By ANGELA CANTERBURY
Call me rosy, but things were more like they ought to be today in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. A change of pace from the far-too-frequent political arm wrestling between Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD), today there were no accusations of politicization or shenanigans over policies and procedures. The YouTube video from this markup would look more like the last 20 minutes of a Love Boat episode, compared with recent clips.
Today, Issa and Cummings repeatedly exchanged thank yous and expressed support for one another’s proposals. Democratic amendments were offered and approved, or commitments from the Chairman to work together on the proposals before House consideration were made and accepted. It was bipartisan kumbaya. This is a welcome relief to the public rancor between the leaders that has sometimes spilled over to spoil opportunities for some of their earnest and talented staff to work together towards common goals. I hope it is a sign of things to come.
But most importantly—they actually did something today (not just naming post offices, though there was some of that, too). And what they did together is pretty good stuff. Today they passed two transparency bills that will make the government far more accountable to the American people.
The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, also know as the DATA Act (H.R. 2146), seeks to revolutionize the way we track how our tax dollars are spent. It will allow for unprecedented transparency in federal spending and create a board to ensure streamlined reporting practices and tools for fighting waste, fraud, and abuse. As we wrote last week, this bill builds on the successes of USAspending.gov and is modeled on the Recovery Act’s Accountability and Transparency Board (RAT Board) and Recovery.gov. It also codifies President Obama’s recent executive order that similarly creates a board to replicate the transparency and accountability in the Recovery Act spending and extrapolate it to all federal spending. Current RAT Board Chair, Earl Devaney, who was just tapped by President Obama to lead the new Government Accountability and Transparency Board, has strongly endorsed the DATA Act.
Imagine the public and the government being able to effectively track how the government is spending our money so that waste is detected and corrected, fraud is pre-empted, and abuse is not tolerated. Imagine being able to do a simple search on how much we are spending and where, and get real answers.
But however transformative it is, this bill, like any other, is not perfect.
It was notably improved in several ways since we raised concerns along with OMB Watch and the Sunlight Foundation, and after negotiations began between Issa and Cummings. The bill now ensures that sub-sub-to-infinity recipients must report. It also clarifies that prime federal award recipients indentify all sub-awards. POGO also is very pleased to see that the General Services Administration (GSA) must apply the FAST Board’s data elements and standards to the Integrated Acquisition Environment, connecting contractor performance data with federal spending data.
Cummings’ proposals to require the Board to do rulemaking with notice and comment and to vote on testimonial subpoenas were both incorporated into the manager’s amendment. Issa also added reforms to strengthen the authority and effectiveness of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) at Cummings’ request. In addition, Issa announced that two of Cummings’ bills—one to amend the Presidential Records Act and another to reform the Federal Advisory Committee Act—would be considered by the Committee at a later date. Yet another peace sign, after the Chairman had previously refused to consider the omnibus that contained these proposals, H.R. 1144, “The Transparency and Openness in Government Act.”
In markup, a few more improvements were made by other members. An amendment to the DATA Act offered by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) was adopted to make it a priority of the Board to investigate and review sole-sourced or non-competed contracts. Speier noted that one-third of federal contracts, or $177 billion, are sole-sourced or not competed. It also will be a priority for the Board to audit and investigate contractors violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, as offered by Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT). Happily, the Committee also approved an amendment by Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) to direct the Board to study the feasibility of incorporating tax expenditures into the platform. POGO agrees that we shouldn’t exclude the more than $1 trillion in tax breaks from transparency, but since integrating this data could be complex, a study is a good start. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) offered an amendment to add more contracting expertise to the Board (another POGO recommendation), but withdrew after Chairman Issa expressed concern about specific individuals being named, and committed to work with Connolly to get there another way.
Still, there are lingering problems that must be addressed. During today’s markup, Cummings offered amendments to safeguard civil liberties for subpoena recipients, improve the Board Chair selection process, and direct the Board to consult with and direct OMB to issue guidance on Board rules. Issa agreed with Cummings’ concerns and pledged to work toward resolution on each issue before advancing the bill. Cummings accepted, and withdrew his amendments.
However, the two thorniest outstanding issues to be resolved are the seven-year sunset provision and the repeal of the legislation’s predecessor, Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (or FFATA—a then-Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK, bill), which created USAspending.gov. The concern is that if Congress does the wrong thing in seven years and does not re-authorize the legislation, then we will loose even the transparency we have now, however imperfect. There is an easy fix for this, as suggested by our friends at OMB Watch: transfer all of the reporting and functions of the Board over to OMB when/if the sunset happens.
The other concern is that all of the data points required by FFATA be captured and available in the new platforms. That should be clearly spelled out in the bill, instead of leaving it up to chance and the discretion of the Board. Though these were not raised in the Committee meeting, we have been given strong assurances that Issa and Cummings wish to resolve these issues before the bill is offered on the House floor.
The sunset of the bill is responsive to House protocols, which stipulate that new appropriations or spending bills or the establishing of a new agency, office or program must sunset no later than seven years later. Notably, these are not House rules, but protocols:
These protocols are intended to guide the majority leadership in the scheduling and consideration of legislation on the House floor. While they do not govern the introduction of legislation, good-faith compliance with protocols will be necessary if such legislation is scheduled for the floor.
The Senate version of the bill, recently introduced by Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), does not include the sunset. We will work to see that the final bill sent to the President’s desk does not have an expiration date.
Also today, the majority and minority came to agreement on a bill to put the thousands of reports issued by agencies every year as mandated by Congress in one central, searchable location—an idea POGO has long supported. Rep. Quigley offered the Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act, H.R. 1974, with at least one change requested by Chairman Issa designating the Government Printing Office as the host (instead of OMB).
These bills still have to pass the House and wind their way through the Senate, but not a bad day for good government, folks.
Angela Canterbury is POGO's Director of Public Policy.
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