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Let the Sun Shine on Government Contracts
It is dull but so very important.
It is sub-visible but in your pocket and on your back.
I speak of the hundreds of billions each year of federal government contracts, grants, leaseholds and licenses given to corporations to run our government, exploit our taxpayer assets and lay waste to efficient, responsive public services. Before he left Washington in 2003 to run for Governor of Indiana, the hyper-conservative Director of Bush's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Mitch Daniels, endorsed the policy of having all federal departments and agencies place the full text of their contracts, leases of natural resources and other agreements on the Internet.
He placed a notice in the Federal Register inviting comments. Obviously, the large corporate contractors and lessees of minerals and other public resources did not like the idea. After all, information is the currency of democracy. Big businesses, like Dick Cheney's Halliburton, love oligarchies and corporate socialism featuring subsidies, handouts, bailouts and contracted out governmental functions.
Big Bureaucracies in Washington, D.C. were not exactly enthusiastic about applying Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis' comment that "sunlight is the best disinfectant."
Unfortunately, Daniels' successor at OMB, Bush loyalist and now his chief of staff, Josh Bolten, was totally cold to the proposal. Activity grinded to a halt.
There is new activity on other fronts, however. Congress, in 2006, passed legislation to shed light on the contracting process. Starting in January of 2008, the government website USASpending.gov started providing the public with the following information:
1. the name of the entity receiving the award; 2. the amount of the award; 3. information on the award including transaction type, funding agency, etc; 4. the location of the entity receiving the award; and 5. a unique identifier of the entity receiving the award.
But the essential requirement-placing the entire text of these contracts on the web- is the unfinished business of Congress, which some Democrats and Republicans are turning their attention to in the coming months. In a meeting, Senator Chuck Grassley (Rep. Iowa) declared his support. Democrat and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, John Conyers, has also assented. Others from both Parties are on board.
The next step will either be placing the requisite amendment in must-pass legislation or having public hearings to show the American people the advantages as a taxpayer and citizen of expanding their "right to know."
Consider the groups who will benefit from such open government:
1. Small business competitors who are often aced out of no-bid contracts and over-ridden by major prime contractors' influence on federal agencies. The quality of competitive bidding and performance should go up.
2. Taxpayers and taxpayer groups have opportunities to review, challenge or oppose where their money is going.
3. The media will be able to report to the public about the doings of contracting and leasing and licensing government in faster and much greater detail.
4. Scholars and students at universities, business schools and law schools will be able to provide analyses, improvements on both the substantive content and proper procedures for making these agreements. Sweetheart giveaways, for example, of minerals on public land and easy avoidance of responsibilities should be reduced. Archives of these contracts will be created for historical reference.
5. Local and state governments and legislatures will find themselves equipped to participate where their interests are at stake and may be encouraged to emulate such openness with their own texts of contracts, leases and so forth.
Already, some states like Texas and Indiana are placing notices of state contracts on their websites.
Last week, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, took the initiative by placing on his department's website, Track Your Taxes, details on his office's spending, "including every single contract that our department has entered into, including legal services, such as Special Assistant Attorneys General, and expert witnesses." Mr. Cox added that all vendor contracts, "the type of service being provided, the term of the contract, the amount of the contract, how much has been spent, and how much is left," will be online.
Good step forward. But much more at all levels of government is needed, including the full texts and any performance information about delays, incomplete or incompetent work and other qualitative information such as cost over-runs. You may wish to contact your legislators and solicit their support.
Is it "mission accomplished" when all such outsourcing information is online for everyone to see? Of course not. Information has to be used. This requires that new habits be established.
Reporters, scholars, taxpayer groups and other are not used to this "beat." They have to expand their time and resources to get on it. Otherwise, the bureaucrats and the business lobbies will continue with business as usual.
Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer, and author. His most recent book is The Seventeen Traditions.
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12 Comments so far
Show AllBarack Obama was the co-author of the legislation that made usaspending.gov possible. Why was that omitted?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Funding_Accountability_and_Transparency_Act_of_2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/03/washington/03cyber.html
Good comment, Doug.
I looked it up. Thank you.
I'm an Obama supporter and this makes me more proud of it.
Dumping the "borrow and spend republican party" will go a long way toward reducing the number of government contracts needed in the first place.
Dumping the "borrow and spend republican party" will go a long way toward reducing the number of government contracts needed in the first place.
Web enabling how the money was spent sounds like a good idea, but doesn't one major propaganda outlet have a "Fleecing of America" segment produced for American TV mood lighting?
