Carper's Corner

August 7, 2006 - Washington, DC

People use the Internet for any number of things these days - helping their kids with their homework, hunting down cheap airline tickets, and, my personal favorite, keeping track of the Detroit Tigers. The Internet's become an indispensable tool, mostly because it's given regular people, like you and me, the ability to research practically any topic and learn more about the world around them.

Late in July, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, of which I'm a member, approved legislation I've been working on to use the Internet to learn more about how the federal government spends its money.

I've been a long believer that we need to do more to cut government waste, but the federal government is so vast, it's incredibly difficult, even for senators, to investigate whether the thousands of federal grants, earmarks and contracts approved each year are going toward a good cause. Although all federal expenditures are accessible to the public, it takes the computer skills of Bill Gates and the navigation skills of Lewis and Clark to trace federal dollars through the system.

That's why I've joined with several of my colleagues - including Sens. Tom Corburn, of Oklahoma, Barack Obama, of Illinois, and John McCain, of Arizona - to develop and build support for legislation that would empower the public to become a greater watchdog of our government's finances. The bill would basically call for a "Google-like" search engine and database, which the public could use to research how the government is spending your money.

For example, let's say you wanted to look into the money that's being spent to modernize our fleet of C-5 Galaxies in Dover. You could type into the search engine the topic "C-5," or its maker "Lockheed," or even "General Electric," which is constructing the new engines for the aircraft. Then all government expenditures and contracts relating to those topics would pop up for your perusal. You could then find out for yourself the justification for a particular project, how much money is being spent, who and what it's being spent on, and whether the recipients of that money are delivering on their promises.

When I was running for State Treasurer in 1976, the first really memorable story written about me was by a reporter named Ralph Moyed, who passed away several ago. He was a no-nonsense type of journalist who felt an obligation to shine his light on government officials to make sure that they remembered their first obligation was to the people. He had an exceptional moral compass, and I can tell you from experience, his watchful eye put the fear of God into many Delaware politicians.

Unfortunately, not every politician or government employee is thinking or worrying about the Ralph Moyeds of the world when they approve a contract or push for a congressional earmark of questionable merit. You don't have to look much further than the waste and abuse we've documented in federal expenditures during the aftermath of Katrina or the lobbying scandals of Jack Abramoff to be reminded that we need to be doing a better job of policing federal money.

This bill is good first step toward making government spending more transparent and accountable to the people. My hope is that we can enact it into law before the November elections. I'm sure Ralph Moyed would approve.

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