Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006

The bill states in part:{{cite web|url=https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-109s2590enr/html/BILLS-109s2590enr.htm|title=Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (S. 2590) Text|publisher=GPO|format=TXT|access-date=August 10, 2018}}

{{Blockquote|Not later than January 1, 2008, the Office of Management and Budget shall, in accordance with this section, section 204 of the E-Government Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-347; 44 U.S.C. 3501 note), and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C. 403 et seq.), ensure the existence and operation of a single searchable website, accessible by the public at no cost to access, that includes for each Federal award –

:(A) the name of the entity receiving the award;

:(B) the amount of the award;

:(C) information on the award including transaction type, funding agency, the North American Industry Classification System code or Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance number (where applicable), program source, and an award title descriptive of the purpose of each funding action;

:(D) the location of the entity receiving the award and the primary location of performance under the award, including the city, state, congressional district, and country;

:(E) a unique identifier of the entity receiving the award and of the parent entity of the recipient, should the entity be owned by another entity; and

:(F) any other relevant information specified by the Office of Management and Budget.}}

In addition to Coburn, Obama, and McCain, there were 43 other senators who co-sponsored this bill: Lamar Alexander, George Allen, Max Baucus, Evan Bayh, Jeff Bingaman, Barbara Boxer, Sam Brownback, Richard Burr, Maria Cantwell, Saxby Chambliss, Hillary Clinton, Norm Coleman, Susan Collins, John Cornyn, Larry Craig, Jim DeMint, Mike DeWine, Chris Dodd, Elizabeth Dole, Dick Durbin, Mike Enzi, Russ Feingold, Bill Frist, Chuck Grassley, Chuck Hagel, Johnny Isakson, John Kerry, Jon Kyl, Mary Landrieu, Joe Lieberman, Mitch McConnell, Bob Menendez, Bill Nelson, Harry Reid, Ken Salazar, Rick Santorum, Jeff Sessions, Olympia Snowe, John Sununu, Jim Talent, Craig Thomas, John Thune, David Vitter, and George Voinovich.

Image:George Bush signs the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.jpg signing the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on September 26, 2006.]]

The act had strong bipartisan support at every stage in the legislative process.{{cite journal|last=Hatch|first=Garrett L.|date=October 22, 2008|title=The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act: Implementation and Proposed Amendments|url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/RL34718.pdf|publisher=Congressional Research Service}} Order Code RL34718

S. 2590 was introduced in the Senate on April 6, 2006, and then sent to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security. Hearings were held in the subcommittee on July 18, 2006, and S. 2590 was then sent to the full committee. In the full committee hearings were held and an amendment was added on July 27, 2006. On August 2, 2006, S. 2590 was placed on legislative calendar 576.{{cite web | url = https://www.congress.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:SN02590:@@@X | title = All Congressional Action on S. 2590 | publisher = THOMAS.gov | access-date = August 29, 2006 }} Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced on August 31, 2006, that he would be bringing S. 2590 to a vote in the Senate sometime in September 2006 despite any holds on the bill.{{cite web | url = http://www.volpac.org/index.cfm?FuseAction=Blogs.View&Blog_id=438 | title = Now is the Time to Act on S. 2590 | author = Bill Frist, M.D. | publisher = Volunteer Political Action Committee (VOLPAC) | access-date = September 1, 2006 }} On September 7, 2006, S. 2590 passed by unanimous consent in the Senate.{{cite web | url = http://volpac.org/index.cfm?FuseAction=Blogs.View&Blog_id=451 | title = A Triumph for Transparency in Government | author = Bill Frist, M.D. | publisher = Volunteer Political Action Committee (VOLPAC) | access-date = September 7, 2006 }} For their bipartisan efforts in drafting the legislation and shepherding it into law, the lead staffers for Senators Coburn and Obama were recognized by The Hill newspaper as being among the top staffers on Capitol Hill.{{cite news | url = http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/stellar-staffers-in-a-dark-and-dismal-year-2006-12-05.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080512091036/http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/stellar-staffers-in-a-dark-and-dismal-year-2006-12-05.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = May 12, 2008 | title = Stellar staffers in a dark and dismal year | author = Jonathan E. Kaplan | newspaper = The Hill | access-date = June 30, 2009 }}

