Roy Blunt: “Chairman Davis, thank you for yielding, and thank you for your great work on this bill. Mr. Speaker, this week we are…”

“Chairman Davis, thank you for yielding, and thank you for your great work on this bill. Mr. Speaker, this week we are having a discussion in the House about earmarks and earmark reform. Yet there is another process in the Federal Government that, despite spending $300 billion a year, has almost no access as we stand here today. Each year the Federal Government gives out thousands of grants to various organizations and entities. All told, some 30,000 organizations a year receive grants. Yet there is no central system available to the public or even to the Congress to determine who is receiving these taxpayer funds and how they are being spent. That is why Chairman Davis and I introduced, and in June the House passed, H.R. 5060 with the support of Mr. Waxman and Mr. Davis of Illinois. This was a bill to require a publicly searchable database of all Federal grants. Our colleagues in the other body, led by Senator Coburn and Senator Obama, passed a slightly different bill that established a similar but different database for grants and Federal contracts. Last week we were able to collectively announce a final agreement representing the best element of both bills. Our agreement requires the Office of Management and Budget to establish a searchable Web site listing all recipients of Federal financial assistance such as loans and grants, as well as a separate database covering all contracts over the $25,000 reporting threshold.…”