As the Federal Times reports, a bill designed to promote transparency in the federal government is being held up by a very non‐transparent Senate procedure.
An anonymous senator has placed a “hold” on a bill that would create a publicly accessible federal database to track all federal grants and contracts. As Chris Edwards explains, it’s a meritorious piece of legislation. However, this bipartisan bill introduced by Sen. Tom Coburn is indefinitely stalled and might not reach the Senate floor this year.
The House has approved a similar, though slightly watered‐down, version of this legislation that would monitor federal grants, but not contracts.
With 29 bipartisan senators co‐sponsoring Coburn’s bill and roughly 100 diverse groups supporting it, you would think that this legislation would pass easily.
Think again.