Biden’s Treasury ‘Hiding’ $40 Billion in Outlays Law Requires to Be Disclosed on USAspending.gov: Sen. Ernst

Sunshine Week is all about transparency in government.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) speaks at a march for Israel in Washington on Nov. 14, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Federal officials secretly spent more than $40 billion under what they call “Other Transaction Agreements” (OTAs) despite a federal law that requires the government to post such expenditures on the USAspending.gov website, according to Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).

“We all know there is wasteful spending everywhere you look in Washington, but President Joe Biden wants to keep you in the dark because we can’t stop what we can’t see. That is why USAspending.gov, a searchable public website containing all government grants, contracts, and other expenditures, is taxpayers’ most valuable tool for spotting and then stopping Washington waste,” Ms. Ernst said in a statement made public in connection with Sunshine Week.

Sunshine Week commemorates the March 15 birthday of James Madison, one of the founders who wrote the Constitution and the author of the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment, which guarantees a free press and the public’s right to know what their government is doing.

“Folks, there is a big problem. Once again, Biden is hiding billions by not disclosing the details about the dollars his deputies are doling out using loosely defined deals referred to as ‘Other Transaction Agreements,’ or OTAs,” Ms. Ernst said.

“The use of OTAs by the government is growing ’significantly' and over $40 billion in OTAs have not been reported to USAspending.gov, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). This means less transparency and less accountability of secret sweetheart deals,” the Iowa Republican continued.

Ms. Ernst cited a November 2023 GAO report that detailed OTA spending.

“The Treasury Department, which is responsible for running the website, ‘does not believe agencies should report OTA spending to USAspending.gov,' despite the law stating that all “federal financial assistance and expenditures” totaling $25,000 or more should be included.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) announces the release of  "Wastebook 2013," his annual report of "examples of wasteful and low-priority spending" of the U.S. Government, at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 17, 2013. Alex Wong/Getty Images

The USAspending.gov website was established by Congress during President George W. Bush’s second term to enable every citizen with internet access to see all federal spending, except classified defense and intelligence programs. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) were the main sponsors of the Federal Financial Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA) of 2006 that mandated the establishment of the website.

The GAO report pointed to evidence that the total of unreported OTA spending by federal agencies may be even more than $40 billion.

“Our analysis of USAspending.gov and other sources found that significant amounts of OTAs are likely not being reported to USAspending.gov. For example, over $40 billion in OTAs were either reported on an agency’s website or the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) OTA Module, a government data system for agencies to report certain OTAs and associated obligations,” the GAO report said.

“These OTAs were not reported to USAspending.gov and included more than $10 billion that appeared to be related to COVID-19. However, we do not know how many agencies have OTA authority or how agencies report OTA spending. As a result, there may be other agencies with OTA authority that either did not report or for which we did not identify OTA data.”

A senior congressional source told The Epoch Times that “the law is clear that all expenditures should be included in USAspending.gov, regardless of the bureaucratic terminology used to describe the spending. It’s right in the title of the law. Treasury was supposed to take over the site to improve the data reporting and the department is intentionally omitting tens of billions of funding from transparency and accountability.”

In her Sunshine Week statement, Ms. Ernst also blasted Mr. Biden and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg in connection with continued massive federal subsidies on a six-mile extension of San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system.

Supporters originally claimed in 2018 that the project would cost $4.7 billion to complete in 2026, but the price tag has since leaped to $12.8 billion with a projected completion date sometime in 2037. That would result in federal taxpayers being saddled with more than $6 billion of the project’s total cost.

“Rather than canceling this project that is billions over budget and more than a decade behind schedule, Biden and his Transportation Secretary are treating it ’as one of their top transit projects in the country,' putting taxpayers on the hook for nearly half of its runaway costs,” Ms. Ernst said.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg testifies before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in Washington on Sept. 20, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Because Treasury officials are refusing to list OTA spending on USAspending.gov, Ms. Ernst said she is awarding the department with her March 2024 Squeal Award, a monthly citation the Iowa Republican gives to federal agencies and programs found to be wasting tax dollars.

“With Washington adding $1 trillion to the national debt every three months, we really need to review the receipts they’re hiding and request some refunds. To do that, I am introducing the ‘Stop Secret Spending Act’ mandating that OTAs be disclosed in USAspending.gov and the public be informed of any other secret Washington spending schemes,” Ms. Ernst said.

Adam Andrzejewski, founder and CEO of Open the Books, said in the statement released by Ms. Ernst that she “again and again demonstrates her commitment to revealing and combatting wasteful spending; but government employees, again and again, seek avenues to keep the picture incomplete.

“Whether through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) exemptions, special transactions, or inconsistent reporting requirements, they too often work against the spirit of open government. In keeping with Sunshine Week, this legislation would help give Americans the full accounting they are owed so that they can hold their government responsible for its spending.”

Similarly, Justin Goodman, Vice-President of the White Coat Waste Project, described the importance of the USASpending.gov website, likening it to efforts to make government more transparent.

“Taxpayers have a right to know how their hard-earned money is being spent,” Goodman said in the Ernst statement. “The USAspending database has been vital to our historic investigations that exposed and ended wasteful government spending on boondoggles like Fauci’s deadly puppy experiments and his dangerous coronavirus gain-of-function tests on humanized mice in Wuhan. We commend Senator Ernst for her ongoing leadership in efforts to improve transparency about how Uncle Sam is spending taxpayer dollars.”