What is the DATA Act?
The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) was signed into law on May 9, 2014 with the objective of transforming the collection, traction and usage of US federal government spending information by standardizing the data elements across all the federal agencies and publishing the spending information in open data format such as XBRL.
From May 9, 2017, all agencies are reporting spending data using the standardized data structure established by Treasury and OMB.
What is the benefit of the DATA Act?
The DATA Act aims to bring together and publish federal spending information in one data set and allow free access to, and bulk download, of such information. The DATA Act helps to track federal spending through the life cycle of the program resulting in more transparency and accountability.
Recipient reporting
As required under paragraph 5(b)(6) of FFATA (as added by the DATA Act), OMB conducted grantee and contractor pilot program and submitted its results and following recommendations on Aug 10, 2017.
- Standardize data elements across all the federal agencies
- Identify and eliminate duplication in reporting
- Reduce compliance costs by scaling up the existing proof-of-concept reporting tool
On Sep 5, 2018, OMB issued a memorandum to all the agencies to implement the learnings from the above pilot program. By Apr 30, 2019, OMB requires each agency to
- Evaluate the current systems and identify duplication of reporting.
- Submit a plan to integrate new data standards into current and/or future grant systems.
Wait for further updates from us on our offering on the DATA Act recipient reporting solution.