June 20, 2012 8:44AM # OMB’s Laggard Transparency Record By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) --- SHARE On Monday, I wrote about the rapidly [growing movement to replace the Office of Management and Budget](https://www.cato.org/on-transparent-data-use-it-or-lose-it-omb/) with a different coordinator for standardized publication of government spending data. Why? Because the OMB hasn’t been standardizing and publishing data about government spending. That’s why. Yesterday, Kaitlin Lee posted a three-part indictment of the OMB on the Sunlight Foundation blog, called “[OMB’s Commitment to Data Quality: Too Little, Too Late](http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/06/18/omb%E2%80%99s-commitment-to-data-quality-too-little-too-late/).” Lee is deeply knowledgeable in this area and extraordinarily patient with the data problems the government throws at her. Credit what you read in her blog post. (See also the [Data Transparency Coalition’s rebuttal of OMB controller Danny Werfel](http://datacoalition.blogspot.com/2012/06/omb-should-reconsider-its-opposition-to.html), who appears to be guiding the Obama administration toward opposition to spending data transparency.) The drumbeat for better data is growing louder, it’s pan-ideological, and it’s non-partisan. Will the OMB preempt the [DATA Act](http://www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/112_HR_2146.html) by moving forward with real data reforms, or will Congress preempt the OMB’s role? ##### Related Tags [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy), [Technology and Privacy](https://www.cato.org/technology-privacy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).