At least one state has recently considered legislation which would make it harder for the public to review contacts involving government agencies.

Here in Pennsylvania, the Right-to-Know Law makes all state government contracts valued at $5,000 or more easy to review online.

The state contract database is maintained by the state Treasurer, and it allows anyone with Internet access to search contracts by agency, contracting party, date range, and more.

Contracts involving local agencies like counties, school districts, cities, boroughs, and townships are not included in the database — but those are generally available by filing a simple Right-to-Know Law request.