Nearly eight years ago, Bill Beach, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis, and I invited Gary Bass of OMB Watch over for a chat about the possibility of our two organizations collaborating in an effort to put all federal spending on the Internet. Bill and Gary are still in their respective positions, while I was then director of Heritage’s Center for Media and Public Policy.
Heritage, of course, is a conservative think tank and OMB Watch is a liberal advocacy group, but we found that we shared a passionate belief that taxpayers ought to be able to see how the government is spending their tax dollars and that the Internet was perfectly suited for providing the needed tool to make such transparency a reality.
Nothing in the way of an official collaboration came from that discussion, but it was still the start of an informal working relationship that helped pave the wave for the Internet-based coalition that ultimately proved indispensable in winning passage of the Federal Funding Accountabilityand Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA) and the establishment of a landmark new web site, USASpending.gov.
I vividly recall being told by a veteran Republican congressional budget aide in the weeks leading up to that meeting with Beach and Bass that federal spending was simply too complicated and too widespread to be tracked on the Internet. That aide’s recommendation was largely responsible for the reticence of some within Heritage at the time about committing the resources needed to make the effort.
I was bitterly disappointed at the time, of course, because Heritage seemed like the ideal organization to do it, but Bass’s group subsequently did a tremendous job in creating Fedspending.org, the precursor site that has been in operation for more than a year and has drawn more than five million hits. In fact, without the work of OMB Watch, it is all but impossible to see how USASpending.gov would be up today.
But, as the Bard said, all’s well that ends well and here we are today with a web site that I believe will prove to be among the most significant ever for those who believe in limited government. The reason is simple: Transparency is Big Government’s biggest enemy and USASpending.gov brings an unprecedented level of transparency to the federal government’s spending.
Today’s Examiner editorial expounds on the reasons why USASpending.gov is likely to be a milestone. The editorial’s headline – “The pig roast is almost over” – tells the story.
UPDATE: Coburn says site “puts control of government back in the hands of the people”
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK, the original sponsor of FFATA,was the featured speaker this morning at a news conference at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, which is responsible for creating and managing USASpending.gov.
Coburn lauded bloggers as “the key group in getting this done,” and predicted that “somebody is going to correlate FEC reports, the earmarks database and this database, and that’s what this is about, holding us accountable.” He encouraged bloggers to “get out there and start using this. I think it’s going to be a wildfire.”
In a separate joint statement with Coburn, Sen. Barack Obama, D-IL, who was the first co-sponsor of FFATA, said the site “helps us achieve a very simple and powerful vision, a vision that in a democracy, people ought to know how their government is operating. This isn’t a Democratic vision or a Republican vision. It’s a vision that rejects the idea that government actions and decisions should be kept secret.”
UPDATE II: Davis lauds creation of web site
Rep. Tom Davis, R-VA, who chaired the House Government Reform Committee and was chief co-sponsor of FFATA in 2006, issued this statement today following the OMB news conference:
Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., called today “a watershed moment for accountability in government” after the Office of Management and Budget launched www.USASpending.gov, an online searchable federal spending database.
“Today’s an important day for all of us who believe sunshine is the best disinfectant,” said Davis, chief cosponsor of Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, which required OMB to create the searchable website by Jan. 1, 2008.
“We included an ambitious timeframe; we knew it would be difficult,” Davis said. “I congratulate all of those who rose to the occasion and met this challenge” two weeks ahead of schedule.
Before passage of the Transparency Act and the creation of USASpending.gov, the lack of a central database of federal grantees and contractors made it difficult to systematically review federal spending.
“Not anymore,” according to Rep. Davis. “This new website will provide a transparent system for reviewing these expenditures so Congress and, more importantly, the American public have the information they need to make sure our government is working for the taxpayers.”
Indeed.
UPDATE III: How important is it?
Ed Morrissey of Captain’s Quarters notes that USASpending.gov’s predecessor is FedSpending.org, which first established that most federal spending can be made accessible on the Internet. Ed offers this observation about the value of such databases to himself and other bloggers:
“This effectively replaces the FedSpending site run by OMB Watch until now. I cannot tell you how valuable that tool has been to this blogger, and many others besides. The ability to research contract and grant histories with concise, centralized data gives us powerful information for explaining many of the political stories of the day.
“It strips the darkness from earmarking processes as well as normal legislative efforts that tend to benefit the benefactors of politicians, rather than the national constituency. It may not be fascinating for the ordinary web surfer, but OMB Watch’s site has been an essential tool for bloggers.”
And thanks for the too-kind words, Ed.
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