I was in Reno, Nevada yesterday with former Nevada Common Cause Board Chair Jim Hulse and a group of activists who were calling on Senator Jim Ensign to explain his obstruction of a bill to require U.S. Senators to tell us who they are taking money from -- now.

Watch a video of our event:

Currently, Senators file campaign finance disclosure reports on paper.  The paper reports are scanned into a computer, printed out, and then retyped to be placed on the Federal Election Commission website.  This process takes about four months and costs about $250,000 in taxpayer dollars.

I came across this little tidbit on the Washington Post website today:

Well, that certainly sounds like a good idea.  This coalition aims to create a single database of earmarks, which the public can then access and investigate on their own.  Any findings will be reported back to the database, hopefully creating a one-stop-shop for seeing where our tax money is going and on which Member of Congress' initiative.

Well put.  We'll keep you updated on anything more we learn about this project.