Federal Financial Transparency

Floor Speech

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss a topic not debated nearly enough here on the Senate floor--making the Federal Government more accountable and transparent.

Today, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, under the leadership of Chairman Carper and Ranking Member Coburn, passed important legislation that will expand Federal financial transparency and accountability in many important ways.

I sponsored this legislation--the Digital Accountability and Transparency, or DATA, Act--because it will significantly reform the way agencies report Federal spending, and for the first time provide checkbook-type spending data from across the Federal Government.

The Federal Government spends more than $3.7 trillion each year, with more than $1 trillion being distributed as awards. However, the public cannot clearly track where this money goes. We currently have a Web site--USASpending.gov--that is supposed to show taxpayers and policymakers where the money goes, but it is not accurate.

Most States already have an online portal so that taxpayers can track where their dollars are spent, and it is long past time for the Federal Government to move into the 21st century and adopt a similar system.

At a recent hearing of the Budget Committee Task Force on Government Performance that I chair, it was reported that over $900 billion of direct assistance data on USASpending.gov was misreported in 2011 alone.

No wonder the public has such little confidence in government--we can't even tell them where their tax money goes.

It seems to me that the data collected by the budget shops, the accountants, the procurement offices, and grant makers all needs to be combined, reconciled, and then presented in a relevant and transparent way.

These various systems should be able to work together based on financial standards so that policymakers and the public can track the full cycle of Federal spending clearly.

The DATA Act will help us move in that direction by making four specific improvements that I want to highlight today.

First, it creates transparency for all Federal funds. DATA will expand USAspending.gov to include spending data for all Federal funds by appropriation, Federal agency, program, function, and maintain the current reporting for Federal awards like contracts, grants, and loans. This is important because there is currently no place online to find and compare all government spending.

This expansion of USASpending.gov will allow policymakers and taxpayers to track Federal funds more clearly and to more easily link spending to budget priorities.

Second, the DATA Act sets government-wide financial data standards. Currently there are no consistent standards for reporting financial data to USAspending.gov, and it makes much of the data confusing and unreliable--especially if you want to compile and compare spending from multiple Federal agencies.

DATA tasks the Department of Treasury with establishing consistent financial data standards for the Federal agencies to support the USAspending.gov website.

Third, the DATA Act will actually reduce recipient reporting requirements. I have long been concerned about the compliance costs for the recipients of Federal funds. It appears that all the overlapping systems are frustrating and also create additional waste--especially for State and local governments.

For example, many universities file similar financial reports, multiple times, to multiple agencies on an annual, quarterly and monthly basis. If all this reporting redundancy were streamlined, we could direct more money to programs and less to administrative costs.

This legislation requires the Office of Management and Budget to review the existing Federal award recipient financial reporting to reduce compliance costs based on the new financial data standards.

Finally, the DATA Act will improve data quality. The inspectors general at each agency will be required to provide reports on the quality and accuracy of the financial data provided to USASpending.gov. Then GAO will then create a government-wide assessment on data quality and accuracy based on the inspectors generals' findings.

Being able to follow the money is critically important to running our government in a more efficient way and getting the best value for the taxpayer. The DATA Act will help us take steps in that direction, and that is why passing it is so important.

I want to close today by saying thanks again to my colleagues for passing the DATA Act out of committee. I am also pleased to be working with my friend, Republican Rob Portman of Ohio, as my Senate cosponsor of the DATA Act. We will continue working to make sure this important bipartisan legislation becomes law this year.

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