Reform Versus Status Quo

So Barack Obama and Tom Coburn, two of the unlikeliest allies in the Senate who share little in common but their freshman status, and as such an ability to look on the outside of the system and see the need for reform, pushed a bill that would seek public disclosure for all receipients of federal funding through a Google-like database.

The federal government awards roughly $300 billion in grants annually to 30,000 different organizations across the United States, according to the General Services Administration. This bill would require the Office of Management and Budget to establish and maintain a single public Web site that lists all entities receiving federal funds, including the name of each entity, the amount of federal funds the entity has received annually by program, and the location of the entity. All federal assistance must be posted within 30 days of such funding being awarded to an organization.

"At the very least, taxpayers deserve to know where their money is being spent," Senator Obama said. "This common-sense legislation would shine a bright light on all federal spending to help prevent tax dollars from being wasted. If government spending can't withstand public scrutiny, then the money shouldn't be spent."

This bill was all set to pass, it had cleared committee and was readied for a full vote in the Senate. Then an unidentified Senator dropped a secret hold on the bill, stopping its progress. It's somehow fitting that a bill that would increase public oversight was stopped in its tracks secretly.

But the supporters of the bill wanted to do something about it. And in a rare show of bipartisanship, the left and the right sides of the blogosphere engaged in a grassroots action, led by Porkbusters and TPM Muckraker, to call every member of the US Senate to determine who placed the secret hold. They were down to the final five when someone noticed a little-seen quote in a small-town newspaper revealing the holder.

One of the senators most criticized for his personal projects, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has a hold of his own on Coburn's bill to make public the spending patterns of the government. Called the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, the legislation calls for the creation of a database open to the public where citizens can track government spending.

"He's the only senator blocking it," Coburn said of Stevens.

Yes, Senator Stevens, the guy who thinks the Internets are a series of tubes, the President Pro Tem of the Senate, the man who's been there longer than anyone else, he's the one that doesn't want the people to know what their government is doing. Fitting.

The rise of the blogosphere has increased partisanship in some ways, but that was happening long before there was an Internet - just check out 1994. What the blogs have done is to set the debate between the reform and the status quo. Reformers on both sides want to change government from the exclusive, inside-the-Beltway resort it is today to an inclusive, participatory process. They certainly have different ideas about how best to serve citizens once they get there. But I support all efforts to take back government and promote participatory democracy. There are allies on both sides of the aisle for that.

UPDATE: Stevens admits it. So do I get to gloat a little because it's a Republican? We can't have TOO MUCH bipartisanship, after all...