If you were one of the many taxpayers scrambling to meet the recent tax deadlines, the question of just how the government spends the money it takes in probably crossed your mind at some point. The goal of the recently launched Data Transparency Coalition is to get data on federal spending, as well as regulatory filings and legislative actions available online, in a standard format.
Even when the government does publish such data, it often lacks consistency and can’t be electronically read, says Hudson Hollister, the Coalition’s founder and executive director. As a result, efforts to search the data to identify spending patterns or instances of waste, fraud or abuse are more difficult than they need to be — if not pointless.
So far, the Coalition has picked up about a dozen corporate backers, including Microsoft, RR Donnelly and Teradata. Hollister previously served as counsel to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The Coalition’s board chair is Earl Devaney, who previously chaired the Recovery Board.
Even when the government does publish such data, it often lacks consistency and can’t be electronically read, says Hudson Hollister, the Coalition’s founder and executive director. As a result, efforts to search the data to identify spending patterns or instances of waste, fraud or abuse are more difficult than they need to be — if not pointless.
So far, the Coalition has picked up about a dozen corporate backers, including Microsoft, RR Donnelly and Teradata. Hollister previously served as counsel to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The Coalition’s board chair is Earl Devaney, who previously chaired the Recovery Board.
Among the initiatives the Coalition is backing is H.R. 2146, or the DATA Act of 2011; the title stands for the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act. Introduced last summer by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the DATA Act would require every person, governmental entity or government corporation to report at least quarterly, and in a common format, to a Federal Accountability and Spending Transparency Board established by the Act on its use of the funds. (The Act exempts individuals who receive less than $100,000 in a year, assuming no individual transaction exceeds $24,999.) The bill now is with the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the Library of Congress reports.
Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced a companion bill in the Senate, S. 1222, last summer. It has yet to go to committee.
The Coalition, along with the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Financial Research, also has thrown its weight behind an ongoing global initiative to establish Legal Entity Identifiers for businesses. “An LEI is a unique number that would identify a legally distinct entity that engages in financial market activities,” according to this Treasury release. Currently, no universal identification scheme for legal entities across markets and jurisdictions exists. That’s made it difficult for both companies themselves and regulators to determine exposure to failing institutions.
In addition, the Coalition has given its support to the Financial Industry Transparency Act, which was introduced in 2010, also by Rep. Issa. As its title suggests, the legislation would establish data standards for the financial information regularly submitted by financial institutions to government agencies. The Act is with the House Financial Services committee.
In a blog post announcing the launch of the Coalition, executive director Hollister writer, “Our government’s failure to deploy data standards has real costs. Because federal spending information isn’t standardized, waste and fraud go undetected. Taxpayers cannot watch their money being spent and inspectors general can’t use analytics to find corruption. And there is no way to tie performance information to spending levels.”
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