Senate Unanimously Passes Lankford, Ernst-led Bipartisan Bill to Stop Secret Spending

WASHINGTON, DC - Recently, the US Senate unanimously passed a bipartisan bill authored by Senators James Lankford (R-OK), Joni Ernst (R-IA), and Gary Peters (D-MI), requiring public disclosure of tens of billions of dollars in secret spending deals.

Current law requires government expenditures to be listed on the public website USAspending.gov, so Americans can see who is receiving their tax dollars, along with details about where, why, and how the money is being spent. Bureaucrats have been circumventing the law by withholding thousands of spending arrangements, known as Other Transactions Agreements (OTAs). Over the past two years, the Pentagon alone has awarded $25.5 billion worth of OTAs and committed to spending another $44 billion on the agreements.

"You can't cut waste you can't see," said Lankford. "The Stop Secret Spending Act shines a light on billions of dollars in government spending that has been deliberately kept from taxpayers. Transparency is the first step toward accountability, and accountability is how we stop Washington from wasting the money Americans work hard to earn."

"Bureaucrats have been playing hide and seek with tax dollars for far too long," said Ernst. "It's time to end the games and stop the secret spending. The American people will now have a full picture of how Washington spends their money, so we can identify and cut waste and stop fraud and abuse."

"This commonsense legislation will increase transparency around how the federal government is using taxpayer resources and will cut down on waste, fraud, and abuse," said Peters. "Americans deserve to know how their hard-earned taxpayer dollars are being spent, and I'm pleased to see this bipartisan bill is one step closer to becoming law."

Background

The Stop Secret Spending Act requires OTAs to be disclosed in the same manner as grants, contracts, loans, and other government expenditures. The bill also requires a summary of the total amount of spending that is not publicly disclosed, along with a justification, so taxpayers are provided with a more complete accounting of Washington's $7.4 trillion annual budget.

This effort builds on Lankford's long-running push for federal spending transparency through the Taxpayers Right-to-Know Act, which he has championed since 2011. That law directs the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to compile a public inventory of every federal program, including its cost and performance, so taxpayers and Congress can identify duplication, inefficiency, and waste government-wide.

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