On Monday Senator Mark Warner's magnum opus piece of legislation, the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support. The bill now heads to President Obama's desk to be signed into federal law.
Republican Representative Darrell Issa of California called the DATA Act “without a doubt the most important transparency reform,” that he has seen since being House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman. “The DATA Act is but the first shot of a technology revolution that will transform the way we govern,” he said in a statement.
The DATA Act requires a standardized approach to the way the government reports federal spending, allowing for greater transparency between agencies and making it easier for citizens to track government spending in their own communities.
Some major changes the legislation will implement when signed into law include:
Expanding current reporting guidelines to include financial information from appropriation legislation, federal agencies, sub-agencies, and program specific activities, as well as placing all government contracting spending, grants, and activity in one place on USASpending.gov.
Creating a government-wide standard for financial reporting, making it much easier to track the flow of money, and see the types of spending agency to agency.
Requiring inspectors general across the government to report on the accuracy of financial data in every agency, and find ways to continue to improve accuracy of financial reporting.
“At a time when the government is running trillion-dollar deficits on top of a record $17 trillion debt, Washington should be doing all it can to track how taxpayer dollars are spent. Better visibility and public disclosure of our government’s $3.5 trillion in yearly spending is critical to identifying and eliminating waste,” said Republican Senator Ron Portman in a statement. “This bill would reform and significantly improve USASpending.gov by strengthening federal financial transparency, empowering taxpayers to see how their money is spent, and providing a better tool for eliminating waste, fraud and abuse, and I am pleased that today’s vote has brought it one step closer to passage.”
In January the White House leaked documents showing that they actually wanted to roll back some of the requirements in the DATA Act, preferring an open data platform to uniform reporting standards. Senator Warner however, refused to water down his version of the bill, and considering the bipartisan support and bicameral passage, the White House will likely sign on.
Warner has been an advocate for government transparency since taking office. He serves as chairman of the Budget Committee’s bipartisan Government Performance Task Force, which works to improve efficiency and performance of federal programs. In 2010 he was the lead sponsor behind the successful passage of the Government Performance and Modernization Act, which requires agencies to report annually their best and worst performing programs for review.
