Miller, Davis effort produces more transparency of official congressional spending

U.S. Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) recently announced that House Statement of Disbursements (SOD) are now available in a new electronic and searchable open-text format thanks to the effort of U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL).

Last year, Miller, the chairwoman of the House Administration Committee, appointed Davis and U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) to assess and review standards and procedures surrounding the disclosure of House officials’ expenses.

The work of that bipartisan Review Group resulted in the new SOD format in an effort to bolster transparency and accountability in the House.

“Today is a great day for the House of Representatives,” Miller said. “Increased transparency and the ease of access to important data is a necessary component of effective government. I commend the efforts of the committee’s bipartisan Review Group headed up by Reps. Rodney Davis and Zoe Lofgren to continue to modernize the House and enable better public access to government data.”

The SOD is now available at House.gov in searchable and sortable PDF and CSV open-text formats. The SOD outlines payments disbursed from official allowances during January, February and March of this year. Going forward, updated disbursement records will be posted each quarter.

Disbursement information outlined in the SOD has been part of the public record since 1964, and it has been available online since 2009.