April 19, 2012, Washington, DC, XBRL US President and CEO Campbell Pryde testified today before the Human Resources Subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee at a hearing on the use of technology to better target benefits and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse. The hearing, conducted by Congressman Geoff Davis (R-KY), Chairman of the subcommittee, focused on data standardization efforts designed to increase the use of technology to improve the administration of public benefit programs.
“We applaud Chairman Davis and others in Congress who are working to make government more effective through the use of technology. Data standards will reduce cost, increase speed, and increase transparency and the effectiveness of taxpayer dollars,” said Mr. Pryde.
XBRL US is the nonprofit consortium for XBRL data standards, established to support the implementation of standardized business reporting by government and business through marketplace collaboration. XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is a data standard used to communicate financial and performance-related data by business and government.
Prepared remarks given by Mr. Pryde described the importance of data standards as a means to reduce cost, improve communication and encourage efficiency by enabling compatibility and comparability of information. XBRL was presented as a data standard that is based on XML and is enhanced with further standardization specifically designed for the reporting of financial and performance-related data.
Mr. Pryde’s testimony noted that some recent legislation has suggested the use of XML as a reporting standard. The statement went on to explain that XML is a flexible data standard that can be used to define many different kinds of applications.
“XML’s flexibility means agencies would likely use variations of XML to communicate financial reporting data. That would result in data compatibility issues between agencies and minimize the ability of taxpayers or policymakers to efficiently analyze program performance,” said Mr. Pryde. “XBRL is a data standard specifically designed to make financial and performance-related data compatible and comparable.”
The XBRL US testimony can be found: http://xbrl.us/Learn/Documents/XBRLUS-Testimony04192012.pdf
