Tonight's State of the Union Address raised even less transparency issues than we expected. (See the text at the end of this post.)

President Obama called for a ban on insider trading in Congress, and proposes to ban lobbyists from bundling contributions, and to ban bundlers from lobbying.

The insider trading ban is a proposal Sunlight has supported, in the form of the STOCK Act, despite some initial misgivings. Congress should create clarity about self-dealing and insider trading, and the President is right to call on Congress to address this issue.

When Obama raised the issue of money in politics in his speech, though, he raises the "corrosive influence of money in politics." As wrong as insider trading may be, money in politics isn't about self-dealing. Obama is closer to hitting the mark in raising the issue of bundlers, but unfortunately raises a proposal that's unlikely to get discussed beyond tomorrow. A ban on lobbying or contributing to campaigns is unlikely to pass Congress, and unlikely to pass muster with the courts.  Even if it did, it would do little to mitigate the "corrosive influence of money in politics", since bundlers are often just the bag men operating at others' behest. If you're not getting the Chris Dodds of the world, your lobbying reform plan is probably aiming a little too low.

It's not clear why Obama is suddenly more interested in bundlers than say, lobbying disclosure (last year's lobbying SOTU provision), although it's possible that Obama is raising it because it will become a campaign issue, as Republican candidates have yet to release information about bundlers supporting them, as Obama has.

But this is still disappointing, since it again shows Obama relying on a flawed statutory definition of lobbyist in order to appear opposed to special interests, without actually having to do much.

Worse, though, than the lackluster vision for lobbying reform, is what's entirely missing from the State of the Union: any mention of the flood of dark money flowing into our elections. As I noted earlier today, Obama spent most of 2010 railing against the Citizens United decision -- warning us of the dangers of unlimited and secret contributions, and pushing for a legislative fix.

Since Republicans have blocked that effort, and former White House staffers started a super PAC to help Obama's re-election bid, Obama has almost completely ignored the issue. It's apparently too politically awkward to address when he's the beneficiary of all that dark money he spent 2010 warning us about.

It's good to have a President willing to raise transparency and money in politics in the State of the Union. But when insider trading and an ill-fated lunge at bundlers are all the vision he has to offer, we have to wonder whether Obama sees his old transparency platform as a political liability, rather than a vision to be perfected and implemented.

Speech Excerpt:

Some of this has to do with the corrosive influence of money in politics.  So together, let’s take some steps to fix that.  Send me a bill that bans insider trading by Members of Congress, and I will sign it tomorrow.  Let’s limit any elected official from owning stocks in industries they impact.  Let’s make sure people who bundle campaign contributions for Congress can’t lobby Congress, and vice versa – an idea that has bipartisan support, at least outside of Washington.

Some of what’s broken has to do with the way Congress does its business these days.  A simple majority is no longer enough to get anything – even routine business – passed through the Senate.  Neither party has been blameless in these tactics.  Now both parties should put an end to it.  For starters, I ask the Senate to pass a rule that all judicial and public service nominations receive a simple up or down vote within 90 days.

Tonight, President Obama will deliver his fourth State of the Union address, and we'll be watching to see how his reform and transparency ambitions fit within this most public description of the President's priorities.* In an election year when an anti-Washington campaign theme will still be required, Obama may continue to cast his transparency work as a list of achievements, rather than an affirmative vision for accountable government.

Here are some themes from Obama's (first) campaign, his Presidency, and previous State of the Union addresses, that could be rejuvinated tonight:

Campaign Finance Transparency:

As we noted last year, Obama directly confronted the Supreme Court Justices in 2010 (shortly after the Citizens United decision), and then avoided campaign finance transparency altogether in 2011. The 2012 State of the Union could see Obama revive the issue from the bully pulpit. Almost nothing was done by Congress during 2011, a year when Congress failed at even defending a draft Executive Order that the President requiring disclosure of political giving from government contractors. The issue is still rife for Presidential engagement, though -- people hate the Citizens United decision, and it should be easy to rail against negative ads and dark money in our elections.

The issue could be awkward for Obama, whose former staffers started their own super PAC to aid in his re-election. Even if Obama and his party are to be the beneficiaries of the often secret, unlimited contributions they have warned us about in the past, the President still has a responsibility to push the issue.

Lobbying Disclosure

Obama loves to rail against lobbyists, and they've been a staple of previous campaign rhethoric, SOTU addresses, and White House policies. Lobbying disclosure and lobbyists will likely come up again this year, especially as cashing in on public service has become a disputed theme in the Republican presidential contest. We'll be watching to see whether Obama articulates any kind of affirmative vision for lobbying disclosure, or whether he adopts a "we already did that" posture like he did last year.

