carried out using Federal funds.
The table of sections for subchapter III of chapter 13 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: