Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to discuss a topic not debated nearly enough here on the Senate floor--making the Federal Government more accountable and transparent. Today, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, under the leadership of Chairman Carper and Ranking Member Coburn, passed important legislation that will expand Federal financial transparency and accountability in many important ways. I sponsored this legislation--the Digital Accountability and Transparency, or DATA, Act--because it will significantly reform the way agencies report Federal spending, and for the first time provide checkbook-type spending data from across the Federal Government. The Federal Government spends more than $3.7 trillion each year, with more than $1 trillion being distributed as awards. However, the public cannot clearly track where this money goes. We currently have a Web site--USASpending.gov--that is supposed to show taxpayers and policymakers where the money goes, but it is not accurate. Most States already have an online portal so that taxpayers can track where their dollars are spent, and it is long past time for the Federal Government to move into the 21st century and adopt a similar system. At a recent hearing of the Budget Committee Task Force on Government Performance that I chair, it was reported that over $900 billion of direct assistance data on USASpending.gov was misreported in 2011 alone.…”