[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 86 (Wednesday, June 9, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1048-E1049]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    FEDERAL REPORTING.GOV, THE FIRST CENTRALIZED REPORTING STRATEGY

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JAMES P. MORAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 9, 2010

  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I rise to draw the attention of 
my colleagues to a successful example of public-private collaboration 
that marks a new era of government transparency and accountability. It 
could not have happened without the cooperation of the private sector.
  Following President Obama's commitment to let the public track every 
dollar spent under the economic stimulus package, administration was 
hard pressed to find a timely and effective way to meet the objective. 
Many were skeptical, and thought it would take months if not years to 
develop a website, standardize the information, create a website and 
keep the information current.
  Rather than start from scratch and begin a new procurement process, 
the Office of Management and Budget opted to leverage an existing 
program and technology. This wise decision lowered the cost and enabled 
it to be implemented under an extremely tight timeline.

[[Page E1049]]

In June 2009, OMB and the Recovery and Accountability and Transparency 
Board (RATB) selected an existing data management system used by the 
Environmental Protection Agency called the Central Data Exchange or CDX 
for short. The great efficiency of the interagency work allowed the 
website, Recovery.gov, to open several weeks later in August for both 
the government and the public to access. The system is also flexible 
enough that OMB and RATB continue to guide and improve reporting 
requirements through a separate data collection site, 
FederalReporting.gov on a daily basis.
  The Recovery Board and the EPA partnered with CGI Federal to develop 
and implement the site. CGI Federal built the site and added 
enhancements and still continues to validate the site's information. 
The tireless work and outstanding effort of this partnership led to the 
successful implementation of this system.
  FederalReporting.gov is the first centralized reporting strategy that 
spans all participating federal agencies. As a result, agencies do not 
have to spend funds to implement independent solutions for data 
collection. Also, FederalReporting.gov is one of the first federal 
reporting systems to be entirely paperless. The success of the site 
proves that a paperless system does not result in a large number of 
non-compliant recipients but opens the door for future green government 
efforts.
  FederalReporting.gov shows us that there are examples of successful 
collaboration and partnership between government agencies and the 
private sector that help move our country forward.

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