The Office of Management and Budget has given agencies a marked up version of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 that contains several proposed revisions , Federal News Radio reported Monday.
Jason Miller writes the revisions focus on financial data standards and publication of information to the USASpending.gov site, as indicated in the original bill sponsored by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.).
Miller notes OMB suggests open data structures, removal of the data standardization requirement across government and use of an OMB-determined site to publish most budget information.
“OMB has rewritten the data standards provision so it’s not really about data standards at all,†said Hudson Hollister, founder and executive director of the Data Transparency Coalition, according to the report.
“What do we mean when we talk about data standards, we mean that there has to be consistent, governmentwide identifiers for grants and contracts, grantees and contractors. In the revised version from OMB, there is none of that specificity,†he added.
Hollister also said the coalition may withdraw their support for the DATA Act if Warner accepts OMB’s recommendations.
