Pardon me. I must crow. The public just won a big one. And it was in spite of little or no coverage in the mainstream press, not to mention underhanded trickery in the U.S. Senate.

This major milestone was the passage in the U.S. Senate of a bill to increase budget accountability and transparency by establishing a public database to track federal grants and contracts.

The Senate passed S.2590 on Sept. 7, 2006, and the House passed HR 5060 on June 21, 2006. Both votes were unanimous. The bills were reconciled on Sept. 8, 2006, and the agreed upon legislation will now go to the president for signature.

So what am I crowing about?

This legislation is a horrible nightmare for elected officials who excel in “earmarking” appropriations for the benefit of their supporters. In other words, those who buy votes on the taxpayers dime hate it.

Consequently, games were played in the Senate to try to stop the legislation by secret means. A Senate rule used for decades, allows a Senator to put a secret hold on a bill and prevent a vote.

Previously, such a hold often sunk a bill for good which allowed one Senator to work his will anonymously. In the present case, the bill was so obviously beneficial to the public that no Senator could or would admit to opposing it. So of course, a hold was imposed.

But this time, the public nuclear weapon of the day was detonated. Majority Leader Frist called upon internet bloggers from across the political spectrum to unmask the culprit.

Within about 36 hours they nailed an infamous porker, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. Poor Stevens, he said he needed more information. He must have gotten it because he promptly lifted his hold. Then the bloggers revealed another holder, Senator Byrd, D-West VA., who also said he was lacking critical information but lifted his hold promptly. All is well now, wouldn’t you think?

Nope. A hold appeared the next morning. Within minutes the blogosphere had named the no-more-secret guilty party—Sen. Stevens once again. Earlier, Majority Leader Frist, his patience exhausted, announced he was going to break senate rules and ignore any more holds.

Sen. Stevens’ hold disappeared as if by magic and the bill then passed.

Without the power of that great, spontaneous blogosphere, this could not have happened. The originator of the legislation, freshman Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, said:

“This bill is a small but significant step toward changing the culture in Washington. Only by fostering a culture of openness, transparency and accountability will Congress come together to address the mounting fiscal challenges that threaten our future prosperity. The group that deserves credit for passing this bill, however, is not Congress, but the army of bloggers and concerned citizens who told Congress that transparency is a just demand for all citizens, not a special privilege for political insiders. Their remarkable effort demonstrates that our system of government does work when the people take the reins of government and demand change.”

Thanks, Sen. Coburn. Let’s give him and all of us a big hand of congratulations for porkers cooked well.

Let’s hope we can have a barbeque every week from now on.

Dick Rowland is the president of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. More about the institute at http://www.grassrootinstitute.org