Cities, towns, counties and states will be required to standardize their financial information in machine-readable format by 2027 under a provision included in the defense authorization bill that President Joe Biden is expected to sign into law. The Senate Thursday overwhelmingly approved the $848 billion National Defense Authorization Act of 2023, which includes the Financial Data Transparency Act. The House passed the NDAA last week. Biden is expected to sign it into law as soon as next week. Municipal market issuers like the Government Finance Officers Association, the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors lobbied unsuccessfully to have the bill stripped out of the NDAA, though they did succeed in getting some of the language toned down. … Under the new law, municipal issuers will be required to disclose their data in a financial reporting standard, such as eXtensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL, at the end of four years. The SEC and other financial regulators have two years to craft the standards. The new law represents an unfunded mandate for governments, said Michael Gleeson, the National League of Cities’ legislative director for finance, administration and intergovernmental relations, in a recent blog post to members.
Source: The Bond Buyer
