September Brings Dual Wins for Transparency

The Government Accountability Office published a damning report a few years ago that one-third of all federal spending isn’t reported on USASpending.gov.

Last week, a new law was enacted that will begin to cure the missing daylight.

It’s one of two new reforms that made September a huge win for taxpayers who care about spending transparency.

The Problem: Secret Spending

Among the spending that goes unreported to taxpayers: a special type of contract called an “Other Transaction Agreement.” Because it has some specific features that differentiate it from the standard procurement and contract process across government, these are not technically contracts as legally defined.

OTAs offer more flexibility for risky or critical projects; for example, the Pentagon heavily relied on these for Covid vaccine delivery.

While they have their place, they quickly spread to more than half a dozen agencies and counting, becoming just another way to avoid reporting and accountability.

As we reported and submitted to the Senate record over the summer:

“… Other Transaction Agreements are another huge gap in our current understanding of federal spending. They only escape scrutiny because of a technicality; they’re not explicitly named in the law. But keeping them hidden certainly violates the spirit of the law, not to mention the Founders’ intent. They wrote routine accounting into Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution.

“These deals loosen normal contracting requirements, which makes them open to extra waste or inefficiencies, and Treasury and OMB have no clarity on who decides which agencies are authorized to use them. That means there could be existing OTAs at agencies we don’t even know about yet. They’re the Wild West of spending vehicles.

“We do know OTAs were used, for example, to expedite COVID-19 vaccine development and manufacturing, an area of intense interest for taxpayers and our organization over the years. The GAO found that the Departments of Defense, HHS, and Homeland Security obligated at least $12.5 billion in OTAs that gave them the flexibility to quickly respond to urgent pandemic needs. Agencies cited the timeliness of awards as a major factor for using these agreements, including awards that accelerated COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing.

“Simply put, reporting them would help us fill a huge gap in the public’s understanding of how we spend with contractors. The GAO has found at least $40 billion worth of these arrangements but say the Pentagon cannot ‘assess the extent to which OTAs are delivering capabilities to the warfighter.’”

If the Pentagon can’t adequately determine and defend the efficacy of OTA’s, they certainly deserve the same scrutiny taxpayers are able to give other federal spending.

The Fix

The Stop Secret Spending Act passed the Senate unanimously followed by the House and was finally signed by President Trump on September 11.

The bill requires executive agencies to report OTA’s to USASpending.gov just like other spending.

But because bureaucrats continue to demonstrate their penchant to be secretive, the bill, spearheaded by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), goes further.

The Act requires that:

· Over the next decade, the Inspectors General of government agencies and departments must conduct regular reviews to ensure spending information is being provided to taxpayers in a timely, complete, and accurate manner;

· The Government Accountability Office (GAO) will also conduct a review and make recommendations for improvements; and

· The Department of Treasury must issue an annual report providing the total amount spent on grants, contracts, and other awards not included in USAspending.gov along with the reason that data is not posted for the public.

The Win

Beyond representing a victory for taxpayers that opens billions of dollars in spending to public scrutiny and accountability, the Stop Secret Spending Act was truly bipartisan.

Ernst has worked for years to make this law, but she was joined by cosponsor Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH). In the House, Reps. Barry Moore (R-AL) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) -- yes, a California Democrat! -- were primary cosponsors.

The bill passed both chambers unanimously.

Per materials released by the cosponsors, the OTA problem had only grown. Over the most recent five fiscal years:

• The Department of Defense has obligated $85 billion for thousands of OTAs, through more than 30,000 hard-to-track contracts, of which 1,898 are unclassified contracts valued at $10 million or more (438 $10 million+ contracts in just this fiscal year alone).

• The Department of Homeland Security has obligated $52.2 million for over 700 OTAs; and

• The Department of the Interior has obligated $858.8 million for over 220 OTAs, with many of these actually paid out for the Department of Health and Human Services’ ARPA-H biomedical research contracts.

