Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn’s bill that would create a public database to track billions of dollars in government grants, contracts and loans is on high momentum.

The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act passed the Senate unanimously last week, despite earlier attempts by some high-profile senators to quash it.

The bill now goes to the House of Representatives, where Coburn said he expects it to pass.

Coburn co-authored the bill with Democratic Sen. Barack Obama. The bill requires the Office of Management and Budget to ensure a single, searchable Web site providing free public access to information about contracts, grants, loans and other forms of federal assistance.

Coburn said these have always been public information, but not in a single database. It’s been difficult for the public to find out this information. Coburn’s bill makes it extremely easy.

The Oklahoma senator is right when he says the public has not had the tools to do research on this kind of information to hold their lawmakers accountable for government spending. As spending has spiraled out of control under the current Congress, Coburn believes lawmakers are wasting their children’s futures.

Only when people can get a handle on where the government money is going will they become engaged in the process. They also can help their lawmakers set the proper priorities in where money should be spent.

On that account, he’s right. The Internet provides taxpayers more options to do their own research into what the government is spending money on.

This is the kind of legislation that is long overdue and needs to pass. We encourage the House to pass the bill and President Bush to sign it.

As Coburn said, it could possibly be the biggest thing to reform federal government to come down the pike in a long, long time.