Carolyn Maloney: “I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership, and I thank the chairman for his leadership. This is truly a…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership, and I thank the chairman for his leadership. This is truly a bipartisan effort, and one that is sorely needed, as we can see from the hearing that we held last week in the Oversight and Government Reform Committee on the General Services Administration. And it was just outrageous that they would spend over $800,000 for some conference with mind readers and clowns when so many Americans are struggling and working hard. This bill will help prevent this type of abuse from happening again, and I am rising in strong support of H.R. 2146, the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act. It is good government, it is bipartisan, it is something that we can all agree on. It is common sense, and if it had been in place earlier we could have possibly prevented the type of abuse that we are both dedicated to cleaning up. This bill will improve congressional oversight of how Federal dollars are being spent. This bill does this by creating a single online portal for information about where Federal spending can be tracked. The bill requires recipients of Federal grants, loans, and contracts to disclose how much money they receive and how that money is spent, and reduces the compliance burden on recipients of Federal funds by streamlining reporting and establishing universal data standards. The Congressional Budget Office has certified that: H.R.…”