White House Conspicuously Silent As It Attacks A Bill To Make Spending Transparent | TechCrunch

"Barack Obama’s presidency was supposed to usher in a new wave of data transparency. And, with the exception of the NSA, the administration has pioneered groundbreaking open government initiatives, from maps of stimulus spending to the vaults of consumer energy use. But, as the Senate pushes to make federal spending transparent to the public, forces inside the White House are silently defang-ing the most powerful provisions without any explanation.  The DATA Act, which had overwhelming approval in the House of Representatives, would essentially allow citizens to monitor federal spending. Right now, groups such as transparency advocate The Sunlight Foundation, argue that federal spending is nearly impossible to track.  Remember when taxpayers footed the $823,000 bill for a government agency to party it up in Las Vegas? The DATA Act, would, theoretically, make this type of accounting available in a format that could be monitored and analyzed by experts.  The powerful Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has made unusual efforts to centralize authority in making spending transparency. A proposal to gut the most important provisions of the DATA Act was leaked to the Data Transparency Coalition.  The leaked document reveals OMB wants to strip rules requiring standardized data from all agencies and would significantly delay the implementation ..."