Obama Only Democratic Candidate to Pledge "Google Government"

[NYCGirl]

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/08/24/support_for_google_government.html

The act is meant to bring average Americans a kind of Google for the federal government, an online search engine that will allow citizens to look up any company, organization or other entity receiving federal contracts, grants and earmarks. The act was passed by Congress and signed by President Bush last year, but some of its supporters charge that federal agencies are already dragging their feet on its implementation.

To rally support for the initiative, a coalition led by the libertarian Reason Foundation asked the 2008 presidential candidates sign a pledge that would commit them to issuing an executive order in the first 30 days of their administration directing all departments and agencies to join in the "timely implementation of the letter and spirit" of the act.

Only Obama, Brownback and Paul signed the pledge. (Fred Thompson was not asked, since he is not yet an official candidate.) Mike Flynn, the Reason Foundation's director of government affairs, said he wasn't sure why the other candidates declined.

"They just kind of dodged. They just always kept punting," he said. "It's staggering that they wouldn't sign, because this is already federal law."

[Pirate Smile]

1. I posted the following on one of the many threads where people were pulling their hair out about

Coburn. This was what Obama was talking about but being purposefully obtuse seems to be a campaign tactic.

From Reason Magazine:

Calling All Presidential Candidates: Who Will Stand Up and Be Transparent?
Meet the only three would-be chief execs who will dare to tell you how the government spends your money.

Nick Gillespie | August 24, 2007

Presidential aspirants Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) don't agree on very much.

When it comes to immigration, stem-cell research, abortion, health care, trade--you name it, basically--these three get along about as well as Reggie Jackson, Billy Martin, and George Steinbrenner did during the Yankees' legendarily fractious 1977 season.

But they alone among would-be White House occupants have signed a trans-partisan initiative that has the potential to radically transform not just the presidency but the way the federal government does business. Obama, Brownback, and Paul have all signed The Oath of Presidential Transparency, a pledge to follow through on two actions.

First, signatories agree to conduct "THE most transparent Administration in American history--a lofty, laudable, far-reaching goal. This oath signals that whether it's earmarks, directives, or ongoing management of taxpayer expenditures, the goal of transparency will be evident throughout all policy making aspects of your Administration."

Second, signatories commit their presidential administrations "to full and robust implementation of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFAT Act) of 2006." The heart of that legislation, co-sponsored by Obama and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) in the Senate and signed into law last year by President Bush, is the creation of a free, searchable website that will list every recipient of every federal award.

Regardless of ideology or partisan affiliation, this is something that every American--with the possible exception of lawmakers who prefer to shroud their activities out of guilt, shame, fear, or some combination of the same--can get behind. Estimated to cost a relatively measly $15 million between now and 2011, the searchable database will give watchdog groups, government reformers, and regular citizens unprecedented amounts of information about where taxpayer dollars are going and how their elected representatives are behaving.

http://reason.com/news/show/122132.html

[MethuenProgressive]

2. OP: "this is already federal law." So how brave is it to "pledge" to it?

?

[NYCGirl]

4. Then why don't the others sign it if it's not "brave"? It's law, but it's not being

implemented.

[MethuenProgressive]

5. Because it's a stunt? Maybe Obama didn't know it was already a law?

?

[KittyWampus]

9. if you read the article, you'd see someone is trying to get support for enforcing this=

Obama and several others agreed, some did not.

[maximusveritas]

10. Considering he actually co-wrote it, I doubt that n/t

[papau]

3. What crap - Clinton was a co-sponsor of the bill in the Senate- how to make a mountain out of a mole

hill.

The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (S. 2590) is an act that requires the full disclosure of all entities or organizations receiving federal funds beginning in fiscal year (FY) 2007 on a website maintained by the Office of Management and Budget.

It was a GOP bill by Senator Tom Coburn and that Barack Obama and he on April 6, 2006 jointly introduced - it was passed unanimously in the Senate on September 7, 2006 and was passed in the House on September 13, 2006, signed into law by Bush on September 26, 2006.

The data base to be created includes for each Federal award--

(A) the name of the entity receiving the award;
(B) the amount of the award;
(C) information on the award including transaction type, funding agency, the North American Industry Classification System code or Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance number (where applicable), program source, and an award title descriptive of the purpose of each funding action;
(D) the location of the entity receiving the award and the primary location of performance under the award, including the city, State, congressional district, and country;
(E) a unique identifier of the entity receiving the award and of the parent entity of the recipient, should the entity be owned by another entity; and
(F) any other relevant information specified by the Office of Management and Budget.

There were 47 Sponsors in the Senate. In addition to Sen. Coburn and Sen. Obama, there were Lamar Alexander, George Allen, Max Baucus, Evan Bayh, Jeff Bingaman, Barbara Boxer, Sam Brownback, Richard Burr, Maria Cantwell, Tom Carper, Saxby Chambliss, Hillary Clinton, Norm Coleman, Susan Collins, John Cornyn, Larry Craig, Jim DeMint, Mike DeWine, Chris Dodd, Elizabeth Dole, Dick Durbin, Mike Enzi, Russ Feingold, Bill Frist, Chuck Grassley, Chuck Hagel, Johnny Isakson, John Kerry, Jon Kyl, Mary Landrieu, Joe Lieberman, John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Bob Menendez, Bill Nelson, Harry Reid, Ken Salazar, Rick Santorum, Jeff Sessions, Olympia Snowe, John Sununu, Jim Talent, Craig Thomas, John Thune, David Vitter, and George Voinovich.

[MethuenProgressive]

6. Good post, with facts and details. It'll be ignored.

:eyes:

[KittyWampus]

11. so if she sponsored the law, why wouldn't she agree to enforce it? the article says someone

specifically asked candidates if they would ENFORCE this. If they would issue an executive order to make sure it was implemented.

Some, like Obama, said yes and some no.

Although to be fair, I am not sure if Clinton said "No" or she just didn't reply.

But the article says they were all asked except Thompson. Only three said yes.

[maximusveritas]

12. I'm sure Clinton has a good excuse

for not agreeing to the pledge. Probably something about not agreeing to hypotheticals. She likes to throw that one out a lot.

[Raejeanowl]

14. It's Just More Posturing

Take an implicit fact and try to make a lack of additional validation look suspect.

And there is such a thing as being legitimately non-responsive to the utterly ridiculous.

[calteacherguy]

7. Very interesting. Thanks for posting. nt

[Bjorn Against]

8. It looks good on the surface...

But I must say if I were a candidate I would be very cautious at signing on to anything the Reason Foundation put in front of my face no matter what it looked like on the surface. The Reason Foundation is not an organization that is to be trusted.

Because on the surface this does not look like a bad resolution I am not going to get upset over anyone signing on unless I hear of a poison pill that I am not seeing here, but I certainly am not going to criticize anyone for not signing on to a Reason Foundation initiative either.

[illinoisprogressive]

13. maybe they have something to hide. the only reason not to do this.

[AtomicKitten]

15. I love the smell of sunlight in government !!

I completely support this.

This is good stuff, NYCGirl; thanks for bringing it here. Hopefully the undecideds can make their way through the SLIME here at DU and read it.

[draft_mario_cuomo]

16. Great idea. We need more open government nt