Transparency is a major component of government accountability.  The act of providing transparent government could include many things, but is certain to include the availability of federal budget.  To dive deeper into this subject, point your browser to http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/ and select the link to “Supplemental Materials” Hint: This is under the subheading “The President’s Budget.”  Then open the XLS file for Budget Authority (under the Public Budget Database section).

Important: Budget Authority (BA) is a specific term that the Office of Management of Budget (or OMB) defines as the authority provided by law to incur financial obligations that will result in outlays (OMB, Circular A-11).

1. The dataset should include BA from 1976 forward for each federal agency—by account.  Take a few moments to peruse the numbers, scrolling both down the page and to the right.  What are some of your initial thoughts? Do the numbers seem to increase or decrease? Note that there are often many accounts for a single agency. Sometimes you will notice BA in some accounts for some years and not for others (this may be because data are missing or included in a single line for some years).  Note that BA figures are in thousands!

2.  Pick one account within a single agency.  For example, Row 29 represents the BA for the United States House of Representatives.  For the agency that you choose, trace the BA over the years.  Do you see anything unusual?  Does BA seem to fluctuate?  With your response, include a simple table in showing the BA from 2000 to present.  Remember that these BA figures are in thousands!

3.  Peruse the rest of the Supplemental Materials section of OMB’s website.  After all, you’ll be using these data throughout the duration of the course.  Do you think that providing this information helps to promote accountability of the public sector?  Is it enough?  With your answer, provide some additional examples of data that are available to the public that you believe help to promote accountability.  Your examples don’t just have to be for the federal government! Can you think of examples at state and local levels?