Agencies must report hidden spending deals publicly.
S. 872 — Stop Secret Spending Act of 2025 · Filed by Joni Ernst (R-IA) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 5, 2025 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill requires agencies to report 'other transaction deals' to USAspending.gov. This is a public website that shows how money is spent. Agencies must report all such deals within 3 years. They must appear in one place. The bill also requires yearly reports on what spending stays hidden and why. Inspectors will check that agencies follow these rules.
Who it affects
Citizens can now see information about spending that was hidden before. This makes the government more open about how it uses money.
One thing to notice
Some spending will stay hidden even after the bill takes effect. Agencies can keep secret any spending tied to national security. Spending below a certain amount does not have to be reported.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
5 cosponsors: 3 Republicans, 2 Democrats.
- Mar 5, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Mar 5, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs”
- Jul 30, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably”
- Mar 18, 2026 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Hearings held”
- Jun 10, 2026 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate with amendments by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S2721-2723; text: CR S2722-2723)”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 3 reports from Dec 2025 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $0 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 33 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 41% of bills with any report.
Joni Ernst, who sponsored the bill, received $342,120 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Government Accountability Project — $0 in 1 report
- Nebraska Hospital Association — $0 in 2 reports
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- other transaction deals — Contracts the government uses that do not have to be reported publicly.
- USAspending.gov — A website where the public can see how money is spent.
- inspectors — Officials who check that agencies follow the law and rules.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (7,709 characters) on Jul 10, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,522 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 13, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-21.
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