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Data Act at US Department of Treasury

Dr. Brand NiemannDirector and Senior Data Scientist/Data Journalist

Semantic Communityhttp://semanticommunity.info/

http://www.meetup.com/Virginia-Big-Data-Meetup/ http://www.meetup.com/Federal-Big-Data-Working-Group/

http://semanticommunity.info/Data_Science/Federal_Big_Data_Working_Group_MeetupDecember 15, 2014

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Data Transparency Coalition

• The Data Transparency Coalition advocates on behalf of the private sector and the public interest for the publication of government information as standardized, machine-readable data. Data transparency strengthens democratic accountability, enhances government management, reduces compliance costs, and stimulates innovation.

• Federal data reform starts with the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act), which will open the government's spending information to illuminate waste and fraud. But it won't end there. Other types of federal information need reform, too.

http://www.datacoalition.com/

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Fourth Data Transparency Breakfast

• Our fourth Data Transparency Breakfast, presented by PwC, will explore the transformation of the U.S. government's spending information from disconnected documents into standardized data, as required by the DATA Act of 2014, from the perspective of federal financial managers.

• Join the financial officers who will be responsible for applying government-wide DATA Act data standards to make federal financial reports fully searchable, interoperable, and open to all. Our panel will explore the challenges and opportunities of the DATA Act transformation.

• We are excited to announce our panel:– Joe Kull, PwC (moderator)– Dorrice Roth, Deputy CFO, Treasury– Sheila Conley, Deputy CFO, HHS– Mark Reger, Deputy Controller, OMB– Stacy Marcott, Deputy CFO, DHS

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Data Transparency Coalition Comments on Data Exchange

http://www.datacoalition.com/content/files/treasurycommentfinal.pdf

The Data Transparency Coalition submitted formal comments on the establishment of financial data standards to Treasury.My Note: As a PDF!

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Federal Spending Transparency GitHub Site

• Please be advised that Treasury and OMB have posted additional content on the public GitHub page

• The site contains information on:– Data definition and data exchange workstreams;– Links to Treasury's Federal Register Notice soliciting input on data

exchange standards and the comments that were received (posted under "News"); and

– The list of current data elements on USAspending.gov and new DATA Act data elements under consideration for data standards. (See next slide for new page)

– Includes a list of the public-facing versions of the elements and initial questions for public comment.

http://fedspendingtransparency.github.io/

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Federal Spending Data Elements

http://fedspendingtransparency.github.io/dataelements/

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Join the Conversation

• At this time, we are asking for comments in response to the following questions:– Which data elements are most crucial to your

current reporting and/or analysis?– In setting standards, what are industry standards

the Treasury and OMB should be considering?– What are some of the considerations that Treasury

and OMB should take into account when establishing data standards?

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USA Spending.gov Data Feeds

http://www.usaspending.gov/data

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Google: USASpending.gov

Google: USASpending.gov

My Note: Problems with data completeness and quality.

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My Questions

• My EPA Experience:– Why not have a Federal Chief Data Officer and

Agency Chief Data Officers with Data Scientists Mining Agency Data Assets?

• Federal Spending Data Elements:– Will they support more than just reporting? Data

analysis and even predictive analytics?

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Data Act Spotfire: Cover Page

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Data Act Spotfire: USA Spending.gov

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