After taking a quick look on this blog at grants, by chance on Wednesday there was a hearing on Capitol Hill dealing with how money is doled out by Uncle Sam. The figures were a stark reminder at how much attention the Congress got over earmarks, and how little attention agencies get on the money they hand out.

"There was over $600 billion going out in grants this last year," said Stanley Czerwinski of the General Accountability Office.

"We're talking about one in almost every five federal dollars," Czerwinski added.

Czerwinski ran through the details of a new GAO report which found more than $794 million in grant money was just sitting - unused - in a variety of federal agency accounts.

And the good part of the story is - that's better than the last time the GAO tallied those figures four years ago.

"We saw roughly about a $100 million dollar improvement," Czerwinski told a Senate committee.

"I'll tell you, that wouldn't have happened without congressional oversight," he added.

That line was something that made me smile, because too often Congress isn't paying attention to how the feds are spending money, and it can lead to waste and abuse (just check the GSA for recent stories.)

In this case, lawmakers have been putting the heat on federal agencies over grants, trying to make sure things were going in the right direction.

Still, when you have $800 million in unused money, that raises some questions as to what's going on in grant management circles.

If you are wondering what group sends out the most grant money, that would be the Department of Health and Human Services.

"In fiscal year 2011, HHS’ grants management offices awarded $380 billion in grants," said Nancy Gunderson, a top HHS grants official.

$380 billion just from HHS and over $600 billion in grants overall.

How much do you think the Congress was sending out in terms of earmarks a few years back when all kinds of people were complaining about such spending?

In fiscal year 2010, the Congress had over 9,000 earmarks for a total of nearly $16 billion.

$16 billion versus $600-plus billion.

Now maybe you understand why I often say the Congress has to step up its oversight on the Executive Branch when it comes to spending.

Because there is a lot of money going out the door.

I'll try to stay on the money trail more in coming weeks.