Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., jointly introduced Tuesday the second phase of the quiet revolution they inaugurated two years ago in federal spending transparency and accountability. Their proposed Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008 (STAFS) builds on the progress begun by the first Coburn-Obama effort, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA) that mandated establishment of the searchable, Googlelike USASpending.gov Web site. There, any citizen with Internet access can find an amazing amount of detail about how the government spends nearly $1 trillion every year on thousands of grants, contracts and awards. The data can be sorted by company name, congressional district, state or county, type of service or product provided, the type of awarding process used and the awarding agency. Perusing the site can be fascinating. For example, searching for contracts awarded to companies whose names contain “Entertainment” turned up 55 receiving more than $34 million in 2007. Search “Consulting” and 1,651 companies are shown getting nearly $5 billion last year. That’s a lot of entertaining and consulting.

The new legislation by Coburn and Obama would improve the USASpending.gov. database in three ways. First, STAFS requires the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, which administers USASpending.gov, to add to the database additional details about agencies, recipients and the nature of the awards. It would also require that the database include a link to a copy of each contract or other spending agreement, including those created by earmarks. The latter improvement alone would significantly enhance the ability of citizens, public policy activists and analysts, and investigative journalists and bloggers to expose scandals such as sweetheart deals awarded to companies whose executives are campaign donors to key congressmen.

Also addressed by STAFS is the problem of insuring the accuracy of the data. It does so by establishing a user-directed error-reporting system so that agency officials, contract and award recipients, and private citizens can report errors and see that they are resolved promptly. This improvement by itself could bolster public confidence in government by involving millions of Americans in spending oversight. Finally, STAFS directs OMB to include in the database information about grant and contract performance by recipients of federal dollars, including whether they have been suspended or debarred from bidding, and whether any civil, criminal or administrative sanctions have been imposed on them.  Presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain was an enthusiastic backer of FFATA and is a co-sponsor of STAFS, too. Soon, every citizen will be a digitally empowered watchdog.