The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act) will open and standardize the federal government’s spending data. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, D-Md., are cosponsors of H.R. 2061. Companion legislation, S. 994, is cosponsored by Senator Mark Warner, D-Va., and Senator Rob Portman, R-Ohio. On May 22nd, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee unanimously approved H.R. 2061.
In an essay published earlier this year, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, lead sponsor of the DATA Act, wrote about the power of opening up federal spending data and making it useful.
KEY DOCUMENTS
Text of H.R. 2061- the DATA ActSection-by-Section Summary of H.R. 2061
Summary of Changes between current DATA Act and version passed unanimously by the House in 2012.
Summary of Changes H.R. 2061 makes to the Federal Funds Accountability and Transparency Act.
DATA ACT DEMONSTRATION DAY
To understand the many public benefits that will result from adoption of the DATA Act, the Committee invited outside groups to demonstrate technology that could be applied to structured federal spending information currently in use by states, localities, and the private sector.
On May 16, 2013, the Committee partnered with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to host 27 non-governmental institutions, from private companies like Google to not-for-profit think tanks like the Cato Institute, for live educational demonstrations.
To see what the event looked like, you can watch a video here. For a memo circulated by Chairman Issa to his colleagues discussing DATA Demonstration Day click here.