Cash Management Improvement Act of 1990 (H.R. 4279)

GAO discussed proposed legislation intended to: (1) make changes necessary to improve federal cash management; and (2) help to ensure equity between the federal government and states in funding state-administered programs. GAO noted that the legislation: (1) would improve federal cash management; (2) address a long-standing cash management problem concerning state-administered programs; (3) would amend the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act and establish a set of intergovernmental cash management policies and practices that would govern the exchange of funds and ensure that neither the federal government nor the state would benefit or suffer financially as a result of cash transfers; (4) would apply to all federal programs, with a 2-year delay before implementation of new interest payment procedures; (5) differed from similar legislation by requiring that the Department of the Treasury enter into an agreement with each state on how to implement the new requirements, but did not address Treasury and state disagreements; (6) represented the reasoned judgment of federal and state task forces and would resolve a long-standing point of contention between the federal government and the states; and (7) would help establish equity in cash management between the states and the federal government.