July 11, 2013 The Honorable Tom Udall Chairman, Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee The

Honorable Mike Johanns Ranking Member, Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee

Re: FY 2014 Appropriations for the Electronic Government Fund Dear Chairman Udall and Ranking Member Johanns: We are writing to encourage you to fully fund the Electronic Government Fund. In his FY 2014 Budget, President Obama requested a $20,150,000 appropriation for the fund, a modest increase over last years funding level, although significantly lower than the $34,000,000 appropriated in FY 2009 and 2010 and far less than the amounts authorized by the EGovernment Act of 2002. The E-Gov Fund has a proven track record of developing successful technology-based transparency projects that improve government efficiency and accountability. Under the E-Gov Fund, which is administered by the General Services Administration under the supervision of the Federal Chief Information Officer, technology programs are developed that harness governmentwide efficiencies. For example, the E-Gov Fund supported the development of USASpending.gov, which provides significant insight into government contract and spending data. The knowledge gained from USASpending.gov also helped inform legislation currently under consideration to further improve federal spending transparency. The IT Dashboard, another E-Gov Fund project, helped root out government waste and inefficiency in federal technology contracting, and led to the elimination of $3 billion in failed technology projects. PaymentAccuracy.gov shines a light on improper federal payments, which total billions of dollars each year. E-Gov Fund projects also provide the framework for vibrant private-sector business and job creation. The thousands of government data sets now available through Data.gov are building blocks for innovative new IT products. For instance, the search engine Bing now integrates Medicare quality data into searches for hospitals. Brightscope, a start-up company, has raised $2 million in venture capital and created 30 jobs through their analysis of retirement plan data from the Department of Labor. In these financially difficult times, it is prudent for government to focus on where it can get the biggest bang for the buck. The E-Gov Fund has demonstrated that its return on investment yields dividends in dollars and transparency.

We appreciate your time and attention to this issue. If you have any questions or would like to discuss this issue further, please contact Daniel Schuman of CREW at (202) 408-5565 or Gavin Baker of the Center for Effective Government at (202) 234-8494. Sincerely yours, Center for Effective Government (formerly OMB Watch) Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) The Sunlight Foundation