Ernst herself had this to say:

“Taxpayers deserve the receipts. For years, I’ve fought to drag Washington’s secret spending into the sunlight, and I’m grateful President Trump signed my bill into law. Now, bureaucrats won’t be able to spend Americans’ hard-earned money in the dark.”

Open the Books works day in and day out to put every dollar, online, in real time. We also educate the public on their right to know and push for transparency in the dark corners of government’s balance sheets. We can’t do it without your support. Would you consider giving any amount today to keep these wins coming?

The Problem: Boondoggles Gone Berserk

For years, Open the Books has reported on the boondoggles, large and small, that pervade government spending projects. Many are familiar with California’s high-speed rail debacle; we brought you a similar chronic series of failures bringing high-speed transit to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. We also told you about the dramatic delays in Boeing’s delivery of rockets to NASA, part of a series of delays and errors:

An inspector general report released after the Boeing Starliner failed to return the astronauts showed the company is six years behind schedule and $1.8 billion over budget. The IG report noted severe quality control concerns with Boeing’s products over the years, noting the company was issued 71 “Corrective Action Requests” from 2021 to 2023. The IG report said efforts to address the problems were ineffective and the company has largely been unresponsive to the agency, not only that, but many workers are also unexperienced and unqualified.

Boeing was initially due to release its part of the Space Launch System in 2017 for a cost of $962 million.”

Boeing since delivered Stage 3 of the Space Launch System in April 2026, pushing Artemis III mission into 2027. NASA plans to find an alternative to the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) phase of the project after Boeing’s chronic tardiness and cost overruns.

On social media this week, we highlighted more major cost overruns like the Purple Line metro extension from DC into Maryland. A 16.2-mile rail project has double in cost from $2.4 billion to $5.5 billion, and the total cost to build and operate it went from $5.6 billion to $9.3 billion. Meanwhile, the target date for completion has shifted from 2022 to 2027.

Over a dozen more boondoggles worth over $160 billion can be found in Sen. Ernst’s report, “Off the Rails.”

The Fix

Another refreshingly bipartisan bill will put daylight on these calamitous projects that may have had taxpayer buy-in at the start but then drained their wallets for years to come.

The Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act requires executive agencies to report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) any projects that are more than $1 billion over budget or more than 5 years delayed. The feds are then to post these online to make them easily accessible for taxpayers and Congress for accountability. The reporting will include reasons for the delays, changes of scope and the private contractors involved.

We rooted for this bill as we reflected on Treasury’s annual report on the fiscal position of the United States, which cited a $193.6 trillion “infinite horizon” figure for our unfunded spending obligations. Our debt and deficits are in dire shape today, let alone when we consider spending on future generations.

Bills like the Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act help taxpayers understand the chronic inefficiencies, delays, and misspending that litter government projects and offer a chance for accountability.

It passed the Senate and then the House unanimously, and Senate cosponsors were Ernst, Hassan and Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Ashley Moody (R-FL) and Rick Scott (R-FL).

Rep. Marianette Miller-Meeks, who pushed for House passage, had this to say:

“When billion-dollar projects go years over schedule and billions over budget, taxpayers deserve answers and accountability. The Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act will shine a light on these financial train wrecks and make sure Congress and the American people know where their money is going. I’m proud to see this bill pass Congress and head to the president’s desk, and I thank Senator Ernst for her partnership in getting this important legislation across the finish line.”

The Lesson

It took Sen. Ernst eight years to get the Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act passed, and it gained momentum after first getting a similar requirement of the Department of Transportation inserted into the Inflation Reduction Act.

It was in March 2019 when Ernst first took public aim at California’s high-speed train project, which has become a symbol of such boondoggles.

Washington is always looking for ways to hide the spending, in opposition to the spirit of the Constitution. It could be through special transactions, spreading costs over a number of years and bills, or abusing exemptions to the FOIA laws.

Ensuring that current law delivers on the spirit of spending transparency is a multigenerational project that requires work from all of us to maintain. It can take years of hard work to get a single win across the finish line, but the past several days prove it’s worth the fight.

FURTHER READING

Read our testimony before the Senate Small Business Commitee during Sunshine Week 2026, including support for the Stop Secret Spending Act.