Imagine a Google-like search engine that would allow taxpayers to find out where $2.5 trillion in federal money was actually spent.

It would be a tremendous tool for ferreting out waste, quid pro quo deals for campaign contributors and other misspending.

Such a vision could become reality if a bill in the U.S. Senate sponsored by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., is passed.

The bill was headed to passage earlier this month. It made it through the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee by unanimous voice vote and was scheduled to go to the floor of the Senate before the Aug. 4 recess.

But then a senator placed an anonymous hold on the bill. Until the hold is lifted, the bill won't go anywhere.

"It really is outrageous to do this in the dead of night as Congress is recessing," said Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, a budget watchdog group. "The public has a right to know how the government spends money."

The public should have a right to know what senator disagrees, too, and why.

The Senate should end the rules allowing anonymous holds.

As Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said during a 2003 effort to end the practice, "Secret holds have no place in a publicly accountable institution."

The culprit holding up this worthwhile legislation should be exposed.