The Story of Data Transparency

In the very Constitution of the United States, it was written that “a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.” This became one of the first public financial reports, with the Account of the Receipts and Expenditures published from 1793 through 1890. In these historical files, now available on Fiscal Data, you can see the transfer of funds from the “Revolutionary Government”, the first expenses for the United States Navy, payments from the Louisiana Purchase, and spending on costs for civil goods such as hospitals, roads, and light houses.

Over time, both the volume of financial reports and the standards and requirements for when and how the government tracked its finances evolved. In 1921, the Budget and Accounting Act mandated the first annual, consolidated budget system and required independent audits. In the 1990s, additional governance and oversight was established, including the first Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit of the Treasury. Significant advancements in transparency for federal finances were made with the Federal Funding Accountability Act (FFATA) and the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act). These Congressional Acts required the government to expand the amount of data available to the public to provide greater visibility into how tax dollars are spent through USAspending.gov.

Fiscal Data stands in this long history of federal financial transparency. The site pulls together federal financial reports, like Account of the Receipts and Expenditures, Combined Statement of Receipts, Outlays, and Balances, and the Monthly Treasury Statement, which together make up nearly 250 years of data on the government’s revenue, spending, and deficits. Additional reports, like the Historical Debt Outstanding provide debt data beginning in 1790. In one consolidated location, many of these reports now include machine-readable data for easier analysis by the public and greater information about reports. Additionally, Fiscal Data includes explainers about the debt, spending, revenue, deficit, and other topics to make federal financial information not only accessible, but more understandable for the American Public.