Making Government Transparent and Accountable
The Sunlight Foundation uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable. Underlying all of our efforts is a fundamental belief that increased transparency will improve the public's confidence in government
The Sunlight Foundation Blog
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Hearing on Contractor Database Transparency
If you’ve ever tried to research federal contracts you’ll find that the databases used to house those contracts online are not so great. Sen. Claire McCaskill held a hearing yesterday titled, “Improving Transparency and Accessibility of Federal Contracting Databases.” Nancy Scola wrote up the hearing and it isn’t pretty:
All told, there are a million lines of code involved. But there’s really no all told here, because the databases don’t talk to one another. For example, FPDS, the Federal Procurement Data System doesn’t communicate with EPLS, which stands for Excluded Parties List. Which means that theUSASpending.gov website — heralded as the American public’s window into the inner-workings of government, but powered by FPDS — doesn’t even know that contractors contained within it have been banished from government service for defrauding the United States government or otherwise behaving badly. What’s more, on some of these legacy systems, a search for Contractor X, Inc. won’t return results for Contractor X Inc. The shorthand for that particular wrinkle came to be known, during the hearing, as “the comma problem.”
In fact, GAO’s William Woods explained to the senators, the poor state of those databases meant that when his agency was asked by Congress to detail how many contractors were billing the United States government for work in Afghanistan and Iraq, the government watchdog group was forced by technology to admit its ignorance. “We could not answer those questions,” said Woods. How many KBRs are at work in American war zones, being paid with taxpayer dollars? How many Blackwaters? Dunno.
The biggest problem, however, didn’t turn out to be the current state of disrepair, but rather the inability to figure out what to do with the whole disclosure regime. To the surprise of almost everyone in the committee room, the General Services Administration (GSA) has been working to create a more sensible contractor disclosure regime with a more accessible public face. It was difficult for federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra to identify who exactly would be overseeing the — yes — contract to revamp the databases. Ultimately that responsibility came down to either the GSA, the Office of Management and Budget or the Office of Federal Procurement.
As Scola writes, “Senator Robert Bennett spoke for many of us today when he sat up on the dais in room 342 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building and rubbed his temples over, and over, and over, and over again.”
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Another Cosponsor for S. 482!
A good week for electronic filing in the Senate. Sen. Claire McCaskill becomes the second senator to cosponsor S. 482 this week. We are up to 35 cosponsors! If you want to help move the Senate into the 21st century, go to the Pass 482 site and call your senators.If you’re on Twitter, feel free to thank Sen. McCaskill (@clairecmc) for cosponsoring this important bill.
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Senators Grill Stimulus Watchdog on Recovery.gov
Yesterday, Earl Devany, Inspector General for the stimulus, and Rob Nabors, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), went before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs to discuss details of their oversight plan for recovery funds. One of the chief topics was the web site, Recovery.gov. The White House has sold Recovery.gov as a beacon of transparency, a web site a top a hill that will shine down as an example for all government web sites. However, as our Bill Allison has noted in numerous venues, the web site does not offer all of the information or content that it could. This lack of content became a sticking point in the hearing.
Devaney, who answered most of the questions, agreed with many of the senators who complained that Recovery.gov was not all it was cracked up to be. Describing why citizens are going to the web site, which is receiving high traffic, Devaney chalked it up to “curiosity,” but stated that if the web site does not become more interactive and substantive, the public will lose faith in the recovery effort. This applies particularly to interactivity and responses to user comments, Devaney stated, and that the recovery oversight board needed to get out in front of this faster.
In achieving the goal of interactivity, Devaney said that he is talking to outside groups and individuals who have ideas about how to sort through millions of comments and respond appropriately. He also stated that he is willing to meet with any of “the smartest people” to talk about this.
Sen. Tom Coburn raised pointed questions regarding the accessibility of the data, contrasting the data search functions and presentation on Recovery.gov to that of USASpending.gov, the federal site tracking all federal spending. Coburn’s biggest issues were the lack of multiple search capabilities on Recovery.gov and why USASpending.gov wasn’t used to display the recovery spending. Nabors responded that the public has a unique interest in the recovery spending and that the information needed to be brought to the public in a speedier fashion than USASpending.gov could deliver. The idea behind Recovery.gov is to provide real time tracking of recovery spending. In his “wildest dreams,” Nabors declared, he would want to be able to track overall spending, as in what is displayed on USASpending.gov, in real time.
