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Irony = Consolidated Federal Funds Report discontinued, Senate to hold hearing on transparency of federal funding
We just posted about the impending doom of the Consolidated Federal Funds Report (CFFR). Well guess what I found in my latest weekly email update from the Project on Government Oversight (POGO)? I found an announcement for a hearing of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on July 18, 2012 (Location: SD-342) entitled — get this! — “Show Me the Money: Improving the Transparency of Federal Spending.” It seems to me that the quickest and easiest way to improve the transparency in federal funding is to re-fund the Federal Financial Statistics program and the Consolidated Federal Funds Report (CFFR).
I hope all of our readers — and especially those from states with Senators sitting on that committee (CT, ME, MI, HI, DE, AR, LA, MO, MT, AK, OK, MA, AZ, WI, OH, KY, KS) — will contact Senator Joe Lieberman (Committee Chairman) and Senator Susan Collins (Ranking member) and ALL of the other Senators and request that the CFFR be reinstated.
Here’s sample email text to copy/paste:
Dear Senator ______________,I see that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs will be holding a hearing on July 18th entitled “Show Me the Money: Improving the Transparency of Federal Spending.” You may be aware that the Census Bureau’s Federal Financial Statistics program will be shut down on July 31, 2012 due to budget cuts. This includes the critical publication “Consolidated Federal Funds Report (CFFR)” [http://www.census.gov/govs/cffr/]. According to the Census Website, the CFFR contains “virtually all Federal expenditures, including grants, loans, direct payments, insurance, procurement, salaries and wages and other awards (such as price supports and research awards). Data represent actual expenditures (or outlays).”
As a government information librarian at _________________________, I can attest that this publication is highly sought after by researchers, faculty, students, and the public looking into federal spending. Reinstating the Federal Financial Statistics Program and continuing publication of the CFFR would be a very large step in the right direction toward greater transparency in federal funding — which I believe is the goal of this upcoming hearing.
Thank you for your attention to the important issue of government transparency and responsible spending.
Sincerely,
NAME
CONTACT
Another one bites the dust: Consolidated Federal Funds Report going away July 31, 2012
Happy friday 😐 The Consolidated Federal Funds Report will be going away. Census will still continue to host the 1995 – 2010 historic reports (for now!). According to their web site:
Due to the termination of the Federal Financial Statistics program, the Consolidated Federal Funds Report (CFFR) website, including the On-Line Query System, will be shut down on July 31, 2012. Historical CFFR data will be available by request or via a Census Bureau FTP site. Available files will include the U.S. and Individual States Combined, Individual State Files, accompanying reference files, and .pdf publication reports. In addition, the Federal Aid to States and Federal Expenditures by State historical .pdf publications will also be available by request or via a Census Bureau FTP site.
For questions regarding future access to these historical files, please contact the Governments Division – Education and Outreach Branch at govs.cms.inquiry@census.gov
What is the Consolidated Federal Funds Report and why is it so critical? Here’s Census’ description of the resource:
Data are obtained on the amount of virtually all Federal expenditures, including grants, loans, direct payments, insurance, procurement, salaries and wages and other awards (such as price supports and research awards). Data represent actual expenditures (or outlays) with some exceptions. For example, contract amounts may represent obligations, loans and insurance can include cash and contingent liability values, and grants to individuals may reflect benefit commitments. Expenditures are reported by responsible department or agency, and classified by affected program (such as Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief grants or Food and Nutrition Services Women Infants and Children (WIC) Program).
That’s a LOT of data that will soon disappear!
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