Imagine the power of hitching an Internet search engine to federal spending. It would be a treasury of information and empower citizens to bore through data and hold government decision makers accountable.

Give Congress credit for making it happen. Last week it wrapped up legislation to create such a searchable database, and sent it to President Bush for signature.

Sen. Thomas Carper of Delaware was one of the original sponsors of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act this spring. Sens. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Barack Obama of Illinois and John McCain of Arizona were the other shepherds.

The end result is that in two years, about $1 trillion in federal grants, loans, contracts, purchase orders and earmarks should be searchable by fiscal year and location. The mandate covers money dispersed to both for-profit and nonprofit entities.

Once the engine is running, the law requires awards to be posted within 30 days of being made.

There are important exclusions. No individual benefit recipients nor federal employees will be included, nor any classified national security information.

Even with that caveat, easy ability to track where government money goes should unleash the power of the people to respond in practically no time.