Coburn pointedly asked when the “ideal” Recovery.gov would be online. Devaney, under pressure from Coburn, answered, “Yes,” after Coburn asked him if the site would be complete in a year.
One of the more interesting suggestions came from Sen. Claire McCaskill, asking Devaney if he had considered hiring unemployed journalists to provide investigative capability along with context and storytelling to Recovery.gov. Devaney, in what seemed like a happy surprise to McCaskill, stated that he had two interviews scheduled with journalists the very next day. McCaskill responded, “Great minds think alike.”
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Tweet Success! Boxer and McCaskill to Support 482
Yesterday, we announced a campaign to pass S. 482, the Senate electronic filing bill. There are two tacks to this campaign: one involves calling your senators and seeking support for the bill and opposition to a potential poison pill amendment, the other involves “tweeting” to the 17 senators on Twitter to try and secure their support for the bill or thank them for cosponsoring. After one day, we have already received positive responses from both Sen. Barbara Boxer and Sen. Claire McCaskill. Both stated their support for the bill over Twitter:
clairecmc: I’ve supported electronic filing of campaign reports for a long time. It’s embarrassing that we are not required to file electronically.#482
Barbara_Boxer: Thanks to all who tweeted me about e-filing of campaign finance reports. I was a cosponsor of S. 482 before and will do so again.
In less than 24 hours,
2 out of 15 of the senators on Twitter who had not cosponsored are now cosponsors. (UPDATE: Sen. McCaskill has not yet officially cosponsored the bill and simply stated her support, Sen. Boxer officially cosponsored the bill yesterday. We hope that McCaskill turns her support into being an actual cosponsor soon.) In terms of grassroots outreach that is an amazing turn around. (See also, Clay’s post at Sunlight Labs.) In both the Boxer and McCaskill responses we can see that Twitter is a great way to communicate with constituents. Thanks to everyone who helped “tweet” these senators.We still your help in making telephone calls to Senate offices. So far, 67 calls have been made. We need to keep the pressure on to make sure that this bill finally passes. Go to the Pass 482 site and follow the instructions to call your senators. It’s very easy.
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New Subcommittee to Tackle Contracting Fraud, Waste
Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Chair Joe Lieberman just sent out a release announcing the creation of a new subcommittee to provide oversight of government contracting. The Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight will be headed by Sen. Claire McCaskill, long a proponent of exposing fraud and waste in contracting.
“Management of federal contracts is one of the greatest operational challenges facing the federal government,” Lieberman said. “Spending on federal contracts rose to an astounding $532 billion last year. And for years the Government Accountability Office has listed government contracting on its list of programs at high risk of waste, fraud, abuse, mismanagement, or in need of comprehensive reform. This is a problem area that needs as much oversight as we can possibly muster.
“So, to more fully address the array of problems with federal contracting, I am establishing this new subcommittee with pride and great expectations. With her background as a prosecutor and state auditor, Senator McCaskill has unique investigative experience that will be crucial for this new subcommittee. I am certain that she will approach her new responsibilities with unmatched vigor to improve the value of all the taxpayer dollars devoted to federal contracting.”
McCaskill said: “Last year we made major strides in contracting accountability by establishing the Wartime Contracting Commission, and while I look forward to those investigations, we all know that outrageous contracting abuses occur in every facet of government. I can’t wait to get to work saving huge money for taxpayers. They deserve it.”
Over the past few years various senators have attempted to create a committee or a commission both in the form of the famous Truman Committee, which investigated fraud and waste in World War II defense contracting. Sen. Byron Dorgan was in favor of the creation of a committee with full subpoena power, while Sen. Jim Webb and McCaskill sought the creation of commission with more limited powers. The Webb-McCaskill commission, named the Wartime Contracting Commission, was eventually established last year, but has yet to hold hearings.
The establishment of this new subcommittee, with oversight over more than just defense contracts, marks a huge step forward in the efforts by many to maintain a government contracting system that is free of waste, fraud, and corruption.
