FROM time to time, members of Congress advance proposals designed to make it harder for them to spend taxpayers' money. Usually these stop-us-before-we-spend-again schemes have loopholes big enough to drive an 18-wheeler through and therefore have limited value in creating fiscal discipline.

Not so with a proposal by Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma that would create a public database, searchable over the Internet, listing most government contracts and grants worth billions of dollars in annual spending. Any taxpayer with access to a computer could see who's getting what and how much from Uncle Sam.

"Sunshine's the best thing we've got to control waste, fraud and abuse," Coburn told The New York Times. "It's also the best thing we've got to control stupidity."

It's not hard to see what Coburn means. Putting federal contracting and subcontracting information on the Internet in a searchable format would instantly create thousands, perhaps millions, of watchdogs.

Critics argue much of the information already is available and is analyzed by various advocacy groups. That's fine, but each group filters information according to its issue interests. The database Coburn is pushing would let individuals set their own search parameters. That kind of sunshine, as Coburn puts it, could be a significant brake on the traditional way money gets ladled out in Washington.

The idea has bipartisan backing. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is a co-sponsor. While Obama and Coburn are polar opposites on most issues, each understands how broad, public disclosure would have advantages over mechanisms lawmakers typically craft for themselves -- including the loopholes.

Coburn's proposal won't solve Washington's spending problems. But bringing contracts and grants into the open for all to see will help foster greater accountability.