Smoking out the Senator
By Rebecca Carr | Tuesday, August 29, 2006, 11:37 AM
Leading bloggers are trying to smoke out the senator responsible for placing “secret hold” on legislation that would open up the murky world of government contracting to public scrutiny for the first time.
The story, reported by Cox Newspapers last week has created quite a ruckus during a typcially quiet recess week on the Hill. That’s because bloggers and their readers are calling every senator, Democrat and Republican alike, to find out who is trying to effectively kill the legislation.
The measure, introduced by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., would create a searchable database of government contracts, grants, insurance, loans and financial assistance, worth $2.5 trillion last year. The database would bring transparency to federal spending and be as simple to use as conducting a Google search.
So far, 74 senators have denied being responsible for the hold. Click here to view.
But Rumors are flying all around, one Republican aide reports. Why would someone want to kill the measure? Open government types say the senators are averse to making the spending process transparent.
In other words: they want to keep the pork hidden in the fridge. |
