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Editorial: Opening a window on waste
Philadelphia Inquirer
September 12, 2006
Don't look now, but Congress is on the verge of doing something useful.
The House is set to approve a bill already passed by the Senate that would make it easier for anyone with a computer to track federal spending.
The bill holds some promise for curbing wasteful "earmarks" and other techniques of pork-barrel spending. Its progress is a victory for grassroots activists over the secretive ways of Congress.
Sens. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) and Barack Obama (D., Ill.) cosponsored the bill. (Yes, a Republican and a Democrat united in going after waste; bipartisanship isn't dead, after all.)
Their bill directs the White House Office of Management and Budget to create a searchable online database, with information on all federal grants, contracts, earmarks and loans of more than $25,000. To find out, for example, how much local defense contractors Lockheed Martin or Boeing are receiving, or how much your local nonprofit obtained in grants, you would need only to type the names into the search engine.
This Web site would be available to any citizen for no user fee. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that creating and updating the database would cost about $15 million over the next five years.
If lawmakers were more scrupulous with taxpayer dollars, this expense might not be necessary. But compared with the behemoth that is the federal budget, this is a small price to pay for shedding more light on wasteful government spending.
Nobody should pretend that this measure alone will stop lawmakers from inserting into the budget costly "earmarks" - expenditures targeted to home-town favorites that pass with little or no scrutiny, and have become a way for an incumbent to use tax dollars to reward supporters.
The database would provide taxpayers with the information only after a contract or grant has been approved. Another flaw should be remedied by the House: The bill doesn't require the sponsors of earmarks to be identified.
The sunlight this database would bring can't help but be useful. Still, Congress needs to take more steps than this to rein in its addiction.
A nice thing about this bill is how its chances were revived by Internet bloggers and editorial writers. Over the past month, they waged a relentless campaign to find out which senators had placed a secret "hold" on the bill, preventing a vote on the Senate floor. By a process of elimination, they identified two veteran "porkers," Sens. Ted Stevens (R., Alaska) and Robert Byrd (D., W. Va.), as the obstacles. Thus exposed, both senators retreated.
The huge federal deficits of the past five years mean that tough policy choices lie ahead. This legislation could be one small tool to help to create the public trust and clarity that will be needed.
The House should pass it.
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