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Congressman Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) has released H.R. 7602, the “Fiscal Transparency Act,” legislation that would increase agency transparency and encourage fiscal accountability in an era of runaway federal spending. ATR supports this legislation and urges its passage.

Federal spending is completely out of control. Our national debt is $26 trillion and climbing. Thanks to the unprecedented federal spending on several Coronavirus relief packages, the national deficit for FY2020 hit an all time high of $2.74 trillion in June.

As negotiations begin on another potential COVID-19 relief package, spending will continue to grow at an unsustainable pace. Now more than ever, taxpayers need to know precisely how their money is being spent.

The Fiscal Transparency Act requires each agency to create a simple, publicly-available online portal available at USAspending.gov.

Each portal will contain:

  • An explanation of what the agency does
  • A structural organization chart complete with the number of full-time employees
  • Data on the agency’s spending, including the agency’s share of the total federal budget and the percentage that each agency component accounts for out of the total agency budget
  • Breakdown of mandatory and discretionary spending and other financial information
     

Having this data available to the public in an easily accessible format will increase government transparency and raise public awareness on our nation’s fiscal health. In an era of unprecedented government spending, implementing the Fiscal Transparency Act of 2020 is a commonsense step towards fiscal responsibility and transparency.