Word reaches me that two NGP Partners testified at the latest hearings regarding S.2590, otherwise known as the “Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act”, which was amusingly titled What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You. Hoho!

And somewhat related is the reminder contained in the background materials about the FAT bill on Senator Coburn’s web site:

The website required by this bill would not be difficult to develop. In fact, one such site already exists for some federal funds provided by agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services. The CRISP (Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects) is a searchable database of federally funded biomedical research projects conducted at universities, hospitals, and other research institutions.

Doh! Not only is this something I should have remembered, I’m further shamed because our company worked on CRISP a while ago! (Yes, we’re to blame for the icons and whatnot, even. Hey, if it were down to me, we’d have changed them all a long time ago,) Mea culpa. Or, perhaps, mea dolt?

Anyway, I’m not sure I agree that CRISP’s existence indicates that satisfying S.2590 would “not be difficult”. It was hard enough to get NIH to consolidate award data in one place, never mind the whole government!