Obama, McCain Co-Sponsor Transparency Legislation Senators John McCain and Barack Obama agree: the text of federal contracts should be publicly available online. The presumed Republican and Democratic presidential nominees are among four sponsors of a bill that would require agencies to post searchable copies of federal contract documents on the USASpending.gov website. Other sponsors are Senators Tom Coburn, R-OK, and Tom Carper, D-DE. Coburn and Obama sponsored the legislation that created the USASpending site, which now allows the public to search for all recipients of federal contracts and grants. “While USASpending.gov has had tremendous success, this new legislation will expand the public information available on the Web site and improve the quality of government financial data,” Obama said in a statement June 3. The proposed database would also contain information about competitive bidding, earmarks, government lease agreements, work quality, audit disputes, any violations or criminal activities, federal tax compliance and government reports. The bill is the Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act, S.3077.