When Congress passed and the president signed into law the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (two years ago this month) they started a trend that has swept well beyond Washington. According to the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL), state legislatures are starting to emulate the new federal law that requires access through a free and searchable Web site to details on all federal spending.

Since 2007, 11 states (Hawaii, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Washington) have established, via legislation or executive order, free and searchable Web sites that give access to state spending. And 24 other states are working on it, with more than half introducing spending transparency bills this year. B2G Exchange blog wrote in May that transparency Web sites were the “hottest new trend” in state government. SunshineReview.org is a good place to monitor progress of government transparency at the state and local level.

Kansas was the first to establish a transparency Web site by passing the Kansas Taxpayer Transparency Act in July 2007, and launching KanView on February 29^th of this year. The site is expected to cost about $40 million but it is estimated that it will generate $1 billion in savings. The champion of the new site, State Rep. Kasha Kelley of Arkansas City, Kan., has since become something of a traveling evangelist for government transparency. National and regional organizations, such as NCSL, the American Legislative Exchange Council and the Illinois Policy Institute, have invited Kelley to make presentations at their meetings and conferences. The federal Office of Management and Budget invited her to attend the unveiling of USAspending.gov, the federal transparency site. Because of Kelley’s transparency work, the anti-tax group Americans for Tax Reform named her a “Friend of the Taxpayer.”

And last month, the Columbus, Ohio, -based Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, a nonpartisan think tank devoted to small government in the state, launched its Center for Transparent and Accountable Government. The center says it will be collecting and posting online state and local government budgets, employee contracts, public records policies and other information. “Transparency and open government crosses ideologies and is equally supported, and equally opposed, by both major political parties,” said Mike Maurer, the center’s new director, a former statehouse reporter. He also said that Ohioans deserve the same type of transparency from their state and local governments that USAspending.gov provides at the federal level. In conjunction with its launch, the center issued a white paper gauging Ohio’s current level of openness, finding that the state “is behind its peers in government transparency.” They are asking candidates running for state office to take a transparency pledge. And they’ve set up OhioSunshine.org, an open government wiki. “The legitimacy of Ohio government rests on the consent of the governed, but that consent doesn’t mean much when so much of government occurs hidden, or deeply buried,” Hansen said. “Twenty-First Century information technology should be applied to draw back the curtain that stands between government and the people.”

Amen to that.

The explosion of open government activism in the states is a very encouraging legacy of the 2006 transparency act.

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The Reason Foundation has been getting the presidential candidates to talk more about transparency on the campaign trail by asking them to sign a pledge to run a transparent administration and fully enforce the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, also known as Coburn-Obama. The FFATA requires the Office of Management and Budget to disclose all federal funding contracts, grants, and earmarks in a searchable database. The Sunlight Foundation was a part of a coalition of groups that worked to pass the bill, in particular working to out the Senator with a secret hold on the bill. So far, three candidates - Barack Obama, Ron Paul, and Sam Brownback - have signed the pledge. It’s great to see transparency taking a hold as an issue in the 2008 presidential election. Hopefully, we’ll hear from more candidates on the issue soon. For now, check out below for the statements made by the three pledge signees.

Sen. Barack Obama: "Every American has the right to know how the government spends their tax dollars, but for too long that information has been largely hidden from public view. This historic law will lift the veil of secrecy in Washington and ensure that our government is transparent and accountable to the American people. And I will be proud to fully implement and enforce this law as president."

Rep. Ron Paul: "Signing the Oath of Presidential Transparency was a no brainer for me. I will aggressively pursue full openness and accountability within my administration if elected president."

Sen. Sam Brownback: "Americans need to feel they can trust their government. As president I will continue my record of supporting policies that increase government transparency and boost confidence in our democratic system."

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Last night the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act passed both Houses of Congress on voice votes. This is a great victory for transparency in government and for the beginning of the end to the "Closed Door" government. Contracts and grants will be listed in this online searchable database so that all Americans can keep track of the government’s spending. I certainly hope that transparent government will help reduce the distrust in government that exists among such a large portion of America. As Sen. Tom Coburn’s website reads: "Transparency is the foundation of all accountability." But this victory, one that is especially sweet for the online community, should not be claimed to be something that it is not.