The cronyism, steering, ownership of legislators and so forth, won't go away unless their is motivation to make it so. Northrup, Lockheed et.al., *are* your Government.
This is the trend!
Our government's job will be to make laws and distribute your tax money to it's favorite contractors.
There is an online petition asking the DNC to choose the candidate with the most votes and delegates rather than take the chance on a secret backroom deal.
Please sign the petition and pass it on to your friends.
Petition http://www.petitiononline.com/Superdel/petition.html
One of the reasons I support Obama is that he has publicly stated that there should NEVER be "backroom deals" when it comes to American policy or contracts.
He wants all negotiations to be completely transparent and recorded by C-SPAN for public scrutiny.
Obama 2008!!!
dougwagner; Thank You for the links, I read them carefully, Obama's authorship of the legislation discussed, particularly within the context of his presidential run, makes omitting his co-authorship of the bill by Ralph Nader in his article Glaringly Strange.
A Glaring Omissison, like discussing evil corporations but not his heavy personal investment in mutual funds (Fidelity) tied to the defense industry and general dynamics & raytheon in particular and not discussing himself, would be and is a glaring omission.
(These investments detailed on his FEC filings.)
But why is Obama not rightfully credited when this bill is discussed, why Mr. Nader Sir?
"In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other." Voltaire
Economics is about who makes what and how. Politics is about who gets what and how.
Taxation, determining ownership and awarding contracts are THE central activities of government. Behind most of what we have in laws boils down to who gets what and how. Other laws enforce that division of wealth and make it harder or easier to contest it. Then there are the distractions, usually related to sex or recreation of some kind.
Everyone has noted that in this period, guess what, the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and the middle class is tending toward losing its status and going downhill. Eminent domain is being abused to downright steal, to sieze ownership of land for private projects that are not particularly beneficial to the community.
The Iraq invasion is a big success when measured by contracts for arms manufacturers, Haliburton, Blackwater, Cheney and all. Or by clearing the way for domination of the region by big oil companies. The price has been high, and will continue to be high, for the rest of us.
The full text of contracts should be subjected to sunshine (If Obama is a sponsor of this bill, he deserves credit.) Contracts are many pages, full of technical langauge and tiny type. I would like to see added a plain language summary of work to be done, timetable and consequences for late delivery or failure to deliver as stated. Also, a description of the bidding process.
We need this on a local level as well. Big contracts to fix NYC schools, roads, subways always take endless time, with traffic blocked and often end up with inferior work and no improvement. Typical would be 4 years to install an escalator(the workers made themselves at home, and had a Christmas tree on site in season) and then it still breaks down constantly. Or asbestos removal in a school done by seeming mob affiliates without protection against flying particles. (This is a long story, but real)
This has been going on for decades. I do not see much difference with NYC Mayor Bloomberg, who will probably be hyped as a great business manager should he choose to run as an independent. His administration has bent construction safety and zoning laws to help developers build huge luxury offices, apartments and sports facilities, but the public and quasi public spheres, not so much efficient activity.
In NY there have been unexpected revenue shortfalls resulting in school and health spending cuts, that require sudden and disruptive moves eliminating staff and programs.
To my knowledge, neither our Governor Spitzer nor our Mayor Bloomberg has linked the cuts in education and health in NY to the hemorrhage of funds by war spending. It's hard to figure out why they are not blaming it on the Bush Admin, because that would be an easy out. They just say we have less money because the economy is down, so live with it. As though this were a natural phenomenon like the coming of spring. Oh wait, maybe spring won't come. We allow global warming and environmental degradation to contine because cures would cut into the privilege of some to make lots of money right now.
So many debacles are predictable by anyone with common sense. (The lending laws and the housing situation is a disaster I saw coming years ago). But politicians are all about giving contracts to their friends and are not paying attention. So we should, and we should support this law.
Private enterprise screwing the US taxpayer on government contracts is as American as apple pie and has a long history. During the Civil War, many Northern industrialists got rich providing substandard rifles (sound familiar?), while during the Spanish-American War, more US servicemen died of "embalmed beef" than Spanish bullets. Harry Truman became famous by exposing contractor malfeasance & embarrassing them during public hearings during World War II. Dubya, Cheney, & Co. have continued this sorry tradition in spades. It is also not surprising that this bit of legislation has not been trumpeted in the corporate media. We should remember that many of the war profiteers are parts of the corporate behemoths that also own the corporate media.
Now here is where Obama comes in. Where is Obama on cutting military spending? Haliburton, KBR, Blackwater to name a few are reaping very nice war profits. Please weigh in dougnwagner and friends.