The amendment requires the budget expenditures of every Senate office to be posted on-line in a publicly searchable format.

The Legislative Branch appropriations bill provides billions of taxpayer dollars to fund the day to day operations of Congress, including both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Unfortunately, much of the information on how Congress spends its budget is not currently available on-line for the public to review.

To remedy this, Speaker Pelosi has initiated an effort to post House expenditures on-line. However, despite the fact that the Secretary of the Senate publishes a biannual report detailing Senate office expenditures, the Senate has yet to post this information on-line as a first step toward transparency and accountability to taxpayers for how it spends their money.

Without requiring any additional burdensome reporting requirements, this amendment would require the Secretary to post on-line, all expenditures by every Senate office, in a searchable format, within 60 days after the publication of the biannual expenditures report. In addition, the Secretary would no longer be required to print bound copies of the report, which would lead to savings in printing costs. Click here to read the entire background.