PRESS RELEASE
-For Immediate Release-
May 22, 2013

Contact: Brian Gumm, bgumm@foreffectivegov.org, 202-683-4812

Center for Effective Government Supports Reintroduction of the DATA Act

WASHINGTON, May 22, 2013—The Center for Effective Government welcomed the reintroduction of a revised version of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, or DATA Act, in both the House and Senate this week. The Center for Effective Government commended Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Rob Portman (R-OH) and Reps. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Elijah Cummings (D-MD) for working together on this important legislation. The DATA Act will provide an unprecedented level of transparency and create critical new tools to track and analyze federal spending and hold officials accountable for their decisions.

Katherine McFate, President and CEO of the Center for Effective Government, made the following statement:

In this fiscal and political environment, it is critical to know how public money is being spent. We need to know which agencies and managers are effectively using their resources to meet public needs. Passage of the DATA Act would be a good step toward improving the public's ability to tracks federal funds and activities and help citizens better understand how the federal government works. It doesn't address all the problems in USAspending.gov, but it would be a huge improvement.

Last year, a version of the DATA Act passed the House unanimously, but while it had bipartisan support in the Senate, it did not pass in that chamber before the session ended.

The Center for Effective Government has been a leader in advocating for greater transparency in federal spending through greater standardization and utilization of information technology tools to help achieve greater public participation in and understanding of how federal dollars are spent.

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