Sunlight Foundation

Press Articles & Mentions Archives

Looking for something else? Browse our archives by date.

September 2009

  • Los Angeles Times - Federal Stimulus-Monitoring Website Gets an Update

    Reporting from Washington - Since February, when the government launched a website to provide a window on the federal stimulus package, critics have been calling for a makeover. Now they have one. The site, unveiled today by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, was revamped through the use of $9.5 million in stimulus funds. It provides easier-to-use tools, such as a ZIP Code search that shows stimulus projects in specific communities. The government also has set up a toll-free hot line (1-877-FWA-DESK) for reporting fraud, waste and abuse.

  • Los Angeles Times - These Crusaders Bring Transparency to Government

    Government pooh-bahs live by the credo Information is Power. Here are a few of the guerrillas working to overthrow the resulting dictatorship.

  • Chicago Tribune - New Web Site to Track Stimulus Funds

    Since February, when Recovery.gov launched as a window on the federal stimulus package, critics have been calling for a makeover. Now they have one. The revamped Web site, unveiled today by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board at a cost of $9.5 million in stimulus funds, provides easier-to-use tools, such as a zip code search that shows stimulus projects in local communities. The government has also launched a toll-free number (1-877-FWA-DESK) for fraud, waste and abuse reporting.

  • The Christian Science Monitor - How Washington Lobbyists Peddle Power

    If labor lobbyist Robert “Bobby” Juliano didn’t move away from his stakeout just off the Senate floor from time to time, he might be mistaken for a statue. Other lobbyists have moved on to BlackBerrys and instant messaging. (He calls them “the thumb generation.”) But for Mr. Juliano, who has been in the thick of every big labor issue in the past 36 years, there’s no substitute for face-to-face contact with members of Congress.

  • Des Moines Register - Radical Transparency For Political Survival

    Graham Gillette makes a good point in this post. Government operates better when the people are kept informed. When bureaucrats are allowed to create power centers built on the control of information or are able to spend money in the murkiness of complicated or convoluted budgets, bad things often happen. And before you say I am picking on Culver, the legislators who are beating the Governor about the shoulders for not being open are not being straight with their constituents either. The General Assembly has the power to enact laws that demand open government and time and again they resist doing so.

  • PBS - Government Aims for Cost, Security Benefits With Cloud Computing

    When Vivek Kundra, the federal chief information officer, describes how the government has gone about spending money on information technology in the past, images of infamous $200 government hammers and ashtrays can easily spring to mind.

  • The New York Observer - The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Mother Jones, WNYC, More Join Data Archive Experiment DocumentCloud

    Twenty newspapers, magazines and nonprofit organizations have become new partners with DocumentCloud, a data archiving project created by journalists and developers at ProPublica and The New York Times. The Atlantic, New Yorker, Mother Jones, MSNBC, WNYC and The Washington Post are among the publications that will submit documents, files and other data into the DocumentCloud system, and soon make them available for public search.

  • The Hill - FCC Seeks More Broadband Input

    The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been inundated with ideas and suggestions for the national broadband plan it is putting together, with 10,000 pages of filings and notes from 25 workshops to sift through.

  • The Washington Times - GOP Seeks 72-hour Window to Read Bills

    Trying to capitalize on voters' anger at lawmakers this summer, Republicans on Wednesday launched bids in both the House and Senate aiming to force Democrats to let them have at least three days to read bills before they're put up for a vote. In the House, Rep. Greg Walden, Oregon Republican, filed a petition to force a vote on a bill with bipartisan backing that would require all non-emergency legislation to be posted online, in its final form, 72 hours prior to a vote.

  • The Washington Times - Dems Block GOP Demand for More Time

    Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday turned back a Republican amendment to wait 72 hours and require a full cost estimate before the final committee vote on the health care reform bill. It was the committee's first vote out of more than 500 amendments awaiting them, in what has already been a contentious mark-up session. The amendment would have delayed a vote on the final bill for about two weeks to allow the Congressional Budget Office to complete its final analysis on the cost and implications of the legislation.

