Thornberry Supports Making Government More Accountable 

(Washington D.C.) Taxpayers will be able to track all federal spending on a new, searchable website, under a bill approved by Congress last night. Congressman Mac Thornberry joined in support of S. 2590, the "Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006," noting that such a simple bill was "a major step for common sense and for accountability in government."

The website's search engine and database will offer information on federal contracts, grants, loans, earmarks, and other federal assistance and expenditures.  The legislation calls for the website to be user friendly - all information must be accessible in a single search.  Frequent updating of the site is also required under the bill.  Information on government contracts, grants or other funding must be posted within 30 days after the funding is awarded.

"Our government is real good at taking money from the pockets of hard working Americans.  But, it is not real good at making it easy for taxpayers to find out where their money is going.  I believe this website will help make government more accountable to the people who are paying the bills," said Thornberry.

Under the bill, the information to be made available would include:

• The names of entities receiving federal money.
• The locations of entities receiving federal money including the city, state, congressional district, and country.
• The amount of money an entity receives.
• Identification of the agency or program providing federal money to a particular recipient.
• A description of the purpose for the funding received.

"This website should work a lot like Google.  You should be able to do searches simply by entering words like ‘cancer research' or the name of an organization or company," said Thornberry.

The legislation calls for the website to be up and running by January 1, 2008. Classified information will not be accessible through the website.

The legislation was originally introduced by Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and had passed unanimously out of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.  A "secret hold" was put on the bill by one or more senators until the publicity surrounding the hold forced the release of the bill, which passed the Senate by unanimous consent.

With the approval of the House, S. 2590 now goes to the President for his signature.

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