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Thursday, September 04, 2008
Transparency Act Legacy Spreads to the States
Ellen Miller blogs today over at the Sunlight Foundation about the legacy of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (Transparency Act). The Transparency Act mandated that all federal spending be easily accessible and searchable in the Internet. After the law passed in 2006, the federal government launched USASpending.gov in 2007, which was built on the software platform that powers OMB Watch's FedSpending.org.
Ellen reports the legacy of this federal law is being felt at the state level, all over the country:
Since 2007, 11 states (Hawaii, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Washington) have established, via legislation or executive order, free and searchable Web sites that give access to state spending. And 24 other states are working on it, with more than half introducing spending transparency bills this year. B2G Exchange blog wrote in May that transparency Web sites were the "hottest new trend" in state government.
The original cosponsors of the Transparency Act bill - Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) - as well as the hundreds of advocacy groups and transparency organizations, blogs, and regular citizens who helped push this legislation to enactment should be very proud of this legacy. Let's hope it continues to spread.
Posted by Adam Hughes
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