The Senate today passed the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, known at S.2590, reports GovExec. This bill creates an online database of federal grants and contract funding (unlike H.R.5060 which looks only at grants). It’s about time this information was easily searchable and more immediately available. It’s good to see common sense prevailing after the shenanigans of the past few weeks.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the database will cost $15 million between 2007 and 2011. So the next step is to ensure that it gets the funding needed to make it a reality.