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Tracking Uncle Sam's Spending Habits
by Winter Casey
The White House Office of Management and Budget must create a free, Google-like search engine and database to track an estimated $1 trillion in federal grants and contracts, according to legislation cleared last week by Congress. The publicly available Internet site will include the amount of federal funds provided for projects in each of the last 10 fiscal years and an itemized breakdown of all transactions.
Spurred by Web logs across the political spectrum who made the issue a priority during the August congressional break, both the House quickly cleared the bill upon return. The measure, S. 2590, has been sent to President Bush for his signature.
The legislation calls for a Web site to be created by OMB no later than Jan. 1, 2008. It would have to include basic information about most federal awards and be updated no later than 30 days after awards are made. By 2007, OMB must establish a program to test the collection of the data, as well as other key factors for the new Web site.
Three Cheers For Transparency
OMB Director Rob Portman, Bush and top lawmakers voiced support for the legislation.
"The American taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being used and they are right to expect that it be used responsibly to achieve results," Portman said in a statement. "This legislation will help cast the bright light of public scrutiny on federal grants and contracts, and will help reduce wasteful and ineffective spending."
Bush said the project "demonstrates Congress' commitment to giving the American people access to timely and accurate information about how their tax dollars are spent. This bill builds on existing administration initiatives to help ensure federal agencies clearly reflect how they spend the taxpayers' money. ExpectMore.gov is one such resource, allowing Americans to see which Federal programs are successful and which ones fall short."
House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Sen. Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill, and House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., all hailed passage of the legislation.
Blunt's office said the Web site will reduce wasteful spending and help ensure compliance with federal laws and lobbying restrictions. The office also noted that the federal government awards about $300 billion in grants to roughly 30,000 different organizations yearly, while an estimated 1 million contracts exceed the $25,000 reporting threshold.
Obama said at the briefing that blogs showed some of their power in pushing the measure forward. "This is a bill that passed precisely because of grassroots support," he said. Obama said it is the first measure he has seen since taking office that reverses the government trend to spend. The legislation hopefully will be the catalyst for greater accountability in government, he said.
Davis called the votes "a huge victory for all who believe sunshine is the best disinfectant" for abuses in public spending.
Groups such as the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste and Taxpayers for Common Sense also support the bill. In fact, Kristina Rasmussen of the National Taxpayers Union said no groups have openly opposed the legislation. "We are going to be encouraging our members to visit the database once it is up and running," she said.
Obstacles Past And Future
The bill did face some obstacles during the Senate legislative process, namely anonymous procedural "holds" that prevented a quick vote before lawmakers left town in August. News of the holds animated the blogosphere, which worked to expose the senators behind the holds, Republican Ted Stevens of Alaska and Robert Byrd of West Virginia.
Steve Ellis, vice president of programs at Taxpayers for Common Sense, said Stevens' hold really drew attention to the legislation. Tom Gavin, a spokesman for Byrd, said the lawmaker had just wanted more time to review and understand the bill. Byrd "supports greater transparency in the process for both appropriations and authorizations, and all committees when it comes to transparency will be treated equally," Gavin said.
John Hart, the communications director for Senate bill sponsor Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said the main disagreement between the House and Senate versions of the bill was whether contracts would be included in the database. The final version reflects the Senate's approach by covering both grants and contracts.
Hart said the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the project will cost $15 million over five years.
"If the cost of the project cannot be covered by regular agency and OMB funding levels," said Andrea Wuebker, OMB's deputy press secretary, "then additional costs will be sought in the fiscal 2008 budget process. OMB is working with agencies now to determine the project's cost."
Alison Fraser, director of the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation, said: "If OMB needs extra funding, Congress should discuss closely with OMB ways to make this happen. That doesn't mean that they should increase the total level of federal spending, but rather they should look to other areas to offset because this is an important priority for increased transparency."
OMB Deputy Director Clay Johnson said most of the data needed to build the database already exists, and it will take more time and effort than money. He also noted that OMB can do more regarding the government's current Web search portal, ExpectMore.gov.
Scandal Begets Disclosure
The grants and contracting database is just one element of other reforms being pursued by Congress as a result of scandal surrounding lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The latest victim of that scandal is Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, who pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges last week.
Also last week, the House last week passed a resolution, H. Res. 1000, that requires the disclosure of the House sponsors of all earmarks dedicated for specific programs in lawmakers' districts. "This reform would help improve the legislative process by making sure both lawmakers and the public are better informed before Congress votes to spend the taxpayers' money," Bush said in a statement.
However, not all efforts have been successful. A Senate measure, S. 2128, that calls for the creation of an electronic, Internet-available database of lobbying disclosures has languished. The National Taxpayers Union, which supports the spending database, is among the opponents of the lobbying database. Rasmussen said the group is concerned with a "provision that would hamstring grassroots groups that champion the little guy."
Fraser said the high amount of attention this year on government transparency has been a result of election-year concerns fueled by "relentless attention by the media and bloggers." In turn, the bloggers have given the "grassroots lots of information to demand that Congress do something."
"This is just a first step," she said.
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