Tom Coburn: “Senators Barack Obama, Tom Carper, John McCain, and I earlier this year introduced S. 2590, the Federal Funding…”

“Senators Barack Obama, Tom Carper, John McCain, and I earlier this year introduced S. 2590, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, to bring increased transparency to the way the Federal Government spends taxpayer money. Transparency means allowing citizens to access accurate information on Federal spending decisions in a timely fashion for the purpose of keeping their elected officials accountable. Outside of protecting national security and individual privacy, there is no reason why the operations of all Federal agencies should not be widely known by as many as would like to know. It is because this belief is widely shared by the American people as well as many in this body that S. 2590 has gained the cosponsorship of dozens of Senators. I believe, though, that transparency in Government decisionmaking should not be limited simply to spending, but should also be extended to the decisions Congress makes about the Tax Code. The Tax Code is currently tens of thousands of pages in length and far too confusing for even IRS customer service agents to understand, let alone the average citizen with far less expertise. Because I believe that transparency is one of the best tools we have to curb wasteful behavior, I look forward working with Senator Frank Lautenberg to develop bipartisan legislation like S.…”