The Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), have proposed to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), which governs the federal government’s purchasing process, to eliminate the requirement to use a proprietary data standard as its unique identifier system for tracking money awarded to contractors. funds awarded to contractors. The FAR currently requires the use of the Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS), developed by business information reporting company Dun & Bradstreet, and the federal government must pay Dun & Bradstreet licensing fees for the rights to use this data. However, the use of proprietary data standards contradicts federal open data policy by limiting the transparency and usability of government data. The Center for Data Innovation has filed comments supporting the proposed rule change as a critical first step towards making federal spending data truly open.
