CAT Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The CAT Act creates a public-contract transparency rule for public housing agencies. Within one year, HUD must require every public housing agency to disclose on its own website material information for each agency contract. The required disclosure includes the goods or services purchased, the vendor, when the contract was solicited, the bids or quotes the agency sought, and the agency official who solicited the contract. The bill is narrow, but it changes procurement visibility for public housing contracts by moving information that may be scattered in procurement records into a public web posting requirement.
Who Benefits and How
Public housing tenants, local watchdog groups, journalists, competing vendors, and HUD oversight staff benefit because contract spending, vendor selection, solicitation timing, and responsible officials become easier to inspect. Honest vendors benefit from a clearer view of future public housing procurement opportunities and potential favoritism risks.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Public housing agency procurement staff bear the main burden because they must collect contract metadata and keep website disclosures current. Vendors doing business with public housing agencies lose some confidentiality around contract awards and solicitation history. HUD staff must write and enforce the disclosure requirement.
Key Provisions
- Requires HUD to impose an online contract-disclosure rule on every public housing agency within one year.
- Requires each agency website to identify the goods or services purchased under each contract.
- Requires public posting of the vendor, solicitation date, bids or quotes solicited, and responsible agency official.
- Expands procurement visibility for public housing tenants, oversight groups, and competing vendors.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires public housing agencies to publish material contract information online, including vendors, goods or services, solicitation timing, bid outreach, and the official responsible for solicitation.
Key Policy Areas
Housing, Government Transparency, Procurement
Primary Purpose
Requires public housing agencies to publish material contract information online, including vendors, goods or services, solicitation timing, bid outreach, and the official responsible for solicitation.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Public housing tenants
- Competing housing vendors
- Local government watchdogs
- HUD oversight staff
Identified Costs
- Public housing agency procurement staff
- Public housing vendors
- HUD program staff
Sponsors
Ritchie Torres
D-NY | Primary Sponsor
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Torres of New York introduced the following bill; which …
Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Public housing agency procurement staff
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology