Members of the Senate may get the opportunity later today to vote on whether the federal government should award no-bid contracts. The government awards billions of dollars worth of such contracts now, many mandated by anonymous earmarks inserted in spending bills by Members of Congress.

Because they are non-competitive, the taxpayers aren’t assured of getting full value for their money, or, to put it more candidly, nobody can be certain that taxpayers aren’t getting the shaft when their tax dollars are simply handed out by bureaucrats without accountability for the results.