Sunlight reports on the House bill that will slash funding for major government data sharing and transparency projects. Noting that the funding for these programs is only a few million dollars, Daniel Shuman says, “The returns from these e-government initiatives in terms of transparency are priceless.”
- Budget Technopocalypse: Proposed Congressional Budgets Slash Funding for Data Transparency, by Daniel Schuman, Sunlight Foundation Blog (March 23, 2011).
Data.gov, USASpending.gov, and other Obama tech innovations face virtual extinction if the FY 2011 budget bill passed by the House of Representatives in February or considered by the Senate in March becomes law.
It is not just the Statistical Abstract and related compilations that we are in danger of losing due to budget cuts (see The demise of the Statistical Abstract and other critical Census titles). Budget cuts are aimed at some of the most basic government information programs.
In such a climate, how can we rely on GPO, FDsys, NARA, and government agencies as our sole source of the government information that is released? We need this information in our digital depository libraries so that our communities can decide what is essential for long term preservation and access!
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