The White House has certainly done a great deal on lobbying disclosure, but their work too often relies on the flawed statutory definition of a lobbyist, which is weak, easily evaded, and fails for the most important of influencers.  An affirmative vision for reform is necessary.

Earmarks

Obama pushed for Earmark disclosure in the 2010 SOTU, and then issued a flat veto threat in 2011.  Unfortunately, neither approach has worked, and the supposed ban has made earmark requests a dark art, rather than the subject of public debate. The White House has been reportedly circulating a draft EO on earmark request disclosure, which Sunlight has pushed for extensively. Today would be a great day to issue an updated Executive Order, to protect merit in spending decisions, and keep Members of Congress from strongarming agencies into supporting their pet projects, while often pretending to be opposed to money from Washington.

Working with Congress

After the last year of Continuing Resolutions, near government shutdowns, the debt limit fight, and the supercommittee, watching the heads of divided government share a dais should be entertaining. Political gamesmanship has led the leaders of both parties to break campaign promises (72 hours for all bills, or "end[ing] the practice of writing legislation behind closed doors").

I don't expect Obama to raise the bar on negotiating with Congress, but he should. The frustrated-with-Washington undercurrent is about a variety of different things, and party leaders' tendency to choose each other over the public is near the top of the list. The reset button needs to be pushed for how party leaders approach divided government. The political moment of the State of the Union probably is an insufficient occasion to force such a reconsideration.

Wild Cards

If Obama wants to discuss transparency in his SOTU, there are a variety of other issues he could address in his speech. He could run through the oft-recited litany of White House achievements, like the Open Government Directive, Data.gov, the visitor logs, the Open Government Partership, and while they each have their failings, they're still successes the White House should highlight.

National Security secrecy, transparency in the finance sector, and the ongoing struggle to strengthen the FOIA could all come up in the speech as well.

We'll be watching, and have reactions after the address.

*Update: please join us at SunlightLive.com for our live coverage beginning at 9 pm ET.

Every year the big trade groups in Washington come out with some kind of statement about how the State of the Union either shows how their industry is hugely important or how the State of the Union failed because it didn't include their industry's priorities. I've collected a few of these for you to peruse:

U.S. Chamber of Commerce:

President Obama highlighted the urgent need to revitalize our economy, create jobs, build a world-class infrastructure system, and strengthen America’s competitiveness in his State of the Union address. America must move swiftly to create millions of jobs, unshackle entrepreneurs and small businesses, and restore America’s economic leadership around the globe--or we will be left behind. ... The U.S. Chamber will work with anyone who shares our goals and we don’t care who gets the credit.

Business Roundtable is heartened by President Obama’s focus on American competitiveness. U.S. job creation and long-term growth depend on a robust economic climate. The priorities laid out tonight by the President must now be analyzed closely to ensure they will promote, rather than stifle, an environment where the private sector can create jobs and expand the economy. ... we must promptly ratify and pursue more trade agreements, enact comprehensive tax reform and reevaluate excessive and expensive regulations.

Tonight was a missed opportunity. The president focused on job growth through federal spending, but was silent on one of the best ways to create jobs: allow more energy development. Natural gas and renewables are important components of our energy mix, but we will need our nation's vast oil resources for decades to come.  The oil and natural gas industry is a key driver of new jobs and economic prosperity Producing more oil and gas at home, which most Americans want, could create hundreds of thousands of jobs, reduce our deficit by billions, and enhance our energy security. Even better, the government wouldn't have to invest a single taxpayer dollar - just give industry a green light to invest its own money.

President Obama certainly understands our need to be competitive in manufacturing, new technology and skills.  But he must also understand that last-century trade deals that reward and encourage corporations that outsource American jobs will do little to generate net new jobs in the United States or raise living standards here or abroad.  Working people will continue to urge the President and his administration to stick to his campaign promises of reforming trade deals, so they do more than boost profits for multi-national corporations. ... We firmly believe that we should not be cutting government spending when the economy is so weak.  This economy is failing to create jobs at an adequate pace to dig us out of the hole we're in, and a spending freeze at this time will slow down job creation and growth – further worsening the deficit.  This is simply the wrong medicine at the wrong time. And it is essential that the President acts on the commitment he outlined tonight to strengthen and preserve our essential retirement security programs – Social Security and Medicare. All working people will continue to fight any proposals that aim to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits.

Let's be clear, there is no greater investment in this country than getting Americans back to work. With nearly 30 million Americans unemployed or underemployed, we don't just have a jobs crisis, we have a jobs emergency. ... It's alarming to hear some Republicans counter the president's bold vision with devastating cuts that would destroy jobs and plunge our nation back into recession. These Republicans are quick to dismiss job-creating investments in education and infrastructure as unnecessary spending while pushing for budget-busting tax breaks for millionaires. And it's no longer acceptable for corporations and Wall Street banks to earn a record $1.6 trillion in profits while refusing to put America back to work.

