What’s Obama Done? How About Federal Transparency.
OK, I know, hydrogen awaits. But I just wanted to write about this. I’m a precinct captain for the Obama campaign here in Austin. It’s the night of the debate and Texas is going to play a huge role in who becomes the next president of the United States. That’s why I’m calling up to 840 of my closest friends in my precinct before the March 4th primaries, urging them to vote for Obama.
I enjoy talking to folks and when they challenge me to point out one thing Obama’s done, I like to tell them about Senate bill S.2590, the “Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act” authorizing the gov’t to create the “most comprehensive database of federal spending ever made available to the American Public.” The act resulted in a website: usaspending.gov. announced by the two main cosponsors, Obama & Coburn, last December.
On USASpending.gov you can find all kinds of interesting things. I’ll point out one: contracts that Kellog, Brown and Root competed for in 2006:
With a few keystrokes, I know that in 2006, Kellog, Brown & Root had about $112 million in contracts, but only 3.7% of that was put out to bid.
You can get more of sense of the money being spent /w/ KBR, mainly in Iraq, in this recent report by the Center for Public Integrity, titled “Baghdad Bonanza”.
I’ll tell you, once you start, it becomes addictive. Look what happens when I type in “Blackwater”.
That’s $332 million dollars that’s unknown whether it was put up for bid or not. Unknown? Hmmm…..
You can get a flavor of the projects under this contract from the Washington Post article, “Building Blackwater.”
With USASpending.gov, anyone can now easily develop a fact-based criticism, or support, for federal contracts. That’s one thing Obama’s done and it’s a big thing.
