A California ngressman has introduced legislation that would require federal agencies to use interactive data-tagging technology to track the use of ernment bailout funds by mpanies.

House mittee on Oversight and ernment Reform ranking member Darrell Issa, R-Calif., introduced H.R. 2392, the ernment Information Transparency Act, on Friday. The bill leverages the Extensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL, data-tagging format, which was recently mandated by the SEC for the largest public mpanies to begin using (see Biggest panies Ready for XBRL).

Issa’s bill would allow ernment officials and the public to track the use of funds in the Troubled Asset Relief Program and value toxic assets via XBRL technology. At a hearing in March, XBRL US president and CEO Mark Bolgiano testified about how the technology uld be used for this purpose (see XBRL May Help Monitor TARP Spending).

“The technology exists to create real transparency that would allow us to track TARP dollars and value toxic assets but the federal ernment is far behind the curve in implementing available solutions,” said Issa (pictured) in a statement. “This legislation offers more than the promise of change and transparency, it is a substantive plan to implement it.”

The bill standardizes the llection, analysis and dissemination of business information by federal agencies. It mandates use of the technology and requires that the llected information be made readily available for public aess to the extent permitted by law.

XBRL is already in place as a reporting standard in approximately 40 untries around the world. Banks in the U.S. are currently required to disclose information to the FDIC in XBRL format. The SEC recently approved a final rule mandating the use of XBRL for all public mpany reporting, with some mpanies required to mply starting next month.