McCain signs onto Obama-Coburn open government bill

[Adelante]

McCain’s Senate office contacted Obama’s office Monday night asking to sign on to a bill opening federal government contracts to public scrutiny, according to three knowledgeable sources.

Before the call, Obama had been working on the measure primarily with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), an ardent proponent of eliminating wasteful government spending and an early supporter and longtime Senate ally of McCain’s.

After learning that Obama and Coburn were introducing the bill without his backing, McCain’s staffers immediately contacted Coburn to express concern and a desire to be named as an original co-sponsor of the update. They then called Obama’s office.

Obama staffers were happy to comply with McCain’s request to sign on, an Obama adviser said, because they knew support from the two presumptive nominees could propel the legislation to passage in the final months of a packed legislative schedule.

-snip

Gerry Bass, the executive director of OMBWatch, one of the 19 watchdog groups backing the measure, said it’s clear that Obama took the lead on the transparency bill this year but McCain should get credit for signing onto it.

“It’s a tribute to both of them,” he said. “Obama walks the words he says on the campaign trail by doing things differently. He didn’t have to have on McCain as a co-sponsor. The same can be said about McCain. McCain deserves credit, even though he may not have been involved in the crafting of the bill, he deserves credit for jumping on board.”

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/rivals-obama-and-mccain-work-together-behind-scenes-2008-06-04.html




Key features of www.USAspending.gov include:

* A free, searchable website that will track approximately $1 trillion in federal grants, contracts, earmarks and loans.

* Near real-time updates of data concerning federal spending. Updates can be expected every two weeks instead of quarterly, as is the current practice for existing federal grants information.

* The opportunity for the users to post comments and provide feedback about the website in a public, online user community.

* For the first time, most government spending data will be searchable by contractor or grantee and by congressional district.

* For the first time, grant recipients will receive a unique identifier that will help users track recipients.

* In January 2009, the database will include searchable information about subcontracts and subgrants.

[anonymous171]

1. lol He doesn't want to be outmanuevered again like with the Obama-Webb bill

[Tatiana]

2. Boy, look at all that legislation Obama is crafting and about to get passed...

And they said he didn't do anything :rofl:

Time for the Dems to line up all the bills that were held up by the Republicans this past session.

[denverbill]

3. It will be interesting to see who opposes this bill.

I, for one, will be thrilled when this is up and running. This is probably one of the only times I would ever agree with Coburn on anything.

[TeamsterDem]

4. How much of Obama's mojo is he going to try to steal today?

First the "Change" mantra, then the website theft, now this. Next he'll accidentally introduce Cindy as Michelle.

[Bread and Circus]

5. Another Obama homerun! I'm proud to be an egghead Obama supporter :)