Accountability & Transparency Legislation Unanimously Passes House

WASHINGTON, DC — On a unanimous voice vote, the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (H.R. 2146) was today approved by the House of Representatives.

“Today’s strong bipartisan showing is a major win for transparency and accountability,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the bill’s lead Republican sponsor. “The lavish spending by GSA in Las Vegas has again highlighted the extent of waste and excess that occurs in government.  The DATA Act will create accountability by exposing waste and allowing Americans to examine the details of how the federal is spending their tax dollars.”

The legislation’s lead cosponsor is Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., ranking member of the Oversight Committee.

The bill establishes strong reporting standards for federal spending information – building upon the proven “Recovery Operations Center” and the landmark USASpending.gov – to build a single electronic system that combines spending information from agencies, the Treasury, and recipients of federal funds.

The DATA Act also caps non-military federal travel spending at 80% of FY2010 levels and limits the number and size of taxpayer funded government conferences- cutting travel spending by hundreds of million per year.