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Transparency in Government Spending

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

"We might hope to see the finances of the Union as clear and intelligible as a merchant's books, so that every member of Congress and every man of any mind in the Union should be able to comprehend them, to investigate abuses, and consequently to control them."

Thomas Jefferson, 1802

Sometimes, Good Things Do Come From Washington

Home to the United States Congress, Washington, DC is not known to be the place of origin of too many good ideas - for good reasons. However, the success of the spending transparency movement that is currently sweeping the nation is owed in large part to an effort that began on Capitol Hill.

In 2006, Congress passed and President Bush signed landmark spending transparency legislation, which has resulted in the creation of www.USAspending.gov. This website is a free, publicly searchable website for all federal contracts and grants over the amount of $25,000.

Click here for more information.

A Movement is Sweeping the Country

Since the passage of the federal legislation, efforts to emulate this concept of fiscal transparency have swept the nation, and states and local governments, as well as taxpayer activists and individual taxpayers embarked on a quest to create online searchable databases for government spending, and the movement to empower taxpayers to track their tax dollars at a mouse click is growing by the day. The reasoning is simple: Taxpayers, who fund every expenditure made by government, deserve to know exactly how government spends their tax dollars. After all, accountability - the “process that requires us to disclose fully and truthfully our performance to those who are entitled to know,” according to the Honorable Maurice McTigue – is one of the cornerstones of the Republican form of government.

Click here for a memo detailing spending transparency successes around the country.

Click here for a brief summary of transparency efforts since 2007.

Click here for a memo outlining state legislative efforts in 2009

Click here for a two-pager on the cost of transparency and the savings it can generate.

State Spending Transparency

Since the federal legislation passed in 2006, more than twenty spending transparency websites have already been created thanks to legislation or gubernatorial action. More than t wo dozen states have enacted spending transparency legislation, and several governors have issued executive orders resulting in the creation of such websites.

In addition, several state constitutional officers have begun to increase transparency in government spending by creating their own transparency websites. These efforts may range from posting their own offices' expenditures to statewide portals.

Furthermore, state think tanks have begun creating their own spending transparency websites to complement legislative and executive efforts.

Click here for more information.

Local Spending Transparency

The effort to empower taxpayers to track their tax dollars at a mouse click does not stop at the state level. Localities in many states have begun to emulate the concept of fiscal accountability through transparency and have started to post their expenditures online. These efforts range from school boards posting the school district’s check register online to counties and cities working towards providing public access to their expenditure information via the Internet.

Click here for more information.

Find out what is happening in your state or locality in the area of spending
transparency by clicking on the map below.