If you haven’t already listened to This American Life’s episode, “Take the Money and Run for Office,” I encourage you to set aside 45 minutes in your busy life so you can listen to it uninterrupted. It’s a brilliant piece of storytelling that goes far and beyond my most optimistic dreams for how long-form journalism can illuminate how money affects politics (and governance) in our nation. (Plus, this Brooklyn-born Woody Allen fan was especially delighted with the clever headline This American Life used, a play on one of Allen’s earliest feature films, “Take the Money and Run.”)

As Communications Director at Sunlight, I work nearly every day with reporters to better understand our work, how government works and how to follow the money in our elections to know who and what influences our elected officials. I can’t express to you how proud I was to hear how Sunlight’s Party Time site and on-going work helped inform the narrative expertly created by This American Life, Planet Money and NPR’s congressional team.

From the episode’s gripping intro of my own representative, Eleanor Holmes Norton, pleading for donations to the deft editing of appropriate music clips to keep the story moving, they did a superb job in translating the wonky details to something any listener could understand. They went above and beyond to show how we can use data to create transparency around how members of Congress raise money and the impact their fundraising has on their policy work and relationships with lobbyists. We worked with NPR's teams in their reporting, and are thrilled their work is already elevating public dialogue about an issue Sunlight (and you, dear reader), has cared about for years. It is definitely worth listening to, reading and sharing with your friends.

This episode has also taught me patience - as a PR professional, that’s not something that comes to me naturally. Nearly four years ago, Sunlight launched Party Time, the first centralized, free site where anyone could monitor the fundraising circuit that keeps members of Congress flush with cash for their re-elections--a persistent activity that keeps lawmakers busy hobnobbing with lobbyists and donors morning, noon and night. While reporters instantly began citing Party Time’s data to provide context on their reporting on political fundraising, I longed for a feature-length news piece that would create the ‘a-ha’ moment needed to really bring home why understanding the site’s data matters.

The Federal Election Commission releases campaign finance disclosures months after the money is raised and cashed; Party Time collects information on fundraisers that are happening today—and next week, and in some cases months ahead. When we created it, we thought that even though it could never be as comprehensive as we’d want since we rely upon the kindness of political insiders to leak the invitations they receive [hint, anyone can upload an invite]. But we always hoped Party Time would prove to be a useful early warning system for tracking influence in Congress, especially since it is the only data source that provides real-time and prospective insight into the fundraising activities of federal candidates. It may not be a site that attracts a lot of online visitors, but it does document daily how members of Congress chase donors, proving to be a powerful, unique resource for disclosure where no disclosure is required by law.

And, with news accounts like This American Life’s episode, I hope more people become interested in tuning into how Washington truly operates and joining Sunlight in our work to continue to shine a light on it all.

This is our democracy, after all, not one just for the one percent.

**Graphic of Party Time data by Lam Thuy Vo, NPR | Planet Money

Last week Sunlight kicked off the new year with a slew of fresh reporting on the influence of Super PACs in the busy Republican primaries. Be sure to check in on our new Super PAC cheat sheet for updated reports on who is supporting or opposing candidates.

Keenan Steiner took an early tally of Super PAC spending after the Iowa caucus and found at least $13.1 million doled out by many groups run by former aides of candidates who won't have to reveal their donors until January 31st. Sunlight's Lindsay Young profiled the pro-Santorum Red White and Blue PAC while Bill Allison checked out a pop-up PAC called Leaders for Families that was created a week before the Iowa caucus and will likely close-up shop. Follow all our Reporting coverage on Super PACs here.

Sunlight's Super PAC coverage earned the attention of a number of major media outlets including NPR, the San Francisco Chronicle and the following segment on the PBS Newshour:

Watch Are Super PACs Living Up to Supreme Court's Intentions? on PBS.

On Friday, Rep. Peters introduced a new bill, (H. Res. 230), to carry the Read the Bill mantle.

The bill would require all legislation that hasn't been reported out of committee to be posted online for at least 72 hours.

The measure, also cosponsored by Reps Quigley and Polis, comes on the heels of the new House Rules for the 112th Congress, which require three calendar days for legislation. This rules change (from this January) was a significant improvement over what came before, even if there are many avenues for evading a full, 72 hour public airing of legislation.

The biggest loophole in the existing rules, it turns out, is that three calendar days can mean as little as 24 hours and change, as long as the bill is online during part of three different working days. Several bills this Congress have been passed without 72 hours online, including the NPR defunding vote, and one of the Continuing Resolution bills from House Republicans.

These votes were particularly surprising, since Speaker Boehner was a big proponent of the 72 hour standard for all House bills, as we've pointed out before.

Rep. Peters' bill would raise the standard for House bills from 3 days to 72 hours, and give lawmakers and the public the minimum they need to see what is in bills that are being considered.

House leaders have clearly recognized that the public expects bills to be online before votes, and have improved the way bills are shared online, but we shouldn't rely on the Speakers' prerogatives in order to guarantee a reasonable amount of time for public consideration of bills in the people's House.

H. Res 230 is short enough to read in a minute or two. The full text is below:

HRES 230 IH 112th CONGRESS 1st Session H. RES. 230 Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to provide that the House may not consider any reported bill until at least 72 hours after it is reported. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES April 15, 2011 Mr. PETERS (for himself, Mr. QUIGLEY, and Mr. POLIS) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Rules RESOLUTION Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to provide that the House may not consider any reported bill until at least 72 hours after it is reported. Resolved, That clause 11 of rule XXI of the Rules of the House of Representatives is amended to read as follows: `11. It shall not be in order to consider a bill or joint resolution that has not been reported by a committee until such measure has been available to Members, Delegates, and the Resident Commissioner for 72 hours (excluding Saturdays, Sundays, or legal holidays except when the House is in session on such a day) in which such measure has been available to Members, Delegates, and the Resident Commissioner.'.

Yesterday the House Republicans voted on a bill to defund National Public Radio without providing 72 hours for the public to review the bill. This violates a pledge that Speaker John Boehner made repeatedly that he would require every bill to be made available for at least 72 hours online and in public.

I explained this in a post yesterday:

Earlier this year the House Republicans changed the House Rules to implement a Read the Bill rule that stating that bills must be available on three calendar days prior to consideration. Sunlight was very pleased to see the new House Rules incorporate language that strengthens the public's ability to see legislation online before votes. We've also recognized that this rule might be artfully evaded through a variety of means, one of which is the "calendar day" definition.

In the case of today's vote, the bill technically meets the House Rules as passed in January, but could, if voted on prior to a 72 hour period expiring (approximately 8 AM on Friday), violate the numerous pledges made by Speaker Boehner and other Republican leaders to provide a public, 72 hour window for all legislation.

The bill was voted on yesterday afternoon and, thus, violated Boehner's pledge. To be more accurate, the pledge was violated even before the vote as the 72 hours of public review should end at the beginning of debate, which, on the NPR defunding bill, began yesterday morning.

Sunlight has previously stated our concerns about ways that the majority could circumvent this pledge and the rule, which does not mirror the pledge, implemented earlier this year. It is a bit surprising that the pledge was initially broken in this unnecessary manner, especially after Boehner being so emphatic and specific about the 72 hour time frame.

The House is set to vote today for a bill that would forbid funding for National Public Radio. The bill, while posted to the Internet on Tuesday morning, has not been available for 72 hours or more, which would appear to violate a pledge by Speaker John Boehner to afford the public this amount of time to read bills prior to consideration.

Earlier this year the House Republicans changed the House Rules to implement a Read the Bill rule that stating that bills must be available on three calendar days prior to consideration. Sunlight was very pleased to see the new House Rules incorporate language that strengthens the public's ability to see legislation online before votes. We've also recognized that this rule might be artfully evaded through a variety of means, one of which is the "calendar day" definition.

In the case of today's vote, the bill technically meets the House Rules as passed in January, but could, if voted on prior to a 72 hour period expiring (approximately 8 AM on Friday), violate the numerous pledges made by Speaker Boehner and other Republican leaders to provide a public, 72 hour window for all legislation. (Update: Sunlight's previous call for 72 hours of online bill availability required 72 hours prior to consideration, not prior to a vote. Under that rule, the consideration of this bill has already violated that pledge.)

Here is Speaker Boehner at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference earlier this year: This "calendar day" issue was previously pointed out by Sunlight's Lisa Rosenberg, "the “third calendar day” yardstick for determining whether a bill is ripe for consideration could result in a bill being available for less than 72 hours. Sunlight has advocated using a “72 hour” time frame instead of three calendar days to prevent possible gamesmanship."

There still remain many other potential ways in which the current Rule and previous pledges could be subverted. Sunlight Policy Director John Wonderlich pointed these out in a post earlier this year.

Sunlight hopes that the House decides to go with previous pledges of requiring bills to be online for at least 72 hours prior to a vote in the future.

UPDATE: Rep. Anthony Weiner just pointed out the failure of the majority to provide 72 hours prior to consideration of this bill. The presiding congressman gaveled out a parliamentary inquiry from Weiner after declaring his question of whether the bill had been online for 72 hours to be "hypothetical." I'm not sure what is hypothetical about that inquiry.

UPDATE 2: Here is the video of Weiner making a point of order on the 72 hour rule.

UPDATE 3: Below is the original draft of the bill as submitted to the House Rules Committee. This is the earliest available draft of the bill. You can see the time stamp in the lower left-hand corner on each page. It reads March 15, 2011 8:21 am: House Resolution to Defund NPR

NPR Senior News Analyst and ABC political commentator Cokie Roberts reviewed the political landscape facing advocates of reasonable public access to federal legislation.  Roberts spoke favorably of the "yeoman's work" being done by the Sunlight Foundation in the push for reform.

Roberts also addressed why the current Democratic leadership opposes the bill: "Yes, sunlight is, by and large, a good thing.  But it does make it harder to get things done."

For those long out of power, any delay against their long sought after policy objectives might seem like an intolerable pause.  However, no party remains in power forever and eventually the tides turn.  As our own Paul Blumenthal has shown, the party in power always dispenses with timely public access to legislation.

What in one season greases the skids of your reform can also expedite the rollback of those same reforms in another year.

By requiring the process of legislation building and compromise become more transparent lawmakers will ensure better policy outcomes for everyone.

NPR launched a new series, Dollar Politics, today to look at the influence of money in the debate over three legislative items: financial regulation, energy policy, and health care. Today's report focuses on health care, looking at the role of lobbyists in the effort to pass, or not, a health care reform bill.

Of particular interest in the piece is the packing of committee hearings by these lobbyists. One lobbyist is quoted explaining why lobbyists show up to the hearings, "[They] have friendships with various members of Congress or staff and hope to be seen. It's a reminder that their interests are at play." They may hope to be seen by senators and congressmen, but not in the way NPR had in mind. Dollar Politics turned the camera around on the lobbyists and put their pictures on line. NPR is seeking help in identifying potential lobbyists and you can see the pictures and send them information here.

This is a very important project and I hope to be following it (or waking up to these stories, as I did today) as they track influence around these important issues. Listen to the full report below:

NPR Dollar Politics - Health Care