An Anonymous Affront to Transparency

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.