From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: The DATA Act Description: Audio interview by GAO staff with Michelle Sager, Director, Strategic Issues Related GAO Work: GAO-16-261 DATA Act: Data Standards Established, but More Complete and Timely Guidance Is Needed to Ensure Effective Implementation Released: January 2016 [ Background Music ] [ Narrator: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. It's January 2016. The federal government spends more than $3.5 trillion annually, but how that money spent is not always easy to track. Enter the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014. Known as the DATA Act, this law is supposed to make federal spending more transparent. A team led by Michelle Sager, a director in GAO's Strategic Issues team, recently examined what the government has done so far to implement the DATA Act and what's still left to do. Eden Savino sat down with Michelle to talk about what they found. [ Eden Savino: ] First, what exactly is the DATA Act and how will it make federal spending more transparent? [ Michelle Sager: ] The DATA Act is the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 and that Act directed the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, and Treasury to establish government-wide data standards to improve the transparency and the quality of all federal spending data. So it does this by allowing tracking of more types of federal spending, as well as providing the assurance of improved data quality. If effectively implemented, the Data Act will make information on federal spending easily accessible, comparable across agencies, and reliable. All of these improvements together would result in additional opportunities for improved oversight, for better management, and for taxpayers to know where the $3-1/2 trillion dollars in annual federal expanding goes and how it is being spent. [ Eden Savino: ] So it sounds like the law is supposed to help people make apples-to-apples spending comparisons across federal programs, but your team found some problems with how those apples are defined. Can you give a couple examples of that? [ Michelle Sager: ] So for example, award description is defined as a brief description of the award. In prior GAO work on usaspending.gov, we found that agencies report a wide range of information such as the description or purpose of an award and sometimes they include acronyms or terminology that would only be known to those within the agency. One more example is something called primary place of performance. And we know from prior work that the location or the place of performance for a specific grant, contract, or some other type of federal spending can represent any number of things, the location where the funding activity takes place, the address for the recipient of the funding, or maybe even the administrative headquarters for the funding agency. So OMB and Treasury issued some additional definitions last year and they made improvements for this particular definition to ensure that we're comparing apples-to-apples. [ Eden Savino: ] So, given all that needs to be done and refined in the definitions, when will this new, more transparent spending data become available to the public? [ Michelle Sager: ] Agencies under the DATA Act are required to begin reporting their spending data in accordance with the Act by May of 2017. Now there are interim milestones between now and then to assure that agencies are reviewing their data elements and implementing systems to capture the new data and link the program and the financial data. But agencies continue to need finalized technical guidance to serve as the foundation for developing those systems and the processes to allow the agencies to implement the Act. And, at this point, it really is too soon to fully assess readiness for this May 2017 milestone. [ Eden Savino: ] So for those looking for more information about government spending, what would you say is the bottom line message of this report? [ Michelle Sager: ] If fully and effectively implemented, DATA Act implementation holds great promise for increased transparency, for improved data quality, and for enhanced capabilities to array data on federal spending. However, successful implementation of the DATA Act requires a government-wide effort, and it really requires a tremendous front-end investment of time and resources that is then followed by ongoing iterations and monitoring. So, this iterative process is moving in the right direction, but additional guidance will continue to be needed to ensure the success of implementation. [ Background Music ] [ Narrator: ] To learn more, visit GAO.gov and be sure to tune in to the next episode of GAO's Watchdog Report for more from the congressional watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office.