Captain's Quarters Comments - Latest Comments in Era Of Open Government Commencing

Re: Era Of Open Government Commencing

Gabriela Schneider — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 12:42:48 -0000

Hi. I'm Sunlight's Communications Director. Thanks very much for the kind words! (BTW, our URL is sunlightfoundation.com, not .org.)

You might be interested in some more back story about the new database: Sunlight funded OMBWatch to build FedSpending.org (the first searchable database of all govt contracts and grants), for $325K.

They built it. Then the Obama-Coburn bill was passed (with help from a cross-partisan coalition of bloggers like you and other fellow Porkbusters, who smoked out the Senator who had put a secret hold on the bill) mandating that the OMB build its own official database, for $15 million.

OMB Watch offered to help OMB get the job done...even though the watchdog group and the government agency are usually major adversaries.

After some hesitation, OMB's director decided to work with OMBWatch, and they licensed the software from OMBWatch for $600K. The new site, USASpending.gov, just launched, two weeks ahead of schedule.

Re: Era Of Open Government Commencing

Cybrludite — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 01:53:10 -0000

"Robert Shea is a Republican insider with a head for business and a yen for federal program performance standards. Gary Bass is a government watchdog with a mean bite who wants openness and knows how to get it. "

Together they fight crime in Prime Time! Coming this Fall to $TV_NETWORK... ;-)

Sorry. That intro sounded too much like a commercial for a bad '80s action show.

Re: Era Of Open Government Commencing

Phil Weingart — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:08:22 -0000

Next stop: open spending records for political campaigns?

All I want for Christmas...

Re: Era Of Open Government Commencing

jjjjj — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:54:21 -0000

Will this OMB site show how politicians bury earmarks in agency requests? Or does it only show blatant earmarks attached to bills sent to our president?

There was much talk about how the Dems would stop earmarks up front (they didn't) but if they are burying them in agency appropriations, well....

Then again, something is far better than nothing. Thanks for bringing this to the light, Ed.

Sunshine is the best disinfectant!

Re: Era Of Open Government Commencing

onlineanalyst — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:35:04 -0000

One of the anthems from Hair, that dramatic salute to the golden days of hippiedom and lefty love.is "Let the Sunshine In". Isn't the irony delicious that this wedsite may put a kibbosh on socialist redistributionist payouts and paybacks?

Re: Era Of Open Government Commencing

Gary Bass, OMB Watch — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:52:01 -0000

Thanks for the nice blog about OMB Watch's work on FedSpending.org. Two comments:

1. This work demonstrates that transparency is neither a conservative nor liberal agenda; it's not a Republican or Democratic agenda. It's America's agenda. Working hand-in-hand with liberals, libertarians, and conservatives is how we successfully got the law passed and helped the administration with what appears to be a successful launch of USASpending.gov. Your blogging was as much a part of the success as OMB Watch, Sunlight Foundation, and Mark Tapscott's work.

2. Let me point out that FedSpending.org is not going away. We will continue to push the envelope with the hopes of pushing OMB to be more aggressive. For example, we just introduced mapping to our website -- now we need to get OMB to do that to USASpending.gov. We also need more information on the website including a copy of the actual contract that created the spending, along with information about performance on the award, and about contractor/grantee compliance with laws and regulations. In other words, we need Sens. Coburn and Obama to introduce the next version of the Transparency Act and all of us to advocate for it once again.

Re: Era Of Open Government Commencing

Mark Tapscott — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:12:08 -0000

Thank you for the kind words, Ed, but there were legions of people, including you, without whom this day would still be nothing more than a hope, including especially the Porkbusters Coalition, led by N.Z. Bear and Glenn Reynolds. It's like Sen. Tom Coburn has said many times, USASpending wouldn't have happened without the bloggers.

Re: Era Of Open Government Commencing

Rana Quijotesca — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:15:13 -0000

Personally, I think that we should pass a mandatory balanced budged statute for Congress... perhaps then we can actually get some fiscal responsibility out of our congress critters.