A real who-done-it is brewing in the Senate. Clues are being gathered and suspects eliminated. Bloggers are determined to solve the mystery. Was it your Senator who did it?

Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Corburn (R-Ok) last April introduced the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act. This bill would create an easily searchable database of all recipients of federal funding and financial assistance. According to the General Services Administration, each year the federal government grants $300 billion to more than 30,000 organizations in the United States. The government currently uses a variety of databases, but this act would require the Office of Management and Budget to create a single public website that list the names of all entities receiving federal funds, the amount of funds received annually by program and location. All federal assistance must be posted within thirty days of being awarded to an organization. Senator Corburn said, “ This public database will provide transparency to federal spending and will provide an important weapon taxpayers can use to hold the government accountable. The database also would help reduce fraud, abuse and misallocation of federal funds by requiring greater accounting of federal expenditures. Every citizen in this country, after all, should have the right to know what organizations and activities are being funded with their hard earned tax dollars.” It is a powerful weapon: one that one of our senators, doesn’t want you to have.

The mystery is which Senator is it? The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee unanimously passed the measure in a voice vote last month. The bill was on a fast track to the floor for action until an unknown Senator placed a hold on it. Under the Senate rules, unless the Senator who placed the hold decides to lift it, the bill will not be brought up for a vote. The blogosphere has made it their mission to out the Senator who placed the hold. The blog writers and readers have been calling their Senators and each day a few more issue denials that it is was not them. Porkbuster’s blog has gotten denials from Senators Shelby, Sessions, McCain, Feinstein, Boxer, Allard, Durbin, Obama, Roberts, Landrieu, Vitter, Mikulski, Ensign, Clinton, DeWine, Voinovich, Inholfe, Coburn, Wyden, Santorum, Graham, DeMint, Cornyn, Allen, Murray, Cantwell, and Thomas. GOP Progress has gotten denials from Senators Collins, Smith, Coleman, Snowe, Alexander, and Sununu. TPMmuckrakers has gotten denials from Burr, Dole, Hutchison, Warner, Kerry, Feingold, Isakson, Pryor, Lincoln, Brownback, Lantenberg, Menendez, Salazar, Bingaman, Chafee, Nelson, Dodd, Lieberman, Frist, Burns, Biden, Enzi, Nelson, McConnell, Inouye, Kohl, Hagel, Schumer, Cochran, Lugar, Craig, Grassley, Akaka, Dayton, Lott, Thune, Jeffords, Martinez, Reed, Specter, Kyl, Johnson, Bayh, Stabenow, Levin, Domenici, Kennedy, Leahy, Dorgan, Bunning, Conrad, Harkin, Talent, Murkowski, Baucus, Rockerfeller, Chambliss, Reid, Carper, Bond, Sarbanes, Crapo, Gregg and Hatch.

So who does that leave? We don’t have an answer yet from Robert Byrd (D-WV), Ted Stevens (R-AK), and Robert Bennett (R-UT). Which one is the Senator who doesn’t want you to know what the government is up to? I don’t know why this Senator would want to hide from the American people what the government is doing with our tax dollars. But I do know that he was elected to represent the people and ought to have the courage to step up and explain why he felt it was necessary. To block this act unnamed with no explanation is unacceptable. Senator Obama said that, “This common-sense legislation would shine a bright light on all federal spending to help tax dollars from being wasted. If government spending can’t withstand public scrutiny, then the money shouldn’t be spent.” What is this senator afraid we will find when we can scrutinize the governments spending? With the list of possible suspects narrowed to three, it wont be long before we find out who, let’s hope he can explain why.

Update: Senator Stevens’s office is confirming he is the senator who placed the hold on the bill. Senator Stevens, is the senator who attempted to include the Alaskan 223 million dollar “bridge to nowhere” in the highway bill. Stevens’s office is stating that the Senator was concerned that the bill created another unnecessary layer of bureaucracy. I think most Americans will welcome this additional layer of “Bureaucracy”, as it is likely to expose waste and save the tax payers money.