The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, also known as the DATA Act, is poised to provide unprecedented insight into federal spending. After recently passing the U.S. House, the DATA Act awaits a vote on the U.S. Senate Floor.
The DATA Act would amend the Federal Funding and Accountability Act of 2006 to make major, and much-needed, improvements to USASpending.gov, the website that tracks federal government grants and contracts. The DATA Act would require common reporting standards for all federal agencies, with unique identifiers. It would also stipulate that all data be machine readable, and include checkbook level expenditure data.
For the many constituents we have worked with who are frustrated with the difficulty of accessing basic grant and contract award information from the USAspending website, the DATA Act provides some hope that if the U.S. Treasury inherits the responsibility for leading this transparency effort, the result will be improved usability of the site to access information about tax dollars being spent.
You can view our recent recorded webinar on Federal Financial Management Transparency with guest speaker Christina Ho of the U.S. Treasury.