S. 2590 introduced in the House on September 8, 2006. It was agreed upon and passed by voice vote five days later and S.Con.Res. 114 was agreed to and passed by both the House and the Senate on the same day.{{cite web | url = https://www.congress.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:SC00114:@@@X | title = Senate Concurrent Resolution 114 Summary | publisher = THOMAS.gov | access-date = September 14, 2006 }}

Some time after August 2, 2006, Senators Ted Stevens, a Republican, and Robert Byrd, a Democrat, placed "secret holds" on S. 2590. Under Senate Rules, this prevents a vote on this act or its amendments without disclosure of the Senator requesting it. On August 17, 2006, Coburn identified Stevens as "the only senator blocking [the Bill]" at a Town hall meeting in Oklahoma,{{cite web | url=http://www.swtimes.com/articles/2006/08/18/week_in_review/news/friday/news04.txt | title=Coburn Critical Of Colleagues | author=Dug Begley | publisher = Times Record of Fort Smith, Arkansas | access-date=August 30, 2006 }} but this did not become widely known for nearly two weeks.

Prompted by political blogs, various individuals contacted their senators to determine if they placed the "secret hold" on S. 2590.{{cite web | url = http://tpmmuckraker.com/secret_hold.php | title = TPMmuckraker's "Secret Hold" Tally | publisher = TPMmuckraker.com | access-date = August 29, 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061116063846/http://tpmmuckraker.com/secret_hold.php | archive-date = November 16, 2006 | url-status = dead }}{{cite web | url = http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001428.php | title = Blogosphere Unites in Pursuit of Masked Senator | publisher = TPMmuckraker.com | author = Paul Kiel | access-date = August 29, 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060830224720/http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001428.php | archive-date = August 30, 2006 | url-status = dead }}{{cite web | title = Who is the Secret Holder? }} The effort was an unusual example of bipartisan collaboration on the internet with the right-leaning blogs Porkbusters and [http://gopprogress.com GOPProgress] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071230184353/http://www.gopprogress.com/ |date=2007-12-30 }}{{cite web | url = http://www.gopprogress.com/story/2006/8/25/9753/25337 | title = We need S. 2590. So won't the secret holder please stand up? | publisher = GOPProgress | author = Liz Mair | access-date = September 7, 2006 | author-link = Liz Mair | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071010055628/http://www.gopprogress.com/story/2006/8/25/9753/25337 | archive-date = October 10, 2007 | url-status = dead }} actively working with left-leaning [https://web.archive.org/web/20060830203047/http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/ TPMmuckraker]. On August 30, 2006, after he had been identified as the only suspect by Porkbusters and one of two suspects by TPMmuckraker, a spokesman for Stevens confirmed that he placed a hold. The following day, Senator Byrd (TPMmuckraker's other suspect) also admitted to placing a hold stating that he had wanted to have more time to look at the legislation; he had lifted the hold by the time of the announcement. Stevens subsequently lifted his hold.

President George W. Bush signed the bill into law on September 26, 2006. In attendance at the signing were the bill's author Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK, Sen. Susan Collins, R-ME, Chairwoman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, House Majority Whip Roy Blunt R-MO-7, Sen. Barack Obama, D-IL., Sen. Tom Carper, D-DE., Rep. Jeb Hensarling R-TX-5., and Rep. Henry Waxman D-CA-30.{{cite web | url = http://timchapmanblog.com/2006/09/26/bush-signs-transparency-bill/ | title = Bush signs transparency bill | publisher = TimChapmanBlog | access-date = September 26, 2006 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20061218182403/http://timchapmanblog.com/2006/09/26/bush-signs-transparency-bill/ | archive-date = December 18, 2006 | url-status = usurped }}

