Congresswoman Robin Kelly (IL-2) introduced on Friday, Dec. 13, the Increasing Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act (H.R. 10394) to include holistic demographic data of federal loans and grants recipients. Currently, data tracking of federal awards such as grants, loans, and contracts does not include the recipients’ ethnicity, race, or sex. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) also introduced his companion bill.
“When Congress and federal agencies are informed with the most holistic data, we can determine whether business owners of color, veterans, and women are able to properly compete for federal dollars,” Kelly said. “I will always strive for transparency when it comes to federal spending. My bill is a first step to tracking federal contracts and loans to identify whether they’re going to historically underinvested communities.”
“Federal contracting is a major economic driver for our country, and for too long veterans, women, and people of color have not benefited from procurement dollars,” Booker said. “Having access to expanded demographic data will close an important gap in Congress’s understanding of how federal dollars are being spent, and what steps we need to take to ensure that taxpayer dollars are used to create opportunities for every American. This legislation will bring greater transparency over government spending, and help us build a more inclusive economy.”
The bill amends the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act to include race, ethnicity, veteran status, and sex of the highest-paid executive officers and private business owners in the data collected and reported by the Office of Management and Budget. This reporting applies to any entity that receives a federal award, contract, subcontract, grant, subgrant, loan, and other forms of federal financial assistance exceeding $30,000.
The Increasing Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act has been endorsed by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), Ariel Investments, and the National Association of Securities Professionals.
