To require adequate traceability for expenditures by the Federal Government.
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Haridopolos (for himself, Mr. Knott, Mr. Donalds, Mr. Webster …
Summary
What This Bill Does
The LEDGER Act (Locating Every Disbursement in Government Expenditure Records Act) requires the Treasury Department to create a comprehensive tracking system for all federal government spending within 180 days. This system would monitor every outlay from every appropriation and fund account across all branches of government, including when funds expire.
Who Benefits and How
American taxpayers and government watchdog groups benefit from increased transparency into how their tax dollars are spent. Congressional oversight committees gain better tools to monitor federal spending across all agencies. Journalists, researchers, and civic groups would have easier access to detailed expenditure data for accountability reporting.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Department of the Treasury must build and maintain a new comprehensive tracking infrastructure within a tight 180-day deadline. All federal departments, agencies, and offices across the executive, legislative, and judicial branches face new compliance requirements to report their outlays into this centralized system. Government IT departments will need to integrate their financial systems with the new tracking platform.
Key Provisions
- Mandates the Secretary of the Treasury to implement a government-wide expenditure tracking system within 180 days
- Requires tracking of all outlays from every appropriation, receipt, and fund account in the Treasury
- Covers all branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial
- Includes tracking of when appropriated funds expire (period of availability)
- Adds a new Section 3517 to Title 31 of the United States Code to codify these requirements
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
The bill aims to enhance transparency in federal government spending by mandating the implementation of a system that tracks all outlays from various accounts, ensuring accountability and visibility across departments.
Policy Domains
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of the Treasury
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology