The Bush Administration took a big step today in the war against pork-barrel projects. The Office of Management and Budget unveiled its new-and-improved online earmarks database. This is the third update in the past month to the database, and it includes some very helpful features, such as a downloadable file of 13,496 earmarks totaling more than $19 billion from fiscal year 2005.

Yesterday, OMB’s Austin Smyth and Rob Lehman held a conference call with bloggers who cover government transparency. Based on the response I’m seeing in the blogosphere today, their hard work has paid off. (It’s important to remember why OMB proceeded with this project. The 2005 numbers will serve as a benchmark for future years.)

Blogs covering today’s announcement include Heritage’s The Insider, RedState, the Sunlight Foundation, Club for Growth, Human Events, Instapundit, Open Congress, the Project on Government Oversight, and National Taxpayers Union.

Congratulations to the team at OMB! And thank you for your commitment to transparency.

UPDATE — April 5, 5:50 p.m.: I touched base with OMB today about a few concerns that have been raised about the earmarks database. Here’s what I heard back.

On complaints that the database isn’t easy to search, I’m told that OMB is working through some technical issues, but expects a search feature to be added in the future. Right now you can download the database, making it easy to sort and search by various criteria.

On the second complaint that the database doesn’t have congressional sponsors, this issue won’t be resolved until the fiscal 2008 appropriations bills. Because Congress was not required to provide that information in fiscal 2005, there’s no way for OMB to incorporate it into the database.

Earlier this year, both the House and Senate voted for greater transparency, which includes naming the sponsors of earmarks. The House achieved this through a rule change at the beginning of the 110th Congress, meaning it’s now up to Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D.-Wis.) to provide that information. Unfortunately, things are moving slowly in the Senate. The legislation that includes provisions for increased transparency on earmarks, S. 1, is not yet law. However, Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd (D.-W.Va.) could still comply with the spirit of bill and provide the sponsors of earmarks. Basically, it’s up to Congress to make this happen before the team at OMB can implement it.

UPDATE — 6:08 p.m.: I’d also like to correct the misleading sub-headline on today’s Los Angeles Times article by Nicole Gaouette and Tom Hamburger. It says, “Pet spending projects that lawmakers put in the 2005 budget are listed. The administration’s requests aren’t.” However, if either reporter bothered to call OMB, they would have been reminded that the administration proposes and Congress disposes. Our representatives have the power of the purse.