That could have as much effect as mr. Cummings just said on future generations. Yet how little attention it gets when we actually do our job. Especially on a subject like there. I think it is appropriate at times that we all rightfully argue about how big or small the federal government should be. But i think we all share a common belief that whatever side the government should be, the dollars that we spend, we need to make sure are spent wisely. And one of the things i want to again commend you and the Ranking Member on, as a former governor, often the difference between a governor and legislator was a legislator thought the job was over once the bill was passed when in actual ality, it is the implementation is where the rubber hits the road. And hearing what both of you have said and i know my friend senator portman shares this as well, we will keep common cause to make sure that implementation takes place in a timely, effective and efficient manner. As we went into some of the last hours of trying to get there bill signed off on and this is as much the administration itself and certain particular agencies and resisted the time line that we are putting forward. Again, i think it was a tribute to you and Ranking Member cummings and those of us in the senate as well to make sure that we keep this administration and future administrations feet to the fire. The data act, i will echo what you said, and try do it fairly quickly, obviously has tremendous promise to hold government accountable. And use information to make more informed budget decisions because for the foreseeable future we will be tight in fiscal times and as well look at how we reform part of the structures of the federal government. As has been said already, the most critical component is the development of consist governmentwide Financial Data standards. As we dug into this, almost remarkable thing we found early on, department of defense alone as 200 different Financial Reporting systems just within that one department. As someone who spent longer in the private sector than the public sector, that is just totally unacceptable. A subject of much debate is how we define program across the government. You have indicated and i know you will hear later a recent review of the first attempt to create an accurate inventory of all federal programs. Inventory required by earlier legislation that we all worked on, gipra, again, a piece of legislation this most americans have never heard of but a good step along this direction. The first attend was not all that promising. Specifically gl found that agencies will allow to select from one of several approaches when defining programs which led to inconsistent categorization. Also finding a lack of agencies with different definitions fror grams with similar focus. Again, that would never stand into a fortune 100 company into the 21st century. I hope we can understand this attempt to find program and adapt an approach with data that is more useful to policy makers and support greater transparency. One of the things as well is to make shower that we have the new financial stand artsds. Standards across government. I know universities in each of our respective states file similar financial reports. Multiple times to multiple agencies. If all this reporting redundancy were stream lined, we could direct more resources to the actual programs rather than to the administrative overhead. I hope the administration comes back with recommendation and streamline and improve the reporting process for those who receive federal funds. I would like to mention the need to make the website more user friendly. Now we have moved this over and add lot of discussions in the vel. Data act. About where this had to reside. We came to the conclusion that this aught to be at the department of treasury. Weve got make sure this implements the goals that all of us laid out in the data. Make this information more user friendly to the public. One of the analogies atried to use and explain this to my press corps was you know, you ought to google your tax dollar all the way down to the program attic level. Weve got stay on this. I want to add one lost comment adds well. As chairman cummings mentioned, weve got make sure that agencies have the resources to actually implement. Sometimes again, youve got to inve invest to save money in the long run. And to do the reviews, set up systems in a way that makes sense will save us resources in the long run and make our jobs as policy makers and making budget decisions i think more accurate and appropriate. One last final comment before turning it over to senator portman, we continue to make small progress under this area. I want to again thank you and my friend jerry connolly. All of us worked together in a piece of legislation in this area of oversight that president signed into law just last week. The government reports that the elimination act. Its amazing, this is more tangible. It identified and eliminated 50 reports that Government Agencies produce. That are never looked at, never reviewed. We should have been able do five to ten times that amount. We will work with this committee to keep plugging away on that but we need to make sure in every avenue we show we spending the taxpayer dollar wisely. This something that crosses party lines, ecological lines. I want to thank you and the Ranking Member for working with senator portman and i to get this very important piece of legislation through. Looking forward to working with you on implementing you. Thank you, senator portman. Thank you. I started off here in my congressional career. I think i was the most Senior Member in the minority. In fact, i was at the kiddy table down here. This is a Great Committee. And one of the reasons it is a Great Committee is the potential to help us to be able to eye lu people who represent tax payers to understand government better. And this legislation is a classic example of it. You both