H.R. 5060, an amendment to the Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999, was passed by the House of Representatives on June 21, 2006, and sent to the Senate. H.R. 5060 can be considered a sister bill to S. 2590, but it is weaker than S. 2590 because it only considers federal grants.{{cite web | url = http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:H.R.5060: | title = Amendment to the Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999 Summary | publisher = THOMAS.gov | access-date = August 29, 2006 | archive-date = September 25, 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140925182325/http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:H.R.5060: | url-status = dead }} This bill died when S. 2590 was passed by the House and S.Con.Res. 114 was passed by the House and Senate because S. 2590 considers a superset of the actions of H.R. 5060.

The legislation delegated responsibility for creating the website to the Office of Management and Budget. Around the time of the Act's passage, OMB Watch, a government watchdog group, was developing a site that would do essentially everything the legislation required.{{cite news| title =OMB Offers an Easy Way to Follow the Money| newspaper= The Washington Post|date=December 13, 2007| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/12/AR2007121202701.html?nav=rss_politics/fedpage| author=Elizabeth Williamson |access-date=2008-01-21}}

Gary Bass, director of OMB Watch, contacted Robert Shea, associate director of the OMB, offering to help with development of the new site. Shea was initially reluctant to collaborate with Bass, in part because OMB Watch is typically critical of the OMB, but eventually it was determined that the government site would be based on what OMB Watch was developing, with the group being paid $600,000 for their technology. As of early 2008, the government's site, [http://www.usaspending.gov USASpending.gov], offers the same data, API, and (for the most part) documentation as the OMB Watch site, [http://www.fedspending.org fedspending.org]. On May 9, 2017, Steven Mnuchin, the United States Secretary of the Treasury, announced that he updated the site, providing a much broader view of government spending.{{cite news|last1=Lawder|first1=David|title=U.S. Treasury upgrades website to better track federal spending data|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-budget-website-idUSKBN1851P4|access-date=May 9, 2017|work=Reuters|date=May 9, 2017}}

It has been reported that the 2011 United States federal budget holds a substantial reduction in funding for the Electronic Government Fund, from which USASpending.gov draws its funding.{{cite web

|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/budget-could-close-the-door-on-open-government/2011/04/13/AFttdXbD_blog.html?wpisrc=nl_fedinsider

|title=Budget could close the door on open government |author=Ed O'Keefe |date=14 April 2011 |work=Federal Eye

|publisher=Washington Post |format=blog posting |access-date=16 April 2011 }}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.usaspending.gov/ USASpending.gov] – official government spending database
• [https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-10827/uslm/COMPS-10827.xml Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006] ([https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-10827/pdf/COMPS-10827.pdf PDF]/[https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/COMPS-10827/ details]) as amended in the GPO [https://www.govinfo.gov/help/comps Statute Compilations collection]
• [https://www.govinfo.gov/link/plaw/109/public/282?link-type=pdf Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006] as enacted in the US Statutes at Large
• [https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/senate-bill/2590 S.2590] on Congress.gov
• [http://www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/200500584.html WashingtonWatch.com – P.L. 109–282, The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204234411/http://www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/200500584.html |date=2008-12-04 }} information on the bill, including estimated cost per person
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060902000629/http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001435.php The Scoop on "Secret Holds": No Rules Apply] by Justin Rood, TPMuckraker, August 29, 2006
• [http://hobnobblog.com/2006/10/the_googlelike_pork_thing_on_t.php "The Google-Like Pork Thing on the Internets"], October 2006
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080919112728/http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/18/palins-transparency-proposal-already-exists-in-dc/ Palin's transparency proposal already exists]

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Category:Works by Barack Obama

Category:Acts of the 109th United States Congress

Category:United States federal government administration legislation