In his State of the Union address to the nation, the President called for Americans to unleash their creative spirit and come together around the common goal of outcompeting other nations in an increasingly challenging economic global environment. A key cornerstone to meeting this challenge will be a focus on biomedical research investment. We are pleased the President acknowledged medical innovation as a critical means to help bolster the economy, control health care costs and improve Americans’ health and productivity.

We thank President Obama for shining a spotlight on education and for recognizing the remarkable work of the nation's teachers. Our students’ futures and the economic well-being of our nation are at stake. We know that the road to the American dream runs directly through our nation’s classrooms. ... We welcome the president’s call to fix No Child Left Behind. We agree that it is time to right-size the role of the federal government in education. However, we remain concerned that competitive grants such as Race to the Top create winners and losers among our students.

We are pleased to see the possibility of the first predictable long-term federal policy toward renewable energy. But of course we'll need to make sure the policy really deploys the renewable energy Americans want in the near term, as well as the long term. ... It is true that fossil fuels receive five times more in federal incentives than renewable energy. We don't believe that is in line with Americans' current priorities.

The AMA applauds the President’s willingness to consider medical liability reform to rein in frivolous lawsuits and help reduce health care costs. Medical liability reform is critical as every American pays the price for high medical liability costs.

Tonight the Sunlight Foundation will cover President Obama's 2011 State of the Union using our award-winning Sunlight Live platform of real-time investigative reporting. We will provide real-time transparency of the annual State of the Union and make our analysis participatory in a way we couldn't have before the Web. We invite all citizens to join us and submit questions as we live-blog, fact-check on-the-fly and provide contextual analysis about the influences shaping President Obama's statements at the moment they are spoken.

The unified Sunlight Live page brings together the speech's live streaming video, contextual data, reporting and social media. Sunlight's Reporting Group is joined by The Huffington Post, National Journal, CQ Roll Call and the Center for Public Integrity. We believe this expanded and accomplished team will be the most comprehensive live coverage available with insight to the proposals, people and policies mentioned during the speech. The Sunlight Foundation is committed to sharing this platform and encourage others to embed it on their own sites.

The fun begins at 8:30 pm EST at http://www.sunlightlive.com.

We hope you join us.

It’s time to require lobbyists to disclose each contact they make on behalf of a client with my Administration or Congress. -- President Obama in his State of the Union speech.

Today, there are over 13,000 registered lobbyists working in Washington to influence our elected officials and government employees. These 13,000-plus lobbyists spent $2.5 billion on lobbying in the first three quarters of last year (fourth quarter totals are still being tallied). All of this monied influence and we have no idea who they meet with or what they discuss. Sunlight has called for the disclosure of lobbyist contacts for quite some time now. It's both heartening and surprising to see the President call for the same thing.

Why should lobbyists disclose their contacts to the public?

President Obama explained it very well in his State of the Union last night, "We face a deficit of trust – deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works that have been growing for years." These "deep and corrosive doubts" stem, not only from fears of quid pro quo deals struck behind closed doors, but from the belief that there is associational bias in the lobbyist-lawmaker relationship. In a legal essay on lobbying disclosure, Anita Krishnkumar, a law professor at St. John's University, writes, "…[T]he public perceives that lobbyists receive special face time with elected officials. Irrespective of where that face time occurs — in scheduled meetings, on a train ride, over a game of power, or on the golf course — it creates opportunities for lobbyists to persuade elected officials of their clients’ positions, opportunities that ordinary citizens do not have. In other words, the public’s concern is not just that elected officials will engage in blatant vote-selling to lobbyists, but, more subtly, that they will be partial to the causes of lobbyists’ clients because they spend a lot of time in lobbyists’ company.”

The fears that people have about the relationship between lawmakers and lobbyists can begin to be reduced by the simple disclosure of lobbyist contacts. This disclosure would allow us all to see lobbyists requesting earmarks, writing bills and distributing information. We'd also be able to track lobbyist meetings in the run-up to congressional hearings and floor votes. This would allow for the full story of the legislative process to be put into the public record.

There is no doubt that lobbying is protected by the First Amendment right to petition the government. The massive growth in the lobbying sector, however, has raised serious concerns about policy capture by monied interest groups. It's time that Congress enact real lobbying reform by requiring the disclosure of lobbying contacts. In a post last night, Ellen Miller explained what real lobbying reform would look like, "Sunlight believes strongly that such disclosures should be made electronically, published promptly and maintained online in a downloadable, searchable, sortable format. We believe that disclosure should include all legislation and regulations discussed and all requests for specific services or government funding. Legislative contacts should be reported within 24 hours of any meeting. In addition, the requirement that contributions by registered lobbyists be reported semiannually should be amended to require contributions be reported within 24 hours of being made."