As the presidential race heats up and both major parties’ nominees trade barbs over virtually every issue, there is one area where Sens.Barack Obama, D-Ill., and John McCain, R-Ariz., agree: Taxpayers deserve to track how government spends their tax dollars.
Two years after the passage of the Federal Funding Accountability Act of 2006, the original Senate co-sponsors of that landmark legislation, Obama, McCain, Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican, and Thomas Carper, the Delaware Democrat, have once again come together to co-sponsor follow-up legislation.
The 2006 law resulted in the creation of USAspending.gov. Beyond giving taxpayers a first good glimpse at federal spending information, the law has inspired state and local governments to emulate this concept of transparency in government finance, leading to the adoption of legislation in 11 states so far and several governors taking executive action to start similar online databases for government expenditures.
The recently introduced Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act would reinforce and improve the 2006 law by codifying into law several features previously not required but voluntarily incorporated into USAspending.gov, such as competitive sourcing information.
It also requires more details on each expenditure, such as the expending agency, department, subagency or suboffice and whether the award is the result of a legislative mandate, set-aside or other criteria.
Most importantly, the bill requires the inclusion of a copy in both portable document format and searchable text format of the request for proposals, the announcement of the award, the contract and the scope of the work performed.
While STAFS is a big step in the right direction, several additional changes would make it even stronger:
In its current form, the legislation extends the requirement to disclose the wording of contracts to all contracts, subcontracts, purchase orders, task orders, lease agreements and assignments and delivery orders.
This provision could be strengthened by applying it to all federal awards as defined by the 2006 law and thus be extended to grants, subgrants, loans, awards, cooperative agreements and other forms of financial assistance.
Adding the explicit requirement to include the agreements or terms of any award would help clarify this provision and enhance the level of disclosure.
It would also be prudent to eliminate the $25,000 threshold for disclosure included in the 2006 law.
While there may not be many contracts under the amount of $25,000 at the federal level, this is not the case at the state level, where this provision has been used as an excuse to set an unreasonably high disclosure threshold for state-level spending transparency bills.
Removing the threshold could be instrumental in paving the way for greater fiscal transparency in the states.
While the focus of STAFS is to shed a light on recipients of federal funds rather than functions of federal spending, true and comprehensive fiscal transparency would warrant the extension of the disclosure requirements in the bill to agency outlays like salaries, office supplies and travel expenses searchable by obligation and object class, as well as budget function.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced legislation to this effect earlier this year, inspired by Texas State Comptroller Susan Combs’ Web portal for state expenditures (http://window.state.tx.us/comptrol/expendlist/cashdrill.php).
Lastly, it would be advisable to incorporate in the Web site a separate tab for all earmarks requested by members of Congress and signed into law, as well as for executive branch earmarks, including all from both appropriations and authorization earmarks. Earmark sponsors should also be noted.
In the wake of the “Bridge to Nowhere” and “Coconut Road” earmarks, taxpayers have become increasingly sensitive and skeptical about congressional spending practices, as reflected in the lowest approval ratings of Congress in history.
Particularly as they struggle to fill up their gas tanks and pay their grocery bills, taxpayers ought to know exactly where their tax dollars end up.
Since they fund every government expenditure, they deserve the most comprehensive level of fiscal accountability from their elected officials.
Congress should seize the opportunity to swiftly pass STAFS with the additions suggested above.
Sandra Fabry is executive director of the Center for Fiscal Accountability, a new project of Americans for Tax Reform dedicated to promoting increased transparency in government spending and fiscal restraint.
