Want to know exactly how the federal government spends your money, or which contractors get the bulk of government deals, or what percentage of those contracts are bid competitively? Or, would you like to find out how much your Member of Congress is worth, or how many Members own stock in specific companies? Feel like checking out who's taken the most trips sponsored by private groups?

Three new databases, one built by OMB Watch and two built by the Center for Responsive Politics, have just gone live, and judging by the intense press interest in the launch, I think there's going to be a lot of new and interesting stories appearing soon. (Full disclosure: I am a consultant to the Sunlight Foundation, which funded these new databases, and helped with this launch.)

OpenSecrets' new searchable database of politicians' personal financial disclosure statements--which have been available for a decade in hard-to-read pdfs--is likely to gain the most immediate attention. LIstening to Sheila Krumholz's description of the data during this morning's press conference, I was amazed to learn that Members of Congress are worth at least $2.4 billion, and that at least half the Senate and one-third of the House were millionaires, compared to just one percent of Americans. (Since Members only report a range of values, CRP used the lower range to compile its totals--which means these numbers are undoubtedly low.) It was also fascinating to learn Members have tens of millions in investments in industries they regulate--for example, that about 60 Members of Congress own stock in Exxon-Mobil, which has been having such a profitable year.

Their other new database, which covers privately funded congressional travel, is also going to make news. You can discover which Members are the top junketers, who the biggest sponsors are, which destinations are most popular (I can understand Israel, China, Germany and Taiwan being high on the list, but Jamaica?). Apparently the Jack Abramoff scandal hasn't quenched the congressional thirst to accept free trips to top vacation locations like Hawaii--with more than 500 such trips reported since January.

FedSpending.org gives you a variety of ways to explore how taxpayer money is spent--by contractor, by place of performance, by contracting agency, by whether there was competitive bidding, and by the product or service provided. "When you buy something at the store, you get a receipt," Gary Bass, OMB Watch's director noted. "FedSpending.org is that receipt for government spending--we can examine it and see just what kind of deal we're getting." Barely half of federal contracts are made with competitive bidding, I just learned!

All of these databases are going to be made available thru public application programming interfaces (APIs), so data mashers are going to have a field day.

Technorati Tags: congress, nptech, OMB Watch, Congressional travel, FedSpending.org, OpenSecrets.org, Disclosure, sunlight foundation, transparency, whistleblowing

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