[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 52 (Thursday, May 4, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4053-S4054]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. ENSIGN:
  S. 2718. A bill to require full disclosure by entities receiving 
Federal funds, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Homeland 
Security and Governmental Affairs.
  Mr. ENSIGN. Mr. President, the American taxpayers are fed up. They 
are tired of the pork projects and the billions of dollars being spent 
on unaccountable, unnecessary, and wasteful Federal spending. Whether 
spending is a result of earmarks, or the often unsupervised process of 
Federal agencies awarding grants, spending is out of control.
  Americans work hard every day, and they struggle to meet the heavy 
tax burden that Washington imposes on them. Despite their struggle and 
sacrifice, Washington has failed to ensure that Americans' tax dollars 
are being spent wisely. The American public believes, and they are 
right, that Congress has lost sight of the fact that every dollar we 
spend here in Washington belongs to them. These are dollars that could 
have been spent by the people who earned them to care for their own 
families.
  The American taxpayers have had enough. They are frustrated and 
disgusted. And I join them in their frustration and disgust. Congress 
has not done a very good job of oversight. It is time for Congress to 
empower the American people so that government is more accountable to 
them. That is why I am introducing new legislation--the Website for 
American Taxpayers to Check and Help Deter Out-of-control Government 
Spending--or the WATCHDOG Act.
  This bill will give our constituents the tools they need to become 
citizen watchdogs. Americans will be able to see for themselves how 
their tax dollars are being spent. This bill will greatly improve 
transparency and help eliminate wasteful, fraudulent, duplicative, and 
unnecessary spending. It will give the American people the tools to 
monitor how Congress uses the earmarks process and how the bureaucrats, 
who spend billions of dollars a year in unsupervised grants, spend 
their tax dollars.
  Americans are aggravated because too often when they learn about 
wasteful spending it is too late for them to do anything about it. They 
learn about spending by reading their morning papers after the 
legislation has been signed into law or the grant money has been 
awarded. Sometimes that is how members of Congress learn about them as 
well. It's time to remove the cloak of secrecy that surrounds the 
earmarking and grantmaking processes. We need to shine a very bright 
light on how spending decisions are made.
  In this case, that bright light will be a publicly searchable online 
database that provides information on every organization receiving 
Federal funds. The Office of Management and Budget would be required to 
make all Federal grant and loan recipient data available to the public.
  The data must include information on Federal grant awards, including 
an itemized breakdown by agency and program. The database must also 
list all subgrantees of an organization that receives Federal funds. 
This bill also reforms and streamlines the grant process by requiring 
organizations that apply for Federal funding to use a single source 
application number, which they would use for requesting funding from 
any Federal agency.
  Those projects that are using Federal funds efficiently and with 
positive results will become obvious, and those programs that are 
duplicative, fail to show results, squander their funding, or act 
fraudulently will also become obvious.
  Here in Washington we have done a dismal job when it comes to cutting 
out unnecessary spending. By shining a light on this process, the 
American public will have a chance to help us eliminate billions of 
dollars in wasteful

[[Page S4054]]

Federal funding. We owe it to the taxpayers and to future generations 
to clean up our act. This legislation gives taxpayers an important tool 
to hold Congress' feet to the fire.
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