U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) applauded action by the U.S. Senate to approve the bipartisan Stop Secret Spending Act of 2025, which is headed to the president to be signed into law. I’m forcing them to open the books, stop the secret spending, and give taxpayers the transparency they deserve.” Under current law, federal agencies must report expenditures on federal awards to USAspending.gov with the term federal award defined as federal grants, loans, cooperative agreements, contracts, and certain other types of expenditures. The bill expands the definition of federal award to include expenditures under OTAs, and therefore such expenditures must be included on the USAspending.gov website. In addition, the department must annually post on the USAspending.gov website a report that includes the total amount of federal spending on federal awards for which data has not been posted on the website, and the reason why such spending data was not posted.