talked about it. Senator warner talked about it. But tracking where those hardearned dollars go and how they are being spent, there is a lot of work to be done and we will talk about that for a second this morning. I hope you will continue to be very involved in this. This is something you add passion for or help to launch. You and Ranking Member cummings had a kumbaya moment this morning. It is good government. Its good stuff. It does give americans an unprecedented view into the government if we implement it properly. A rt of it comes from something technical, which is transforming the spending data now owned by the government into something that is accessible. That is not easy to do. I think thats why the implementation is so important. Itll result in not just more Accountable Government and not just better managed government but also a lighter touch. More efficient in lighter government. The implementation requires some sustained focus by the executive branch. I know you will have testimony later about how things are going. The first step, and im not going repeat what senator warner said, which is about reporting processes, making the website more user friendly, and more need for investment you front but there are things we need to focus on this morning with our witnesses. And i look forward to getting a report as to how they answered all these questions. We know that some of the benefits generated by uniform comparable data ,uu detailed Financial Information is only aspirational until we see this implemented in the proper way. The standardization we will are are told will never be completed within a year of the enactment. It became law on may 9, 2014, so that means you are half way through. How is it going . I didnt think it was going well at first, to be honest with you. All four of us talked about it. I think it is going better now. Shortly after president obama signed into law, o b issued a statement saying the requirement will be based on current funding and time frames that permit. Not very encouraging. And i dont think that sent the right message at all. We did have shawn donovan, Homeland Security government affairs, and we asked him about this during his hearing. The response we got back is he indeed was going to prior ties this and i think we have seen improvement. I think the treasury had been holding meetinges with federal and nonfederal stake holders. The meetings have generated a lot of information that i know format the data standards. And also, is on pace to meet the deadline which would be may of next year. For publication of data standards. If that deadline slips it is a real problem. I think all bets are off to when we fully real lies the promise of the data act. I hope those questions will be answered today as to whether they are on track. Again, its not easy. It requires a lot of focus. As chairman knows, when i had the opportunity to implement, which is far from perfect, we will talk that in a second, it took a sustained effort and concentrated effort. Otherwise it just wont happen. Lets not use this for the hard work to craft standard. And also there are comprehensives. On that front, lessen koorageing in may o aep b published controller alert that informed federal state quarters with data standards and information posted to usa spending. Gov. Thats not quite right. The law requires that common Data Elements for information required to be reported by federal agencies and entities receiving federal funds. The data act requires standards not only for the Data Elements that are published on usa spending. Gov but for all data and all recipients must include in the required reports to ablg agencies. So it is broader than that. The usaspending. Gov data standards, we develop these comprehensive data standards and infrastructure that can handle the spending information. And thats required by the act that we put forward. In addition, it should be flexible. We can talk more about that later. When got to get on to the witnesses. But thats another part that aught to be asked about today. And of course data standards, one of the steps to make sure that they ensure that the agency use these standards to consistently and timely report spending data and the treasury o b use that information to publish information on spending. Gov. We know that neither of these processies happen automatically. Thanks to the work by gao, we know that agencies failed to report 619 billion in federal spending to usaspending. Gov during 2012. Most recent year we had information. Finding major deficiencies in the quality of the agencies did report. So data act, one of the causes, again i was able to implement at o aep b, did not establish government wide data standard. Fully and effective data act will address that issue. Understand goa is working with inspectors general to develop some of the standards so that there is auto oversight protocols to monitor compliance with the data acted. That might be something that comes up today as well. Finally i would just want it say that this is a great example of what we can do when we put our minds to something that helps our tax payers who we represent. It was both branches so bicamral. Here on the hill and with the executive branch. Bipartisan. I would say even nop partisan. And a very difficult within lets face it. It was decided, here so problem, lets attack it p. And there is murky information. Members of congress from both parties engage each other. Engage the executive branch. We hammered out the details with a solution. By the way, as objections emerged, we Work Together to try to address them without waivering in addressing the problem. This may not apply to every issue but there is certainly a lot where we have there Common Objective and then it is just a question of putting together the right legislation to address and hopefully we can use this as a model for doing other things. We want to thank senator warner and senators coburn and