For some reason or another Glenn Reynolds, and others as well, have labeled this as an "earmark reform" victory. I have been, and still am, under the impression that the desired transparency in earmarks would come before the earmarks are put into law and the funds appropriated. The FFATA database does not do this. Instead, contracts and grants would be included in the database "within 30 days of funds being disbursed." This in no way resembles earmark reform. We will find out which congressional district an earmarked contract is in, but that information is already easy to figure out. We still do not know who appropriated the money, we certainly don’t have that information prior to passage of a bill, and we do not have the ability to challenge individual earmarks before a bill is passed.

Currently in the House debate continues over an actual earmark reform effort. This effort is, however, less than satisfactory. According to the New York Times, the "draft resolution defined earmarks only as funds for organizations outside the federal government, like cities, universities, museums or nonprofit groups. It would not apply to earmarks directing money to the Defense Department or other federal agencies to execute projects, which account for the vast majority of the federal money spent on earmarks." There are some positive elements to this reform but it just does not go far enough. All earmarks from all committees should be disclosed.

The passage of FFATA is a huge victory for anyone who believes that government should be accountable to the people. Everyone involved should give themselves a pat on the back. The next battle ought to be over real earmark reform. In the end it will either be the people who decide or the Appropriators.

Update: Glenn Reynolds has some action items for those interested in seeing earmark reform this year. Check it out.

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Update: The bill passes and the Senate agrees, next stop President Bush’s desk.

The House version of the Coburn-Obama online contracts and grants database is set to pass today. Sen. Tom Coburn’s office just sent out an announcement that Coburn, Sen. Barack Obama, Rep. Roy Blunt, Rep. Tom Davis, and OMB Deputy Director for Management Clay Johnson will "pledge immediate action to implement the grants and contracts database included in the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act." This news conference will be held at 2 p.m. tomorrow in room HC-7 of the Capitol. Kudos to all groups and bloggers that have supported this bill and continue to push for greater transparency in Congress.

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Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) wasn’t alone in placing a hold on the Coburn-Obama transparency bill. Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), who along with Stevens is a notorious earmarker, also had a hold on the bill. Byrd, however, has announced that he will lift his hold. TPM Muckraker has the scoop and the rest of this statement from Byrd’s office:

Senator Byrd wanted time to read the legislation, understand its implications, and see whether the proposal could be improved. Now that there has been time to better understand the legislation, Senator Byrd has released his hold. Senator Byrd believes that the bill should be debated and opened for amendment, and not pushed through without discussion.

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UPDATE: Stevens unmasks himself!

Looks like there will be no surprises in the search for the "secret hold" Senator. A consensus is forming that the chief suspect, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), is blocking the "Google for government contracts" bill out of revenge for Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) successful campaign to defeat the "Bridge to Nowhere". The guys at TPM Muckraker, and a helpful reader, have pulled up a Fort Smith (Ark.) Times Record article from Aug. 18th which labels Stevens as the holder. Coburn also accuses Stevens of being the holder. Over at Redstate diarist Erick writes, "Last week, I called every senator’s office," except for the five chief cosponsors, and "only one would not give me a definitive "no."" That office was Sen. Stevens’ office.

Think Progress runs with the headline "Caught Red-Handed" and lists some of Stevens more egregious activities in securing funds that he might not want popping up in a government contracts database. My favorite: "Stevens earmarked $450,000 to research baby food made from salmon". A recommended diary at Daily Kos also pins the blame on the septugenarian Senator from Alaska, "Steven’s is putting personal revenge before the publics right to know where their money goes. Well that and a public record of Steven’s pork projects would probably be rather embarassing for him. Hell even the GOP’ers are tired of him."

