Another Word For It Patrick Durusau on Topic Maps and Semantic Diversity

March 4, 2013

$1.55 Trillion 
in 
Federal
 Spending 
Misreported
 in 2011

Filed under: Government,Government Data — Patrick Durusau @ 11:30 am

With
 $1.55
 Trillion 
in 
Federal
 Spending 
Misreported
 in 
2011,
 Data
Transparency
 Coalition
 Renews
 Call
 for
 Congressional
 Action

Updating Senator Dirksen for inflation: “A trillion here, a trillon there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.” (Attributed to Senator Dirksen but not documented.)

From the press release:

The Data
 Transparency
 Coalition,
 the
 only 
group 
unifying 
the
 technology
 industry 
in 
support
 of 
federal
 data
 reform,
 applauded 
the
 release
 today
 of 
the 
Sunlight
 Foundation’s Clearspending 
report 
and
 called
 for
 the
 U.S. 
Congress
 to 
reintroduce
 and
 pass 
the 
Digital
 Accountability 
and
 Transparency 
Act
 (DATA
 Act) 
in 
order 
to 
rectify 
the
 misreporting
 of 
trillions
 of
 dollars 
in
 federal 
spending
 each 
year.

The 
Clearspending 
report, 
which 
analyzes the
 federal 
government’s 
spending
 information 
as
 published
 on USASpending.gov, 
showed 
that 
federal
 grant
 information
 published
 during 
fiscal
 year
 2011
 was 
inconsistent
 with 
other data 
sources
 for
 nearly 
70 
percent 
of 
all
 grant 
spending 
and
 lacked
 required
 data
 fields
 for 
26 percent
 of 
all
 grant
 spending. 
In
 all, 
$1.55
 trillion, 
or 
94.5
 percent
 of 
all
grant
 spending,
 was
 inconsistent,
 incomplete, 
or 
untimely.
 The DATA 
Act 
would
 help
 rectify 
these 
problems
 by
 requiring full 
publication
 and
 consistent 
data
 standards 
for 
all
 federal
 spending.

“USASpending.gov 
fails,
 year 
after 
year, 
to 
deliver 
accurate 
data
 for
 one
 reason: 
the 
federal 
government
 lacks
 data 
standards
 for
 spending,”
 said 
Hudson 
Hollister, 
Executive 
Director
 of 
the 
Data
 Transparency
 Coalition.
 “The 
DATA Act 
would 
bring
 transparency
 and
 order 
to
 USASpending.gov 
by
 requiring
 consistent
 data 
standards
 for
 all 
federal
 spending
 information.
 Right
 now,
 there
 are
 no
 electronic 
codes 
to 
identify 
government
 grants, contracts, or
 even 
the grantees 
and 
contractors 
themselves.
 Without 
award
 IDs
 and
 a 
nonproprietary 
recipient
 IDs, 
there 
is
 no 
way
 to
 easily
 check
 USASpending.gov 
for 
accuracy 
or 
even
 verify
 that
 agencies
 are
 actually
 submitting 
the 
information 
the law 
requires 
them
 to
 submit
–
and as 
Clearspending 
shows, many 
are 
not.”

Note the limitation of the report to grant information.

That is USASpending.gov does not include non-grant spending, such as defense contracts and similar 21st century follies.

I have questions about the feasibility of universal, even within the U.S. government, data standards for spending. But I will address those in a separate post.

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