An analysis of federal budget information on the World Wide Web

Abstract

The evolution of the Internet has progressed significantly, encouraging organizations to improve the quality of information in websites. This phenomenon has impacted sources of information available on the federal budget. This thesis examines this development by documenting the scope of federal budget information on the Internet. Literature on the federal budget process and the World Wide Web was reviewed. More than 120 executive, legislative and private interest group websites were sampled. Websites were characterized using the criteria of timeliness of data, accessibility to data and ideological orientation. The thesis concludes that significant federal budget information is available on the Internet. In terms of web-publishing federal budget data, Congress and proprietary sites were the most timely. Accessibility varied with the significance to the website sponsor of federal budget policies. An ideological range within the websites sampled was depicted, from the ostensibly neutral to the obviously partisan. The thesis provides a discussion and examples of websites sponsored by many federal and private organizations. Web users interested in the federal budget can benefit from this information to guide thefr use of the Intemet.