Bass Leaving OMB Watch

OMB Watch founder Gary Bass, who has advocated for greater government accountability for almost three decades, is leaving next year to head the foundation of the Bauman family, he announced on Monday.

From his perch as executive director of OMB Watch, Bass has pushed for more public involvement in the regulatory process and greater disclosure of contracting data. It was OMB Watch, not the federal government, that started tracking all federal awards online in 2006. The organization's FedSpending.org, was the precursor to the government's USAspending.gov site, which now publishes all federal contracts.

Bass said he will leave by the fall of 2011 to serve as executive director of the Bauman Foundation. In 2008, the foundation's employees donated $117,500 to Democratic candidates, party groups and political action committees, according to OpenSecrets.org. More recently, the foundation has supported voter registration efforts.

The foundation's President Patricia Bauman, like Bass, has led initiatives to increase public access to government information, according to her profile on the website of the progressive group Catalist, where she is a board co-director.

"I remain intensely passionate about the organization and the issues it covers, and my commitment to government accountability and social justice will not fade when I step down as executive director next year," Bass said in a letter to acquaintances on Monday. "I have learned there comes a time when an organization's founder needs to move on in order to strengthen the very organization the founder loves."

OMB Watch has begun searching for a replacement and is inviting applications and recommendations from the public when the job notice becomes available.