Wherever you fall in the political spectrum, it is clear that one policy (nearly) everyone can agree on is that the public should have better knowledge about the workings of its government. Without knowing how things work, it is hard to drive accountability. Opening matters to public scrutiny can often create the best behavior. As Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis once said, “Sunshine is the best disinfectant.”

One of the often overlooked advantages of the United States government is that there is relatively high transparency for its actions. The Freedom of Information Act, championed by the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, has been a significant aid in making the government of the people transparent to the people, but still things could be done better. I have often thought it is ironic that it is easier to search a billion documents across the world then the documents of the United States government.

Seeking to rectify that issue, and bring far greater transparency to the workings of the United States government, Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Barack Obama (D-IL) introduced a bill that would that would create a searchable database of government contracts, grants, insurance, loans and financial assistance. In short, make finding out information on federal spending as simple to use as a search on the Internet.

Such a fantastically good idea was unanimously passed in a voice vote last month by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and was put on the fast track for floor action before Congress recessed Aug. 4, when someone put a secret hold on the measure. Under Senate rules, unless the senator who placed the hold decides to lift it, the bill will not be brought up for a vote.

In August 2006, a bipartisan group of bloggers initiated a campaign that contacted the offices of all of the Senators who could have placed the hold and asked them to make a public statement affirming that they did not place the hold. With five holdouts remaining, the office of Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) eventually confirmed he put the secret hold on the bill.

What committee does Ted Stevens oversee in the Senate? He’s the head of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. You know, the Senator who heads the committee that sets policy for the Internet.

Ted Stevens has been subjected to alot of criticism for the Bridge to Nowhere (which arguably helps Alaska significantly), and alot of ridicule for calling the Internet a series of tubes (which it arguably is), but to my mind those issues are of relatively little importance compared to his placing a hold on a bill that would create a more transparent government. If he has a reasonable objection to such a bill, he should have placed a hold on the bill openly, and set forth his critique. A secret hold on a matter such as this is unworthy of the office he holds, and I hope he soon recants.