Obama and Coburn Shine Brighter Light on Government Spending

Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) have joined forces again to craft legislation that would increase the transparency of how the federal government spends taxpayers' money. The Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act (S. 3077), introduced June 3, is a follow-up to the 2006 Transparency Act, which was also spearheaded by the two senators. Obama and Coburn, along with Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE) and John McCain (R-AZ), introduced the new legislation with the goals of making important new data easily accessible and enabling citizens to hold our government accountable for the fiscal stewardship of our shared resources. In 2006, Obama and Coburn worked together to introduce and pass the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, which led to the creation of the government website USASpending.gov. The law required the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to make it easier for the public to search and understand the complex information on federal government spending. The site allows people to quickly get answers to questions such as who is getting federal funds, what the money is for, which agencies are spending it, and where in the country the money is going. The effort was heralded by many as a key example of progressives and conservatives finding common ground on the issue of increased government transparency. The new Obama-Coburn bill has three key sections: technical corrections to the first bill, provisions to improve the quality of data in USASpending.gov, and requirements to make information on contractor and grantee performance easily accessible.
http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/4278/