House Approves Database of Government Contracts
The House of Representatives approved a bill to establish a publicly searchable database of federally-funded grants and contracts. The Senate adopted the measure last week, and the White House indicated that the President would sign it.
“This bill would require the Office of Management and Budget to create a Web site listing all grant awards and contracts in a manner that would be easily accessible and free of charge. In a nutshell, this is about [providing] information to taxpayers about how their hard-earned dollars are being spent,” said Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA).
“The legislation we are passing today is not comprehensive reform; it will not restore honesty and accountability in government,” said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA). “It’s a modest, bipartisan step in the direction of open government. But in the climate we’re currently in, even a small step forward is worth supporting and celebrating.”
See the September 13 House floor debate on the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 here.
This rule gives agencies significantly more authority over certain career policy roles. Whether that authority improves accountability or creates new risks depends almost entirely on how agencies interrupt and apply it.
Our environmental system was built for 1970s-era pollution control, but today it needs stable, integrated, multi-level governance that can make tradeoffs, share and use evidence, and deliver infrastructure while demonstrating that improved trust and participation are essential to future progress.
Durable and legitimate climate action requires a government capable of clearly weighting, explaining, and managing cost tradeoffs to the widest away of audiences, which in turn requires strong technocratic competency.
FAS is launching the Center for Regulatory Ingenuity (CRI) to build a new, transpartisan vision of government that works – that has the capacity to achieve ambitious goals while adeptly responding to people’s basic needs.