|
Bipartisan Coalition Urges Congress to Preserve Provision to Make FAPIIS Public
June 11, 2010
Chairman Daniel Inouye
Senate Committee on Appropriations
Ranking Member Thad Cochran
Senate Committee on Appropriations
Chairman David Obey
House Committee on Appropriations
Ranking Member Jerry Lewis
House Committee on Appropriations
Dear Conference Leadership:
We, the undersigned organizations, write to express our support for S. Amendment 4280 in the Senate-passed version of H.R. 4899, the Supplemental Disaster Relief and Summer Jobs Act of 2010. Our groups have a keen interest in government spending and transparency matters, especially matters pertaining to public access to the government’s new contractor integrity and performance database, the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS).
Ever since the concept of a comprehensive, centralized, government-wide contractor responsibility database was introduced in Congress in 2008, our groups have been campaigning for such a database to be made publicly available. Although we have various views on other parts of H.R. 4899, we were all pleased when the Senate approved Senator Bernie Sanders’ amendment (S. Amendment 4280) to the bill requiring the Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA) to make publicly available all data contained in FAPIIS, except “past performance reviews.”
While we think all FAPIIS data, including past performance information not directly implicating genuine proprietary or privacy interests, should be publicly posted, we wholeheartedly support this amendment as a major advance in contractor accountability and transparency. Its passage would open up an immense cache of valuable data regarding contract- and grant-related civil, criminal, and administrative responsibility histories of thousands of contractors and grantees that collectively receive hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars every year.
Additionally, all Members of Congress would have access to the data, which is essential since congressional access is currently limited “to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the committees of Congress having jurisdiction.”
We appreciate your time and consideration, and urge you to support S. Amendment 4280, thereby making FAPIIS publicly available. If you have any questions or would like to discuss this issue further, please contact us.
Sincerely,
| Project On Government Oversight Danielle Brian Executive Director |
Taxpayers for Common Sense Ryan Alexander President |
| OMB Watch Craig Jennings Director, Federal Fiscal Policy |
Essential Information John Richard President |
| iSolon.org J.H. Snider, MBA, Ph.D. President |
U.S. Public Interest Research Group Gary Kalman Director, Federal Legislative Office |
| Center for American Progress Action Fund David Madland Director, American Worker Project |
Project on Government Secrecy, Federation of American Scientists Steven Aftergood Project Director |
| OpenTheGovernment.org Patrice McDermott Director |
American Association of Law Libraries Mary Alice Baish Director of Government Relations |
| The Sunlight Foundation Ellen Miller Executive Director |
Public Citizen Tyson Slocum Director, Energy Program |
| Government Accountability Project Mark P. Cohen, Esq. Executive Director |
National Taxpayers Union Pete Sepp Executive Vice President |
| Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Melanie Sloan Executive Director |
