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Coda: Gov Database Launches
Last August, we united with Porkbusters.org and GOP Progress to unmask the senator who was holding up a bill introduced by Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) to create a public, searchable database of all federal grants and contracts.
For days, we worked the phones and gathered responses that hundreds of TPMm readers had received from senators' offices, eventually eliminating 98 senators as being behind the hold. And indeed, there turned out to be not one, but two pork-happy senators behind the hold: Sens. Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Robert Byrd (D-WV). (The two didn't seem to appreciate the irony of holding up a government transparency bill in a singularly nontransparent way.) After being unmasked, the senators lifted their holds and the bill sailed through to passage.
Well, this morning, FedSpending.gov finally launched.
Comments (4)
Anonymous wrote on December 13, 2007 6:35 PM:Where do I go on the site to find information about "holds" by Senators on funding? LOL
lm945 wrote on December 13, 2007 6:37 PM:I did a cursory check of the website, and it's not as comprehensive as it pretends to be.
I did a search for several grants I know were paid, and only one of them was in the database.
It's also not sortable by State, as it's supposed to be.
Iran NIE Budget Changes: Data Base Check wrote on December 13, 2007 6:46 PM:The "Iran NIE Budget Changes"-link is a sample list of issues for budget planners and investigators to explore using this database. The new NIE on Iran offered some surprises. Would be interesting to analyzie how the contracts might change before and after the Iran NIE was updated.
A. Termination
Which contracts let since 2003 (after it was known, or should have been known, there were no Iranian nuclear weapons programs) would have to be reconsidered/canceled?
Are there contracts on the list that are no longer justified because of the new information about Iran?
B. Alleged False Contractor Statements in Data Deliverables To US Govt
What is the plan of the contractors involved with using/creating/allegedly "fabricating" supporting information about Iran to return funds not related to real information?
C. Investigations, Discovery
How will the database be used by the IGs or investigators to find which contractors were involved with the efforts to get US govt funds based on information they knew, or should have known since 2003, was not linked with any real nuclear weapons program in Iran?
What will the IGs use to evaluate whether investigators are adequately using this database to find contracts based on fraudulent filings?
Brian wrote on December 14, 2007 9:25 AM:The name of the government site is USASpending.gov