President Abraham Lincoln, the Railroad and XBRL.

• Author: Colgren, T. David
• Position: An Update on the DATA Act

President Abraham Lincoln's legacy as "the great unifier" goes beyond his efforts to end the Civil War and bring the nation back together. He also believed in using the technology of the time--the transcontinental railroad--to unite the states and bring about an "economic renaissance" to connect the country from coast to coast. Little did he realize the full impact of his plans.

The building of a national rail system using common standards (e.g., track width and gauge) revolutionized commerce and helped to quickly secure U.S. interests on the West Coast than would have been possible without such a network. Train technologies continue to advance today, of course. But the principles on which the transcontinental railroad was founded still hold true when we think about new technologies like XBRL and how our government agencies connect--or fail to connect--with each other to share information.

It's safe to say that our federal, state and local governments are often not united and operate in silos with respect to leveraging technology and information sharing. Financial information inside government agencies is difficult to access, validate, aggregate and analyze. Agencies can't balance their books and taxpayer dollars go uncounted, misappropriated or misused.

If sharing information within an agency is a difficult chore, sharing information between agencies is analogous to the situation Lincoln faced with the lack of a transcontinental railroad: There was no connection using a common standard to ensure a strong linkage. With the railroad connected, citizens, businesses and key government stakeholders benefitted as they could move about more freely and venture into new lands with new opportunities. Barriers to economic growth were lowered and an era of new prosperity took a foothold. The government benefitted by being able to better manage its vast territories, facilitate and regulate commerce, reach its citizens and more.

XBRL technology was introduced in the U.S. several years ago as an enabling technology to foster greater transparency and sharing of information using a common standard for public companies filing financial statements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result, the capital markets and investors have benefitted from faster, better, cheaper access to decision-useful, digital information.

In 2014, federal legislation was passed to foster greater transparency and information exchange within and between agencies. Ever careful not to paint itself into a corner, Congress gave itself some wiggle room in the legislation by not specifically mandating the sole use of XBRL for enacting this legislation; rather, it indicated that standards like XBRL should be considered, leaving the door open to interpretation and possible use of other standards and technologies.

But now is the time to shout "all aboard!" the XBRL express to Washington, D.C. Next stop: The DATA Act. In fact, we have some important passengers already.

The DATA Act

Earlier this year, Gene L. Dodaro, Comptroller General of the U.S...