A new bill will make it easier to spot wasteful federal spending.

In a year or three. The House and Senate this week unanimously approved a bill — theDigital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act) — that will providedetailed information to the public on federal programs and checkbook-level payments for both internal agency spending and outside grants and contracts. That’s a big deal for researchers and watchdogs — when the changes show up onUSASpending.gov.

Although the standards for maintaining spending data need to be published within a year of the bill’s becoming law, the federal government has up to three years to begin publishing the actual data. The Department of Defense also gets the possibility of up to three six-month extensions of the deadline.