MONTVALE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IMA, the world’s leading and largest association focused exclusively on advancing the global management aounting profession, announced today its support of “The Digital Aountability and Transparency Act” (the DATA Act) (H.R. 2146) and urges the full U.S. House of Representatives to proceed on the bill’s passage. IMA supports the use of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) to achieve the bill’s goal of providing aountability and transparency of federal ernment spending.

ngressman Darryl Issa, R-Calif., introduced the DATA Act, H.R. 2146, on June 13, 2011. It includes a provision to require a newly created Financial Aountability and Spending Transparency Board (FAST Board) to llect information from federal agencies, as well as from recipients of federal grants, ntracts and loans. The bill further requires the FAST Board to designate mmon data elements and reporting requirements for the information provided by grant recipients and agencies.

The DATA Act specifies XBRL, the global business reporting standard, as a data reporting language that should be nsidered to meet the requirement. XBRL – or interactive data – is a global, freely available, standardized data format for exchanging financial and business information in a “machine-readable” format.

“As an original -founder of the XBRL standard, IMA believes XBRL will benefit businesses, the ernment, investors, analysts, and the public by creating a mmon data format for the transparent, streamlined exchange and analysis of data critical to ernment oversight and capital markets functions,” said Brad J. Monterio, IMA board member, chair of IMA’s XBRL mmittee and managing director at lmgroup, Inc. “We urge the U.S. House to pass this legislation and realize the benefits much like we have seen in Australia, the herlands, the U.K., and other untries in which XBRL has been mandated across ernment agencies.”

Subsequent to the DATA Act’s introduction, on June 14, IMA’s past Chair and Nevada State ntroller Hon. Kim Wallin, CMA®, CFM, CPA, testified before the U.S. ernment Oversight and Reform mmittee on the benefits to state ernments and the business mmunity using XBRL.

“XBRL is non-proprietary and is already widely used around the world by ernments and the rporate mmunity. XBRL mplies with aounting principles and can be easily updated as new requirements me along,” said Ms. Wallin. “XBRL goes beyond reporting and provides the mechanism to sort through mountains of information and to help ernments make better informed decisions. XBRL will improve transparency, aountability, and give citizens and ernment officials alike better aess to how taxpayer dollars are spent.”

In tandem with ngressman Issa’s efforts, U.S. Senator Mark R. Warner, D-Va., announced his support and -sponsored legislation in the U.S. Senate on June 16. The legislation will go before the U.S. House of Representatives for a voice vote, while the U.S. Senate is in the process of schling hearings.