Sandy Bill Heads to Senate with Huelskamp's Transparency Amendment

January 18, 2013

Sandy Bill Heads to Senate with Huelskamp's Transparency Amendment

(WASHINGTON) – The House of Representatives accepted by voice vote an amendment offered by Congressman Tim Huelskamp to require the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) to disclose the recipients of all grant funding. The overall legislation passed with Huelskamp's amendment, and is now headed to the Senate for consideration.

Huelskamp has championed many efforts to enhance public and media access to government records both at the state and federal level. In the Kansas State Senate, Huelskamp authored legislation that led to the ultimate creation of KanView, a publicly-accessible website that disclosed state agency spending and the salaries of public officials. And, in Kansas, he was recognized as a "Friend of Open Government" for his efforts to bring accountability through greater transparency at the state level.

As he explained on the floor, Huelskamp offered the amendment in order to provide maximum transparency and accountability for millions of taxpayer dollars distributed through FEMA grant programs. He explained how FEMA's Inspector General recently uncovered as much as $620 million in improper payments.

As Huelskamp concluded his brief floor statement on the amendment, he explained the ease with which FEMA can meet this additional accountability measure: "The paperwork is already being done on disaster relief grant applications. They are already being recorded on a computer somewhere in FEMA. So, there are already disclosure procedures in place that can quickly and appropriately bring forward this information. And, according to CBO, this amendment will have no budgetary impacts. It simply does not create an undue burden to make the list public in a timely fashion. So I ask my colleagues to join me and inject 100% transparency and accountability at the beginning of the process to help root out waste and fraud."

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