  • Politico - Senate Dems Bolster 2012 Coffers Early

    Spooked by the gloomy 2010 outlook for their party, Democratic senators up for reelection in 2012 are already boosting their campaign coffers, raising millions for an election that is still 37 months away. But Democrats have a good reason for engaging in the never-ending campaign: The National Republican Senatorial Committee is already prepping health care-related attacks against 2012 candidates based on committee votes that begin Tuesday.

  • The Hill - Bundling Rule Doesn’t Capture All the Fundraising by Lobbyists

    A law designed to shine a bright light on big political campaign contributors on K Street has in practice not been particularly illuminating, watchdogs charge. Politicians are supposed to report to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) lobbyists who have bundled money for their campaigns. A bundler is an individual who collects contributions from others and then directs the money to a particular candidate.

  • The San Angelo Standard-Times - Two Fundraisers Unreported for Conaway and Cornyn

    Two lobbyists hosted a fundraising breakfast for San Angelo Congressman Mike Conaway in May at Bistro Bis, a chic French restaurant on Capitol Hill. Price of admission: $500 a person and $1,000 for a political action committee. That same month several lobbyists hosted U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s Cinco de Mayo fundraising event at the National Republican Senatorial Committee near the Capitol complex. Contributions: $2,500 per host, $1,000 for a PAC and $250 for an individual.

  • Battle Creek Enquirer - Lots of Loopholes

    Back in 2007, in the wake of the scandal involving mega-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Congress passed so-called ethics legislation. No longer would lobbyists influence lawmakers with undisclosed campaign contributions, supporters said. They called it the "Honest Leadership, Open Government Act," and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi proclaimed that the legislation would "draw back the curtains, throw up the windows and let the sunshine in."

  • The Bismarck Tribune - Perpetuating Falsehoods

    At a recent town hall meeting in Simpsonville, S.C., a man told Rep. Robert Inglis, R-S.C., to keep his "government hands off my Medicare." This statement epitomizes the depth of ignorance infecting the current health care reform "debate."

  • The Associated Press - Promises, Promises: Much Lobbyist Help Undisclosed

    WASHINGTON — Few members of Congress are disclosing that lobbyists are helping them raise campaign cash despite a new law that was supposed to shed light on the ties between lawmakers and the capital's influence brokers, an Associated Press review found. Though lobbyist-hosted fundraisers are workaday events in Washington — typically advertised to political insiders by fax and word of mouth — only about two dozen lawmakers have reported lobbyists raising money for them.

  • Arkansas Times - The Silence of the Ross - Update

    Utility and energy industry lobbyists sent out invitations in June for two fund-raisers to benefit Rep. Mike Ross, shortly before Ross voted against climate change legislation, the Sunlight Foundation reports on its Web site – http://www.sunlightfoundation.com The foundation, devoted to disclosing behind-the-scenes connections that influence policy, recently initiated a new project called “Party Time” where it collects invitations sent out to various fund-raising events involving members of Congress.

  • Mother Jones - Obama vs. the Lobbyists

    At the end of this summer of discontent, of death panels and unplugging poor Grandma, of birthers and astroturfers and rifle-toting picketers, the halcyon early days of the Obama administration feel increasingly like hazy, gilt-edged memories. The president's sprawling legislative agenda — a health-care overhaul, financial regulation reform, slashing wasteful military spending, and climate change legislation legislation — is slowly grinding its way through the halls of Congress. Barack Obama's sheen, his administration's unflagging confidence, and all the bipartisan, post-racial aspirations have been replaced by the hard realities of Washington politicking. And with the media's lens more tightly focused than ever on Washington's every move and utterance 24/7, anything said a few months back feels like a lifetime ago.

  • Arkansas Times - Meet You with the Lobby

    The Sunlight Foundation, a Washington political research organization devoted to exposing behind-the-scenes connections that influence policy, shines a light this month on the relationship between Sen. Blanche Lincoln and two prominent health care lobbyists. In particular, an article on its Web site – sunlightfoundation.com – focused on the Democratic senator’s relationship with Blue Cross Blue Shield, which controls 75 percent of the market in Arkansas.

