Senate Passes Coburn's Bill On Online Database

Saturday, September 9th 2006, 5:15 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The U.S. Senate has passed legislation by Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn that creates an online database to track billions of dollars in federal government grants and loans.

The legislation was approved in the Senate by unanimous consent, without debate. Coburn wasn't even present -- he was in a car heading to the airport for a trip to Iraq.

Coburn introduced the bill several weeks ago calling for a searchable database that would allow the public to access information about the recipients of U.S. government spending.

The bill calls for the database to be available on the Internet by 2008. Its estimated cost is 15 million dollars over five years.

Meanwhile, U.S. House leaders say an agreement has been reached on the legislation.