Los Angeles (December 13, 2007) – “The Office of Management and Budget’s new website USASpending.gov helps show taxpayers where their money goes. This is important step towards ‘Google Government’ and true transparency and accountability,” said Amanda Hydro, director of policy development at Reason Foundation. “Now we need all of the nation’s top politicians, those running for the presidency, to pledge that the executive branch will be fully transparent and accountable to the American people.”
In August, Reason Foundation and a diverse coalition of 35 other organizations, representing all sides of the political spectrum, distributed the “Oath of Presidential Transparency” to every presidential candidate who had met the Federal Election Commission’s filing requirements.
To date, six presidential candidates, including Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), have signed the oath declaring that, should they win the presidency in 2008, they will issue an executive order during their first month in office instructing the entire executive branch to put into practice the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, a Google-like search tool will allow you to see how your tax dollars are being spent on federal contracts, grants and earmarks.
“Every American has the right to know how the government spends their tax dollars, but for too long that information has been largely hidden from public view,” said Sen. Obama after signing the Presidential Oath of Transparency. “This historic law will lift the veil of secrecy in Washington and ensure that our government is transparent and accountable to the American people.”
“When government spends the people’s money, it must be done with utmost possible transparency,” Rep. Paul, the first to sign the oath, declared. “Signing the Oath of Presidential Transparency was a no-brainer for me.”
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), former Senator Mike Gravel (D-AK), and Republican John Cox have signed the oath. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) also signed the oath during his presidential campaign.
Full Oath Online
The complete oath of presidential transparency is available online at www.reason.org/oath/.
About the Coalition
An alliance of 36 diverse groups is advocating the presidential accountability oath. The following groups are part of the coalition: American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, American Association of Small Property Owners, Americans for Tax Reform, Budget Watch Nevada, Capital Research Center, Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights, Center for Individual Freedom, Citizen Outreach Project, Citizens Against Government Waste, Doctors for Open Government, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Evergreen Freedom Foundation, FreedomWorks, Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, Iowa Public Policy Institute, Liberty Coalition, Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Minnesota Free Market Institute, Mississippi Center for Public Policy, National Taxpayers Union, Nevada Policy Research Institute, Reason Foundation, Republican Liberty Caucus, Research Accountability Project, Rio Grande Foundation, Taxpayers League of Minnesota, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, The Harbor League, The Performance Institute, The Project on Government Oversight, The Pullins Report, The Rutherford Institute, US Bill of Rights Foundation, Velvet Revolution, Virginia Institute for Public Policy, and Washington Policy Center.
About Reason Foundation
Reason Foundation is a nonprofit think tank dedicated to advancing free minds and free markets. Reason produces respected public policy research on a variety of issues and publishes the critically acclaimed monthly magazine, Reason. Reason Foundation does not endorse any political candidate. For more information, please visit www.reason.org.
Government Contact
Presidential candidates interested in signing the oath, or organizations interested in joining the coalition, should contact Reason Foundation’s Amanda Hydro at (202) 236-9193.
Media Contacts
Chris Mitchell, Director of Communications, Reason Foundation, (310) 367-6109