chairman, Ranking Member, wouldnt have happened without all of your involvement. I will continue to work with you on insuring that it is implemented properly. I want to thank both of you for coming to this side but more importantly for being an active part of making this happen. This wopt have happened in a divided capital if it wasnt for the fact that it crossed party lines. So its been extremely helpful. Ive lost senator connolly. But im sure you will tell him that i was actually given this at the beginning of my tenure and i chose to never use it because i felt ways too loud on the hammer with the small one. I imagine there are witnesses for that. I thank you both. I would only close by saying in the next congress i hope we can not only continue on the data act but recognize this Committee Jurisdiction and your counterpart on the senate side we oversee the National Archives and the quality of the data that goes in there, sadly, is going to for a long time become the mostly paper or digital ekwif leapt to paper, lots of pdfs, lots of things that cost a large amount of money to convert and even then are never as good as if they were put in in a machine searchable format. So i believe that financial is important for current, but i think we also have to invest in leaving a legacy of deep information that the future generation kes easily search. So hopefully we will use this as a base and continue across the spectrum. I thank you. We will take a very short recess. Committee will come back to order. We now welcome our second panel. Honorable gene dudara, controller general of the united states. We welcome you back. Honorable david matter from the office of federal white House Management in the White House Office of management and budget. And mr. David leebrick is federal assistant secretary of the u. S. Department of treasury which has been so much talked about as the responsibility, primary responsibility party, for the data act. Pursuant to the committees rules would you please rise to take the oath. Ef are and raise your right happened. Just follow gene. He knowes this one. Do you solemnly swear or affirm the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth . Thank you very much. Please be seated. Let the record reflect all wpss answered in the affirmative. The light will indicate your five minutes. Please try to stay as close as can you to it. Your entire Opening Statements will be placed in the record along with any other extraneous material you may choose to provide. Mr. Dudara . Good morning, mr. Chairman. Ranking member cummings. Members of the committee. Very pleased to be here today. I would like it start by commending you mr. Chairman, mr. Cummings, aej others. Mr. Connolly, the whole committee. For your persistence to bring the data act to fruition. And for holding this important hearing on early implementation phases. As ive testified before this committee before, i think effective implementation of the data act can have profound implications for increasing the transparency of Government Spending for the public. To facilitate better management by Agency Managers by giving them more accurate and timely information to manage by and thereby promoting efficiency and effective so government and also help facilitate efforts to reduce and hopefully eliminate fraud, waste and abuse in federal government and identify overlapping duplicative programs that can be identified and remedies. Now effective implementation, m my opinion and experience, will not happen without strong leadership by o b treasury and attention by the agencies. And i think our recent report on usa spending. Gov illustrates the challenge here. Five years after implementation, and 2012 data on usa spending. Gov we took a look to see about the completeness and accuracy of the information. We found 324 programs were not recorded in the data base. Senator portman mentioned the number omitted which is 619 billion of spending was not included. We also checked the 201 Data Elements that were supposed to be included in the data act and traced them back to their Agency Record records. And only found 2 tracked back for Data Elements. So we really have do better with the data act implementation. And for Data Elements. So we really have do better with the data act implementation. O b agreed to treasury implements. Im very please bed that. But i would say that sustained congressional oversight is also very warranted in this area. For our part at gao, im giving this high priority. Our work, legislation calls for a first report to be in 2017. But you didnt look for a report from us next year. Were going to track every stage of the implementation over the period of time. Not just look at after the fact reports by the ig sts. I want to make sure that the data standard are complete and consistent. Agencies are poised. Implemented. Successfully. Consultation worked successfully and were off to a good start implementing this. Also, and i plan to continue to give a high priority to making sure that we have complete and accurate reports on the governments financial condition. In my Statement Today ive included the results of our last audit of the governments Financial Statements in which we are unable to render an opinion because of serious control weaknesses. Mentioned three major impedements. And problems with the Treasury Department eliminating intergovernmental transactions and compiling of statements. And it includes our opinion on the governments financial condition. Which i believe continues to be on a longterm unsustainable fiscal path. Id be happy to answer questions about the data act implementation and our work on the Financial Statements at the appropriate time, mr. Chairman. Thank you again for inviting us to participate in this hearing. Thank you. Mr. Mader . Thank you members of the committee for the opportunity to testify on the administrations process in implementing the data act as we noted was sign need law may