Discussion · House of Representatives
Eric Burlison Republican
“I support this bill. Right now, government agencies spend billions of dollars through special deals that they do not have to report to the public spending website. This bill requires them to report that spending so taxpayers can see how their money is used.”
“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I support this bill, H.R. 2069, the Stop Secret Spending Act of 2025, which requires Federal agencies to report complete and accurate information to USAspending.gov. The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, as later amended by the DATA Act of 2014, established USAspending.gov, a public database of all government spending. It is critical that government spending is transparent to the American people so that they can be assured that agencies are appropriately using their hard-earned tax dollars. Transparency is fundamental in building trust in government. For 20 years, agencies have been required to be more transparent with how they are spending taxpayer dollars, but, unfortunately, gaps have been identified in what gets reported to USAspending.gov by Federal agencies. Increasingly, Federal agencies have relied upon spending authorities known as other transaction agreements, or OTAs. OTAs are not subject to certain Federal acquisition laws and requirements and, most importantly, are not required to be reported to USAspending.gov under current law. Agencies use different methods to report the billions of dollars in spending related to OTAs, according to the Government Accountability Office. This has led to inconsistent reporting and unreliable information, resulting in a lack of full transparency over how billions of dollars are spent by Federal agencies. To be clear, the DATA Act of 2014 intended for all Federal spending to be captured on USAspending.gov. The Stop Secret Spending Act corrects this issue by requiring OTA spending to be reported to USAspending.gov. The bill also requires agencies to report annually on types of funding that previously were unreported for a variety of exemptions. Lastly, it restores the requirement for agency inspectors general to review the entirety of data submitted to USAspending.gov to ensure that it is complete and accurate. H.R. 2069 will provide more transparency to the American people. It allows taxpayers to hold agencies accountable for how they spend your money. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this very commonsense legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.”
Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I support this bill, H.R. 2069, the Stop Secret Spending Act of 2025, which requires Federal agencies to report complete and accurate information to USAspending.gov. The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, as later amended by the DATA Act of 2014, established USAspending.gov, a public database of all government spending. It is critical that government spending is transparent to the American people so that they can be assured that agencies are appropriately using their hard-earned tax dollars. Transparency is fundamental in building trust in government. For 20 years, agencies have been required to be more transparent with how they are spending taxpayer dollars, but, unfortunately, gaps have been identified in what gets reported to USAspending.gov by Federal agencies. Increasingly, Federal agencies have relied upon spending authorities known as other transaction agreements, or OTAs. OTAs are not subject to certain Federal acquisition laws and requirements and, most importantly, are not required to be reported to USAspending.gov under current law. Agencies use different methods to report the billions of dollars in spending related to OTAs, according to the Government Accountability Office. This has led to inconsistent reporting and unreliable information, resulting in a lack of full transparency over how billions of dollars are spent by Federal agencies. To be clear, the DATA Act of 2014 intended for all Federal spending to be captured on USAspending.gov. The Stop Secret Spending Act corrects this issue by requiring OTA spending to be reported to USAspending.gov. The bill also requires agencies to report annually on types of funding that previously were unreported for a variety of exemptions. Lastly, it restores the requirement for agency inspectors general to review the entirety of data submitted to USAspending.gov to ensure that it is complete and accurate. H.R. 2069 will provide more transparency to the American people. It allows taxpayers to hold agencies accountable for how they spend your money. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this very commonsense legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.