A bipartisan group of Congresspeople is introducing a bill to increase transparency regarding federal spending.
The Stop Secret Spending Act targets federal spending labeled “other transaction agreements” not included on USAspending.gov. The act would require billions of dollars in spending to be reported on the website. Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Gary Peters (D-MI) and Reps. Barry Moore (R-AL) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) introduced the bill.
“Bureaucrats have been playing hide and seek with tax dollars for far too long,” Ernst said. “I am ending the games and stopping the secret spending. The American people will now be able to see how Washington spends their money so we can identify and cut waste.”
OTAs are listed when the spending is ruled to “not fall within the express definition of ‘federal award.’”
According to data analyzed by Ernst, shared with the Washington Examiner, agencies spent over $18.2 billion on OTAs in 2024 alone. The top five biggest recipients were the Army ($6.3 billion), the Air Force ($5.4 billion), the Navy ($3.4 billion), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ($722 million), and the Immediate Office of the Secretary of Defense ($607 million).
The Government Accountability Office found another $40 billion reported as OTAs from fiscal 2020-2022.
The Stop Secret Spending Act would amend the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, which requires an annual report on unreported funding.
Peters portrayed the bill as “common-sense legislation.”
“Americans deserve to know how their hard-earned taxpayer dollars are being spent,” he told Politico. “This common-sense legislation will increase transparency of how the federal government is using taxpayer resources and, in turn, cut down on waste, fraud, and abuse.”
The bipartisan support comes amid controversy around the Department of Government Efficiency, which has taken a chainsaw approach to government waste. The mass firings and spending cuts have drawn near-unanimous outrage from Democrats and some skepticism from Republicans. Nevertheless, the new bill shows that cutting government waste remains bipartisan.
Ernst has made much of her stint in the Senate about cutting government waste, co-founding the Senate DOGE Caucus. She was a major force behind investigating waste from governmental remote work and celebrated President Donald Trump’s executive order on Day One to end telework for all federal employees.
Last month, Ernst and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) introduced the Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act, which would require an annual report detailing taxpayer-funded government projects that run either five years behind schedule or at least a billion dollars over budget.
In January, Ernst introduced the Stop Wasteful Advertising by the Government Act, which aims to stop spending on “government propaganda, taxpayer-funded trinkets, and mascots.”