Press Room
News Stories
Editorial: Public's right to know scores victory on Internet
The Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL)
September 20, 2006
A bunch of Internet aficionados were able to defeat a stranglehold placed on important reform legislation by two prominent pork-barrel senators.
Just think what they will be able to do with new tools to use the Internet to examine federal spending records.
The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, co-sponsored by U.S. Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., requires the government to set up a free, searchable Web site listing all entities receiving federal grants, contracts or other monetary awards of $25,000 or more.
The bill, S 2590, passed last week in the House and Senate - but not before a secret Senate hold nearly derailed the measure.
Followers of Internet sites such as www.porkbusters.org were able to sniff out the culprits: Sens. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Robert Byrd, D-W.Va. And as pressure mounted, party leaders persuaded Stevens and Byrd to drop their holds.
The next step for anti-pork crusaders will be to use the searchable database to sniff out the worst examples of government waste.
Although the information is already public, it is not readily accessible.
Once this measure is implemented by the Office of Management and Budget, individuals can plug in the name of a company, institution or agency and get a list of who received how much money.
Under the bill, OMB has until Jan. 1, 2008, to have the database operational. We suspect there will be plenty of people to keep OMB's feet to the fire to meet the deadline.
This isn't just a triumph for bloggers and their ability to harness the power of the Internet and the enthusiasm of their followers.
It is also a good example of what can be done when people set aside party labels and ideologies to get things done.
Obama and Colburn are from opposite parties, but worked together on this bill.
Likewise, the anti-pork crusaders who pushed to discover who was behind the secret holds were from both the right and left.
Unfortunately, it's worth noting that waste itself crosses party lines. It was a "bipartisan" effort by Stevens and Byrd that temporarily blocked the Obama-Coburn bill.
But the more light that can be shined on these transactions, the more accountability there will be. As Obama said when he introduced the bill, "If government spending can't withstand public scrutiny, then the money shouldn't be spent."
|
|
