Congressman Pat Tiberi's Capitol Notebook

Congressman Pat Tiberi's Capitol Notebook

Washington, Sep 8 -

Everyone concerned about federal spending should be pleased with legislation under consideration in the Senate that would allow anyone with web access to track money flowing to federal grants, contracts and the like.

The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act creates a Google-like search engine that sponsors say would allow just about anyone to find out details of every grant, loan, contract or earmark that comes out of Washington.

The idea originated with Sen. Tom Coburn, a physician from Oklahoma. Coburn says his bill is the prescription that could "end the culture of secrecy in Washington and restore some measure of the public's confidence in government. Technology has made it possible (to enable) all citizens to understand our nation's finances, investigate abuses and hold elected officials accountable."

I agree. This bill is a simple, common sense approach to shining the light of day on federal spending It gives you, the taxpayer, the ability to not only monitor that spending, but determine for yourself if too much (or too little) is being devoted to certain priorities or entities. If you wanted to know how much federal research money goes to The Ohio State University, you could find out with a few clicks of your computer mouse.

Coburn's legislation has resulted in lots of public discussion and a bit of intrigue. Senate rules allow any individual senator to place a secret "hold" on just about any measure, thus preventing it from being brought up for consideration. In this instance, two Senators placed anonymous holds. In this day of countless political blogs and websites, the Internet during August was saturated with efforts aimed at finding out who put up the roadblocks. Even Majority Leader Bill Frist got involved, urging whoever placed the holds to ‘fess up.

Finally, two of the Senate's biggest spenders admitted that they had placed holds on the bill. Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) and Ted Stevens (R-AL) both said they had "concerns" and "questions" about that needed answers. Why they felt they had to block the bill in order to get responses is anybody's guess. Either they finally got the answers they wanted or simply began to feel the heat of public opinion, because Byrd has now lifted his hold and Stevens says he plans to do the same.

Now the way is cleared for consideration of this bill and I hope the Senate approves it quickly. The House has okayed a more limited version that applies only to government grants. I supported for the House bill, but regard it as only a good first step. The Senate measure is far more comprehensive and would provide access to far more information. Both the House and Senate should move quickly to pass it this month. If we do, we could turn ordinary citizens into government watchdogs in the not-too-distant future.

http://tiberi.house.gov/news/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=49735