DATA Act Would Increase Transparency & Accountability for Taxpayers Today, the House will take action on the bipartisan Digital Accountability and Transparency (DATA) Act (H.R. 2061), legislation aimed at making Congress and other areas of government more open and accountable to taxpayers. This proposal is grounded in a common-sense standard: families and small businesses have to account for every dollar they spend to make ends meet, and government should be no different. In that spirit, the DATA Act “will make federal spending data publicly available and easily accessible, as well as establish government-wide financial data standards,” says Oversight & Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA). By making it easier to track exactly how and where taxpayer dollars are being spent, the bill will also facilitate efforts to cut spending and help create a better environment for job creation in America. At a hearing held by the Oversight & Government Reform Committee, Sunlight Foundation policy counsel Daniel Schuman called the DATA Act “a revolutionary transparency measure” that will help address major shortcomings in the “consistency, completeness, and timeliness of how spending information is reported to the public.” The legislation “would dramatically improve the ability of the public to discover how […]
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