Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I am pleased to rise in support of S. 994, the DATA Act. This is a landmark piece of bipartisan and bicameral legislation that will change the way the government operates.

I applaud the sponsor of S. 994, Senator Mark Warner, who put a lot of passion and hard work into this legislation; as did the principal sponsor here, whom you have just heard from, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, who put considerable energy into this bill over more than one session; as well as Senate Chairman Tom Carper of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee; and House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, who worked very diligently to get us to the House floor today.

The DATA Act will provide the public with information about how the government is spending money, pure and simple. This will hold agencies accountable for their spending, and it will result in a more effective government.

On April 8, 2014, the Comptroller General of the United States, Gene Dodaro, testified in support of this legislation. Here is what he said: ``I think the DATA Act is one of the biggest single things that could be done in order to provide more transparency on the costs of these program activities.''

The Comptroller General went on to say that the DATA Act would ``standardize the data''--and that is the operative word, ``standardize the data''--``so that you would be able to compare data across agencies, which you can't do right now. It would also provide more consistent information and at a lower program spending level that we found to be a big obstacle in us identifying additional savings opportunities.''

The DATA Act will require the Secretary of the Treasury and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to establish government-wide data standards. This will improve the quality of the data that agencies make available about their spending.

Under this bill, spending data will be available through a single Web site. The bill will require that spending data be available for each agency and each program activity in a searchable, downloadable format.

The DATA Act is a bipartisan bill across both Chambers that will improve transparency and, in turn, make government work better. I urge every Member to support this legislation.

I would like, again, to express my strong support for this bill and to thank Chairman Issa for his many efforts to get it passed and through committee more than once.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source