On the recordMarch 11, 2020
I am here to join my colleagues in speaking on the floor in advance of government Sunshine Week, but before I do that, let me commend my colleague from Oklahoma for his comments about the need for more transparency in government and particularly our grantmaking process. We have made some progress on that--most recently, the DATA Act. His predecessor in Congress, Tom Coburn, worked on this issue, and we came up with legislation when I was on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue at the Office of Management and Budget to put all grants and contracts online, which was a start. But the DATA Act takes that to the next level to make sure there is uniformity in government. We still have difficulty with some agencies getting information out there, but he is absolutely right. It would make a difference because if people know how the money is being spent, it is much more likely to be spent wisely, all the way down to the ZIP Code in terms of where grants are going and what kind of Federal taxpayer dollars are being spent in our communities and whether it is being spent well. Government shutdowns, of course--I couldn't agree more with my colleague--have not worked to help make our government more efficient. In fact, we always spend more after the fact. Think about it. People were furloughed, and, then, when they went back to work, they got backpay. Well, it would have been much better had they been there to provide the services to the taxpayers.…