  • The Hill - Insiders gather to define Gov 2.0

    Imagine you recently moved and are taking your child to a new dentist. You look up directions on Google Maps or Mapquest on how to get there. You pull up the map and think you’re set. But, after you’ve picked your kid up from school, loaded her into the car and started driving, you immediately get lost. It turns out that the map has completely outdated information — all the roads have changed, and it’s simply inaccurate. Last week, hundreds of computer geeks, government workers and nonprofit advocates gathered in town to talk about what “Gov 2.0” means to them. With Internet technology changing by the minute, there’s much discussion about how it can help the government become a platform that engages and empowers citizens to improve how government works. Crucial to this concept, however, is that government supply people information online and in real time. You can have the best map program in the world, but if the information that underlies it is outdated, you still lose your way.

  • Washington Examiner - Treasury Releases - Finally! - TARP Lobbying Rules

    Treasury Secretary Timothy Geitner's crew made public yesterday rules for lobbying the government for a piece of that $700 billion in TARP funds. The release comes a mere 226 days after the department announced with much fanfare in January that it would be issuing new guidelines for such lobbying. The Sunlight Foundation's Daniel Schuman has looked over the new rules and reached an interesting initial conclusion - they're an awful lot like the government's previously announced guidelines for lobbying on the $787 billion worth of stimulus projects Congress approved earlier this year.

  • The Washington Post - Rep. Edwards: Censure Obama Heckler

    Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) may have reached out (perhaps reluctantly) to the White House to apologize for his headline-grabbing outburst during President Barack Obama's address to Congress Wednesday night, but that hasn't satisfied Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) and others on the left.

  • The Oakland Tribune - Who Speaks for You About Health Care Reform?

    Remember the Medicare Modernization Act of 2004? That's the bill that gave us Medicare Part D. Passed by Congress late on a snowy Friday in December before vacation, it officially prohibited negotiations between the government and the pharmaceutical companies over drug prices for America's seniors. It created the "doughnut hole," which requires elderly Americans each year, once they have paid a certain amount out of pocket, to pay full price for all their medications until they reach a maximum out-of-pocket amount. Then they become eligible for federal subsidy. The hole opens anew every year.

  • NewScientist - Revealed: How Congress Members Sound Off About Science

    Words matter, especially for elected officials whose careers prosper or falter on the cut and thrust of political debate. So with the US Congress now back in action after its summer recess, New Scientist has used a neat online tool to find out which members are uttering the words that lie close to our readers' hearts.

  • Politico - Livingston Group Drops Libya

    In the uproar unleashed in the wake of Libya's hero's welcome for convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, released from a Scottish prison last month, Washington lobbying powerhouse the Livingston Group, LLC has dropped Libya as a client, according to an email sent to associates by Livingston partner Lauri Fitz-Pegado. "The Livingston Group resigned yesterday from representing the GOL," a September 4 2009 email from Fitz Pegado to associates said, as seen by Politico. "Please share this information as appropriate."

  • Politico - Read the bill? It Might Not Help

    Across the country, “Read the bill!” has become a rallying cry of the health care debate. People are shouting it at town halls. Local newspapers teem with editorials and readers’ letters demanding that lawmakers do it. Bloggers and their commenters say the same. Politicians of both parties are taunting their foes across the aisle with it.

  • Forbes - A Year Later, Treasury Stiffens TARP Rules

    A year after establishing a $700 billion bailout fund for the financial sector, the Treasury Department will finally clarify its lobbying rules for bailout recipients.

  • Daily Record - Listen up! Pompton Lakes Woman Helps Make Audio Version of Health Care Bill

    Can't find the time to read the health care reform legislation being debated in Washington? Want to find that section that could apply to your family's health care options? By the end of today, interested citizens will be able to listen to an audio version of the 1,000-plus-page bill that Congress is expected to debate and vote on this month.

  • Battleboro Reformer - Your Government, Online!

    BRATTLEBORO - Michael Knapp thinks the government can do a better job of getting data into the hands of average Americans. Knapp, who is Managing Director of GreenRiver.org, a Brattleboro software development company, believes that social change will come after more citizens learn more about their government and he's got a plan to make that happen.