We're generally pretty happy with the new Open Government Directive on federal spending transparency. Specifically, we're pleased to see that the administration is moving to comply with the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA). Among other things, FFATA required sub-award reporting information on USAspending.gov, the government's spending website, as of 2009. But for more than a year, the Obama administration has not complied with this aspect of the law (in defense of the current administration, the Bush administration also did nothing to add sub-award data onto USAspending.gov, making this a bi-partisan screw-up). The new memo changes that, and mandates that agencies submit sub-award data to USAspending.gov starting October 1 of this year. The only problem is that the Open Government Directive memo limits the reach of this sub-award reporting.

Today, Reps. Michael Quigley (D-IL) and Darrell Issa (R-CA) announced the creation of the bipartisan Congressional Transparency Caucus in the House of Representatives.  The Caucus will work to develop policies and data standards that will give Americans better abilities to scrutinize the actions of government.

President Obama just made a statement on Sunshine Week applauding the work done so far to make the government more transparent and recommitting his administration to be the most open and transparent.  The statement highlights some of the accomplishments the administration has already racked up in this area including Data.gov, Recovery.gov and Executive Order on Classification.  The President also states that while they "are proud of these accomplishment" that the "work is not done." This reality of progress being made but more still being needed is reflected in two reports released for Sunshine Week.