So far, the Porkbusters site and TPM Muckraker have not definitively stated that Stevens is the "secret hold" Senator, he still remains in competition with three others, but for all intents and purposes it looks like this case is solved. Certainly calling up those remaining Senators to make sure that they aren’t the offender couldn’t hurt either. Check out the Porkbusters logo on the right-hand side to go and finalize this.

The left-right blogosphere partnership gets an analysis by William Beutler (of the Hotline’s Blogometer) at his blog, Blog P.I. Beutler calls it a "curious bipartisanship":

For one thing, this is the sort of thing TPM Muckraker and site overseer Josh Marshall do all the time — the right-blogosphere doesn’t pursue investigations quite so often (the most successful have been one-shots like the exposure of fraudulent Reuters photographer Adnan Hajj). … Indeed, the campaign is not especially partisan in nature, but fundamentally anti-insider in nature. If the PorkBusters bloggers can keep its momentum going in the next several months, with conservative blogs challenging Republicans and liberal blogs going after Democrats, it will reinforce the presumed anti-incumbent tenor of the midterm elections. 

That sounds about right to me. It’s not just both sides of the political spectrum, but most Americans, who are sick of the tinted windows and closed doors that not only keeps them from seeing what their government is up to, but keeps them from fully participating in the political process. How can the sovereign rule if they can’t know what’s going on? Sen. Stevens, out of petty revenge, is standing in the way of that very principle.

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Final Four Update: So a combination of Porkbusters and Muckraker tallies has the search for the "secret hold" Senator down to the Final Four. Is it Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), or Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)? The money is pick is Stevens who’s had it out for Coburn ever since the Oklahoma Senator killed the "Bridge to Nowhere". (Frist calls on all Senators to "honestly and transparently" answer whether they are the "secret Senator" when contacted by "the blog community".)

By now many of you know that an unnamed Senator (or Senators) placed a secret hold on the Coburn-Obama bill (the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act) that would create a searchable database of all federal contracts. Porkbusters has been on it since day one keeping a tally of Senators who have denied (or NOT denied) placing the secret hold. One thing that has come out of this example of unaccountable politicians is that transparency is a uniting issue bringing the Left and Right in the blogosphere together to defend the citizen’s right to know.

While Porkbusters has led the way on the effort to unmask the “secret-hold Senator” numerous others have lent their readership to the cause. The guys at Wonkette have called for the Senator’s unmasking along with other Left-leaning blogs Crooks & Liars, Mother Jones, TruthDig, and Daily Kos. TPM Muckraker is also directing its muckraking forces to help uncover the Senator’s identity.

The right wing bloggers, at GOP Progress, Instapundit, Tapscott’s Copy Desk, and Porkbusters, have clearly put some pressure on Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). Frist expressed anger at the secret hold placed by one of his colleagues in his blog and declared that when the Senate meets again in September he will make it a top priority to pass the transparency legislation.

Mark Tapscott, who testified in favor of the bill on hold, calls on Frist to act sooner telling the Majority Leader, “Here’s a clear-cut opportunity to demonstrate leadership and make a concrete difference in advancing genuine, much-needed reform in Washington. What are you waiting for, Mr. Senate Majority Leader?”

It’s great to see the two political sides uniting online to fight this abuse of Senate privilege but none of this needed to happen. Back in those heady days when reform was all the rage — you know, January — House and Senate leaders were all about fixing serious ethical issues (at least they said so) that had been festering for years. The Senate passed their version of lobbying and ethics reform called the Lobbying Transparency and Accountability Act of 2006. One of the provisions in that bill would have mandated that all holds on legislation be submitted in writing and placed into the Congressional Record preventing the problem that we find ourselves in now. Unfortunately, ethics reform is dying a slow death in conference committee waiting for a congressman to be indicted so that it can finally be passed.

The best thing to do now is to find out whether your Senator is the secret holder. Go to Porkbusters for the action. So far 33 Senators are in the clear, according to the Porkbusters site. TPM Muckraker has updated that number to 35! As Ken Layne of Wonkette writes, “It’s like citizen journalism or something!”

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