DATA Act Passes the House, Statement from Sunlight Foundation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 25, 2012
Contact: Liz Bartolomeo 202-742-1520 x226
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives voted yes on the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act). The Sunlight Foundation issued the follow statement on the bill’s passage:
“The DATA Act will transform how we are able to monitor government spending online. We’ve said time and time again that transparency is not a partisan issue, and we are proud to see there was broad support across the aisle for the bill. The DATA Act will increase transparency for federal spending data and expand when, where and how it is available online,” said Ellen Miller, co-founder and executive director of the Sunlight Foundation.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced a Senate version of the bill and Sunlight encourages its passage, as well.
Even before the DATA Act was introduced in the House in June 2011, Sunlight called for a better way for federal agencies and their grant recipients to report their spending online.
Sunlight’s Clearspending project identified more than $1.3 trillion in misreported federal spending. The DATA Act is intended to solve problems like those identified by Clearspending by establishing an independent body to track all federal spending on a single website and requiring the use of consistent government-wide data standards.
For more information about the DATA Act from the Sunlight Foundation visit our blog.
