Biz-Filing Transparency Bill Moves

The House on Monday evening approved legislation that would make it easier to scrutinize data on companies receiving federal funds. It would require corporations to file activity reports to agencies in a uniform business language and require agencies to ensure the public can view the standardized financial information.

The bipartisan measure, introduced by bailout-opponent Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif, calls on the White House to issue rules within 18 months for using, governmentwide, the same financial data format, called eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL).

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. already use the standard to simplify the process of analyzing financial filings.

But most agencies collect financial reports in many different data formats, making it hard to access and compare the data. The process is generally frustrating, time-consuming and largely manual, increasing the likelihood of human error, said Liv A. Watson, a co-founder of XBRL who serves on the board of director of financial information management firm IRIS India.

The legislation likely would require agencies to spend $50,000 to $100,000 on new technologies to standardize on XBRL.

"The government would have to invest in tools and infrastructure to store and render XBRL data, but if you think about it, today they do that many times over to deal with many different data formats," Watson said. "What it really is about is the process of getting your information into a discoverable standard that can be analyzed and compared. It is an accountability and responsibility they have to taxpayers."

The technologies check whether company filings contain all the data fields required by XBRL and make sure that the numbers add up correctly. For example, reported credit card income on the income statement should have a corresponding asset on the balance sheet.

Banking industry officials said the burden of converting their reports to XBRL would be outweighed by the benefits of a uniform standard, especially if it is adopted internationally.

To expedite House passage, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Thursday added the bill, H.R. 2392, to a Senate-passed measure, S. 303, which reauthorizes Grants.gov, a one-stop shop enabling citizens to apply for federal awards.