Truthfulness, Responsibility, and Accountability in Contracting Act of 2003

Truthfulness, Responsibility, and Accountability in Contracting Act of 2003 - Requires the head of each Federal agency to submit to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget a certification that a contracting function decision was based on a public-private competition and that the agency: (1) has established a centralized reporting system; (2) is not managing Federal employees by any arbitrary limitations; and (3) is reviewing work performed by contractors, recompeting or contracting in work when appropriate, and subjecting to public-private competition a certain number of Federal employee and contractor positions.

Prohibits the head of an agency from entering into any contract for the performance of services until the Director, after reviewing the certification required, determines that the agency is making substantial progress toward meeting requirements under this Act. Allows the Director to waive the applicability of this Act for national security and other specified reasons.

Requires that any decision by an agency to either transfer the performance of a function from Federal employees to a contractor or to assign to a contractor the performance of a function not currently performed by Federal employees to be based on the results of a public-private competition process that formally compares the costs of Federal employee versus contractor performance.

Directs the Comptroller General to monitor agency compliance with this Act. Authorizes: (1) the Secretaries of Defense and of Homeland Security to waive the application of the public-private competition requirements under specified circumstances; and (2) the Director to carry out a limited pilot program regarding the use of alternative public-private competition processes.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov