Sunlight Foundation

Press Articles & Mentions Archives

January 2010

• Las Vegas Sun - Open government is a promise seldom kept

  Carson City — Transparency is the kissed baby of political rhetoric, an unassailable position for politicians. President Barack Obama, state legislators, Gov. Jim Gibbons and his campaign opponents — Democrats and Republicans — all have promised to swing wide the shutters so the public can see how their tax dollars are haggled over and the future of the state and nation are shaped.

• Detroit Free Press - Super Bowl time means party time for Conyers

  The Super Bowl is a week away, and that must mean U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a Detroit Democrat and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is getting ready to party. The Sunlight Foundation reported last week that for $5K, you and a friend can lunch with Conyers, below, at Joe's Stone Crab in Miami, plus get a ticket to the game. For $1K, you get just the crab. Conyers is famous for on-location Super Bowl parties to benefit his America Forward Leadership PAC. Poli-Bites is betting that the chairman is pulling for the Saints.

• National Public Radio - The Pros And Cons Of A YouTube Democracy

  Right now, thousands of people on YouTube are deciding what question they would most like to ask President Obama. He'll answer a few of them Monday as part of a project called CitizenTube. The questions cover the usual topics, such as health care, the economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And then there are a number of users who want to know how the president feels about UFOs and Scientology.

• National Journal - Wild West On K Street?

  The controversial Supreme Court ruling on campaign advertising has shoved aside Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown's surprising Senate win as the hottest topic of conversation on K Street.

• Fox News - Transcript: Fox News Watch Saturday

  Transcript of Fox News Watch from Saturday, January 30th, 2010 at 6:30 pm: SCOTT: Well, despite Candidate Obama's pledge that his administration would be the most transparent ever, there have been more lawsuits against the government for failing to release federal records during President Obama's first year in office than there were during each of the last two years under the Bush White House.

• The Hill - White House looking to expand lobbying registration requirements

  The White House is looking to expand lobbying registration requirements to those who spend less than a fifth of their work time lobbying. The Obama administration wants to close a “loophole” in the 1995 Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) that allows individuals to avoid registering as lobbyists if they spend less than 20 percent of their time lobbying.

• San Francisco Chronicle - Letters to the Editor: Obama must lead people to health care solution

  In his State of the Union address, President Obama said about health care: "The longer it was debated, the more skeptical people became. ... With all the lobbying and horse-trading, this process left most Americans wondering what's in it for them."

• The St. Louis Dispatch - High-speed wail: A bridge to the 19th century

  Amid great fanfare, the Obama administration last week announced plans to spend $13 billion in “seed money” for 13 high-speed rail projects around the country — $8 billion in stimulus funding now with a promise to seek $5 billion more over the next five years. Among the projects being funded is the St. Louis-to-Chicago route, which will receive $1.1 billion. A relative pittance of $31 million went to Missouri to upgrade service between St. Louis and Kansas City.

• Federal Computer Week - Congress must revamp campaign finance online reporting, watchdog says

  Congress must act quickly to set up a robust electronic online reporting system to track campaign donations in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision allowing unlimited corporate and labor union donations to political campaigns, a nonprofit citizen watchdog group recommended today.

• Mass High Tech - Government agencies lure iPhone app developers with free data

  Public agencies are hurrying to push data stored in government databases out to software developers, in hopes techies will create applications for Apple Inc.’s iPhone and the web, improving government service without costing taxpayers a dime.

• Cato@Liberty - Larry Lessig and the Lunching Libertarians

  Outside the realm of copyright, Cato folk (and libertarians generally) don’t often see eye-to-eye with left-leaning cyberlawyer and Harvard prof Lawrence Lessig. Nevertheless, I wasn’t too surprised when Lessig signaled his interest in opening a dialogue with Cato scholars about his Change Congress project and his research on political corruption. After all, we’ve long argued that an expansive state will inevitably attract moneyed interests eager to feed at the public trough or co-opt well-intentioned regulation to stifle competitors. And as Lessig argues, legislators may come to see growing government as a means of creating supportive constituencies.

• The Journal Star - Now require quick, full disclosure

  Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has loosened restrictions against political advertising by corporations and unions, the need for quick, timely reporting on political contributions and spending has become even more imperative. The Journal Star Editorial Board figuratively threw up its hands a year ago, frustrated with the continuing failure of laws that attempt to limit campaign spending.

• The Washington Post - Info released under Obama transparency order is of little value, critics say

  Transparency advocates and good-government groups rendered a mixed verdict this week on the Obama administration's recent release of hundreds of sets of government data, arguing that many federal agencies chose to release obscure or outdated facts and figures at the expense of long-standing requests for more relevant, sensitive information.

• The News Journal - Delaware people: Lewis a champion for journalism

  Investigative journalism is the cause, mission and life work of Delaware native Charles Lewis. In his 30-plus year career, he produced segments of "60 Minutes" for CBS, founded or co-founded three nonprofit organizations to support investigative journalism, and lectured around the world on the subject. He is a tenured professor of journalism at American University and is known internationally as an authority on the free press.

• Glen Falls Post Star - Editorial: Earmarks need easier access

  As President Obama spent more than a hour trying to sell Congress on his plan to rein in government spending, perhaps one paragraph of his speech could have the biggest impact on citizens learning how their tax dollars are actually being spent. The president on Wednesday called on all members of Congress to post their earmark requests online, in a single place, so that the citizens can easily find out what kind of projects their representatives are seeking federal tax money for.

• Los Angeles Times - Obama's State of the Union wasn't that funny, but the tweets were

  President Obama made his State of the Union address tonight. Sure, it was on practically every channel and live-streaming on the Internet and on iPhones. But who needs to watch when a legion of little Twitter reporters are tweeting all the good parts in bite-sized lines of text?

• San Francisco Chronicle - Elusive pledge of U.S. government transparency

  Transparency, it turns out, is anything but transparent. President Obama is finding it embarrassingly hard to live up to his open-government pledges.

• The New Mexican - Measures tally up House votes online

  In 2007, the state Senate passed a resolution that required the Legislative Council Service to post roll-call votes on the Legislature's Web site within a day of the vote. As reported in this very column, the measure's sponsor, Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell, joked that he carried the legislation so he could find out how he voted on various bills the day before.

• The Huffington Post - Obama and Transparency: What Happens Next?

  When President Barack Obama took office a little over a year ago, he put transparency in government front and center on his agenda. On his first full day on the job, he issued a memo directing executive branch agencies to come up with concrete plans to make government more transparent, participatory and collaborative. How well has he lived up to his promises? Though it is still too soon to assign him a grade on overall performance, we have undoubtedly witnessed some of the most substantive efforts to open the White House to the public than we have in decades, if ever. That said, while we applaud the strides taken during President Obama's first year in office, what we've seen so far can mostly be categorized as laying the groundwork for transparency, rather than tangibly making the executive branch transparent to the public.

• Federal Computer Week - Groundwork is laid to create a transparent government, official says

  Although the groundwork has been laid to make the federal government more open and transparent, few tangible results exist, according to a column published today on the Huffington Post by Ellen Miller, the executive director of the Sunlight Foundation.

• Federal News Radio - Open Government bears first fruits

  In the name of transparency, and under the Open Government Directive, federal agencies all over government have released new data on programs they consider to be of high-value. But is the information posted on data.gov really useful or did agencies just repackage it to make it look new? The Sunlight Foundation has scoured the information. And joining us with the findings is Bill Allison, the Foundation's Editorial Director.

• BuzzFlash.com - The Preposterous Notion That the Supreme Court's Decision on Corporate Campaign Financing Won't Affect American Politics

  When Robert Weissman, president of the advocacy organization Public Citizen, told reporters last Thursday that "today is a day to shed a tear for our democracy," hyperbole was not on my mind.

• Chambersburg Public Opinion - Editorial: By all means, go ahead and keep an eye on them

  At a time when many people remain hyper-sensitive to tax increases and government spending, we can't imagine a better use for the Internet than the Sunlight Foundation's online database that tracks the spending of all members of the U.S. House of Representatives. The foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit, hosts the searchable database at http://sunlightfoundation.com/projects/2009/expenditures.

• The Billings Gazette - MSUB professor, former executive to face Rehberg

  HELENA— A.J. Otjen, a self-described Teddy Roosevelt Republican, filed Tuesday to challenge five-term Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg for Montana’s lone seat in the U.S. House. Otjen, 52, is a political newcomer from Laurel who said she represents the state’s moderate and independent voters.

• CBS News - Is Washington More "Open" Under Obama?

  Since taking office a year ago, the Obama administration has released more than 25,000 names of White House visitors, made available more than 118,000 federal datasets, uploaded more than 700 videos on YouTube and accrued more than 7 million fans on Facebook.

• Roll Call - HOH’s One-Minute Recess: On the Ball

  Basketball-loving President Barack Obama will honor the 2009 NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers at the White House today — and when the team heads to the Verizon Center on Tuesday night to take on the hometown Washington Wizards, several leading Members of Congress will be on hand to raise some campaign cash.

• InformationWeek - 'High Value' Government Data Made Public

  With the release of almost 300 "high-value" data sets on Data.gov on Friday, the federal government made the first deliveries on the Obama administration's Open Government Directive. The multi-pronged directive to increase government transparency, developed on orders from President Obama, required agencies last week to identify and publish online at least three high-value data sets that had not been previously available online or in a downloadable format and to register those data sets on Data.gov, the government's open data Website.

• Federal News Radio - Lessons learned from two Apps for Democracy contests

  More and more citizens are getting involved with open government data and using that information to create useful apps for other members of the public. Federal News Radio first told you about the Apps for Democracy contest last summer -- and we also brought you the results of who won.

• Chambersburg Public Opinion - Public able to track expenses of Bill Shuster, other members of U.S. House of Representatives

  U.S. House members spent more than $150,000 of taxpayers' money on bottled water in the third quarter of 2009, and Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Hollidaysburg, paid $790 for bottled water. House members spent more than $145 million from July through September to run their offices in Washington, D.C., and their home districts. Shuster spent $313,477.

• Sunday Business Post - Distributing classified information

  Craig Newmark is not a household name, but he has achieved many things. He smashed the print media's monopoly on classified ads, he revolutionised online advertising, he was appointed as a special adviser on technology to Barack Obama and, along the way, he became one of the world's most important internet entrepreneurs, alongside Google's Sergei Brin and Larry Page, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter's Jack Dorsey.

• The Huffington Post - Bringing Local Government into the 21st Century

  "Working in Government is like running a marathon. Blindfolded. Wearing Sandbags" That's a quote from Katie Stanton, who is now in the Office of Innovation at the State Department after transitioning from Google (with a little stop as White House citizen participation director in between). It speaks remarkably well to the feeling many smart, talented folks seem to feel as they make the transition from the private or nonprofit sector to serving their country from within the government - especially at a federal level.

• The Associated Press - Government posting wealth of data to Internet

  WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on Friday is posting to the Internet a wealth of government data from all Cabinet-level departments, on topics ranging from child car seats to Medicare services.

• The Tennessean - Other Views

  Another aspect of the health-care debate in the wake of the Massachusetts special election is how health-care negotiations were handled. Following are excerpts from the nonprofit Sunlight Foundation about the process:

• The New York Times - Put Your Money Where Your Politics Are

  McCain-Feingold, that Quixotic attempt to turn money and politics into oil and water, was lanced by the Supreme Court on Thursday in a 5-4 decision based on the idea, espoused by Justice Anthony Kennedy, that “If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.” To some extent, most of us would agree on the “citizens” point — it’s that “associations” bit that’s the fly in the ointment for many.

• Salon - This Week in Crazy: Clarence Thomas

  In his remarkably undistinguished 20-year stint as a Supreme Court justice, Clarence Thomas has rarely called attention to himself for original jurisprudential thinking. But if Thomas had had his way with Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission, in which the court decided this week to remove critically important limits on campaign financing, an already horrible decision would have been made far, far worse. Crazy worse.

• The Colorado Independent - Hugo Chavez’s state-owned Petroleos Corp set to spend on your U.S. election

  Blogging on the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling is more of what we love about the web. It’s the kind of typical collective dissection we have now come to expect but that never really existed before: serious, speculative, arcane, funny, brilliant, baked, etc. The Sunlight Foundation blogging is predictably good. Paul Blumenthal dips into the multinational dimension of the new “corporation as full citizen-person” framework, drawing on blogging going on at Newsweek and the Center for Public Integrity.

• MSNBC - Ellen Miller on Dylan Ratigan's Morning Meeting

  Ellen Miller, the executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, on MSNBC's Morning Meeting with Dylan Ratigan to discuss the recent Supreme Court decision and the effects on corporate spending in political campaigns:

• Government Technology - Does Your City Need a Web 2.0 Makeover? Act Now

  What if a city government had a Web site where citizens could report problems and view the status and priority order of those problems in real time?

• NextGov - Dense federal regulations grow more accessible

  In keeping with the Obama administration's push for a more open government, the Government Printing Office and National Archives' Office of the Federal Register are putting the complete body of federal regulations online in a searchable and convertible format.

• The Washington Post - Quake mobilizes D.C. area to help Haiti

  Residents created online groups, gathered en masse in borrowed meeting spaces and spearheaded clothing and food drives within hours of the earthquake that devastated Haiti last week.

• Arkansas Times - Ross gets ‘energized’

  WASHINGTON — Rep. Mike Ross received close to $80,000 in contributions from energy, mining and related interests close to the time of his vote earlier this year against sensitive climate-change legislation, Federal Election Commission records show.

• The Associated Press - Reaction: Supreme Court's campaign finance ruling

  Reaction to the Supreme Court decision Thursday that corporations may spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress.

• The Huffington Post - Your request is being processed... For 'Sunshine Week,' Nominate A Local Hero Of Open Government

  In anticipation of its third annual "Sunshine Week" in March, the American Society of News Editors is sponsoring an award for "Local Heroes" of open government. "There's a lot of attention on Washington, but open government at the local level is really important," said ASNE's Richard Karpel. "We want to highlight somebody who hasn't gotten the publicity they deserve."

• Mother Jones - What Did Harold Ford Do at Merrill Lynch?

  What did Harold Ford Jr. do at Merrill Lynch? The former Democratic congressman has been working for the giant investment firm ever since losing his 2006 Senate bid in Tennessee. Recently, Ford took a 30-day leave of absence to explore another Senate run—this time for the New York seat currently held by Kirsten Gillibrand. But Ford won't explain what he has done for the investment bank during his three years on Wall Street. In that time, Merrill Lynch nearly collapsed, was bailed out by US taxpayers, and went through a troubled merger with Bank of America.

• The Herald-Dispatch - Thumbs down: Partisanship limits openness

  Ideally, when the U.S. Senate and U.S. House pass different versions of legislation with the same intent, a conference committee with representatives from each chamber works out the differences, with those discussions occurring in public.

• InformationWeek - Tech Volunteers Aiding Haiti Relief Efforts

  They might not be able to pick up rubble and carry away bodies, but software developers and tech-savvy individuals around the world are beginning to organize to help with the Haiti relief effort Among those taking the lead is a grassroots effort called the CrisisCommons, which hosted several hastily organized events last weekend in several cities where developers and others came together to, among other things, layer current information on collaborative maps of Haiti and develop a Craigslist-style online exchange to identify and solve relief needs on the ground.

• American Public Media - Marketplace: A lot of value in free government data

  The White House has ordered that some high-value government data be made available online by the end of the month at data.gov, and Brett Neely reports with the right spin, tech heads can find a lucrative business.

• The Associated Press - INSIDE WASHINGTON: Secret bill-writing on the rise

  WASHINGTON - The civics books say the House and Senate produce a final bill by sitting around a table where the public can watch them work out their differences. It's a quaint idea, but a different modern reality has been on display this month. Democrats are refusing to open to the public the end-stage negotiations on how the government is going to change the delivery of health care.

• Roll Call - It’s Another World to the Influence Industry

  With its global reach, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee attracts as wide a swath of special interests as any on Capitol Hill. Lobbyists for countries as tiny as Liechtenstein and large international relief groups such as Oxfam all try to make their case before Members and staff.

• The Hill's Pundits Blog - Volunteers do tech to help out Haiti

  Hey, really cool stuff is happening across the US, where technology people worked together to people useful tech for the people of Haiti.

• The Wall Street Journal - Changes to your retirement plan are coming

  BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- The financial crisis dealt a huge blow to U.S. retirement savers' 401(k) accounts -- a hit from which many investors have yet to recover despite the market's rally -- and now lawmakers and others are pushing for new retirement-plan rules and policies.

• Politico - Lobbying the SFRC

  Roll Call reports on lobbying the Senate Foreign Relations Committee being a more high brow, less partisan affair than with many other committees:

• The Associated Press - New tech tools help Haiti quake relief

  Hundreds of tech volunteers spurred to action by Haiti's killer quake are adding a new dimension to disaster relief, developing new tools and services for first responders and the public in an unprecedented effort.

• American Public Media - Marketplace: Devising aid programs on their laptops

  For most people, giving money is the only way to help the people of Haiti. But some tech-savvy folks have found another way to give. Brett Neely reports.

• United Press International - Some avoid registering as lobbyists

  WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Tighter U.S. regulations on declared lobbyists are prompting advocates to forgo registering to avoid more paperwork and stiffer penalties, some lobbyists say.

• The Daily Courier - Obama takes several actions to open government info

  The Obama administration has taken numerous actions to open up government information before its first anniversary in office occurs Wednesday. President Barack Obama let the public know that open government was one of his top priorities when he issued a Memo on Transparency and Open Government during his first full day in office.

• The New York Times - Law to Curb Lobbying Sends It Underground

  WASHINGTON — Ellen Miller, co-founder of the Sunlight Foundation, has spent years arguing for rules to force more disclosure of how lobbyists and private interests shape public policy. Until recently, she herself registered as a lobbyist, too, publicly reporting her role in the group’s advocacy of even more reporting. Not anymore.

• The Huffington Post - Craig Newmark: Volunteers do tech to help out Haiti

  Hey, really cool stuff is happening across the US, where technology people worked together to people useful tech for the people of Haiti.

• CNN - Techies unite to brainstorm help for Haiti

  Call it Techies for Haiti. On Saturday, groups of programmers, Web developers and other assorted technophiles will meet in Washington and other cities to brainstorm ways computer technology can help in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake.

• The Washington Post - All things Congress -- there's an app for that

  Want to get the latest tally on Congressional votes while on the fly? Wish you could tap into a calendar for markups and find out who is backing which bills? There's now an app for that.

• Federal News Radio - New app from Sunlight Foundation tracks Congress for you

  What is Congress doing?

• The Huffington Post - Civic Hackers for Haiti

  Tomorrow morning, software developers from around Washington, D.C. will come together at the Sunlight Foundation in order to find the best ways to use data and create solutions for aid workers to assist the relief efforts in Haiti. These CrisisCamps, (an idea which arose out of Transparency Camp '09), or "Hackathons for Haiti" will also take place in Silicon Valley and London.

• The Washingtonian - Helping Haiti: How to Make a Difference While You’re Out and About

  The International Red Cross estimates that more than 3 million people in Haiti—one of the poorest nations in the world—have been affected by a devastating earthquake that hit Tuesday. Washington restaurants, bars, businesses, and organizations are doing their part to help. Here’s our list of relief efforts you can join.

• St. Petersburg Times - PolitiFact: Visitor logs, but not much else so far

  During the campaign, Barack Obama promised that in his administration, "Communications about regulatory policymaking between persons outside government and all White House staff [will be] disclosed to the public."

• Roll Call - Senate Web Site Offers No Clear Route to Contracts

  When Ted Clark heard rumblings last year about an upcoming Senate contract to develop an information management system, he had high hopes — his 3-year-old company, THEO Inc., performs just that type of work.

• Roll Call - Campus Notebook: Convenient Transparency

  Staffers and reporters became slaves to their smart phones long ago, but Congress has lagged in producing an application that provides real-time updates on the House’s and Senate’s proceedings.

• Columbia Journalism Review - Administration says Open Gov Directive on track

  With about a week to go before their first deadline, the Obama administration is saying that the Open Government Directive, the keystone effort to increase online access to government data, is on schedule.

• San Jose Mercury News - It's official: Tom Campbell leaves governor's race to run for U.S. Senate

  There were few surprises Thursday when Tom Campbell announced he was dropping his bid to become California's next governor to enter the race for U.S. Senate.

• Glen Falls Post Star - Final version of health care bill to get pre-vote posting

  The final version of health care reform legislation will be posted on the Internet for 72 hours before it is voted on, Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives announced Thursday.

• Cato@Liberty - White House, Unions Reach Deal on Taxing Insurance Coverage

  The Washington Post reports that the White House has reached a tentative agreement with labor leaders to tax high-cost health insurance policies.

• The Atlantic - Great New iPhone App From Sunlight Foundation

  It's been a good day for the Sunlight Foundation, a non-profit that lobbies for transparency on the Hill and in Washington. Not only did House leaders agree to post the final health care negotiation language on the web 72 hours before a vote, but they've launched a fantastic and helpful new iPhone App that allows reporters, citizens and lobbyists to get real-time floor updates, documents, CRS reports, whip notices and news updates -- for free.

• St. Petersburg Times - PolitiFact: Rating Obama's promises at the 1-year mark

  President Barack Obama, the candidate who promised change, has made substantial progress in his first year in office, but some of his proposals have stalled as he struggled with the cold reality of Washington.

• Washington City Paper - Black Cat, Busboys & Poets Will Hold Haiti Benefits

  Some local events, announced today, that will raise money for victims of the earthquake in Haiti—a catastrophe that the Red Cross says may have claimed 50,000 lives:

• The Daily Caller - Barack Obama’s pledge to bring transparency to the White House gets A for intention, but a lower grade for implementation

  President Obama has been pounded recently (even by Jon Stewart) for failing to honor his pledge to televise health-care negotiations on C-SPAN. He has been dogged by the White House’s inability to post all of their legislation online five days before he signed it, as promised.

• ReadWriteWeb - Sunlight Brings Congress to Your iPhone

  The nonprofit Sunlight Foundation announced today the availability of its Real Time Congress iPhone app. The app displays an up-to-the-minute feed of updates from the House and Senate floors, Whip notices, hearings scheduled and key government documents as they are released.

• The Huffington Post - The Pulse of Congress At Your Fingertips

  In order to most effectively make one's voice heard in Congress, it's crucial to have up to date information about what's happening on Capitol Hill. It's that simple. People get up there all the time to talk, but the ideas or perspectives that truly move are the ones pushed by people that are in touch with the pulse of Congress' workings and use that information to their advantage. It's not often pretty, but it's true.

• The Nation - Obama at One

  Looking back at President Obama's first year in office, what do you think the high point has been? And what has been your sharpest moment of disappointment? On this occasion, that's what The Nation asked members of our community, and beyond.

• Jackson Citizen Patriot - Political Notebook: Jackson Area Manufacturers Association representative in D.C.

  Today, Accubilt employee Joe Lienhart will be in Washington, D.C., seated at a table with U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and others to discuss a bill that would support worker retraining programs.

• ComputerWorldUK - The future is wide open

  Here we are, at the front of a new year and decade. For open source software, the refined fuel that has enabled many of the incredible information technology happenings of the previous decade, the future is, well, wide open.

• ars technica - Logs don't lie: Which tech execs have the White House's ear?

  Who has the ear of the White House when it comes to tech issues? Judging from the White House visitor logs, President Obama and his team have a soft spot for FCC Chair Julius Genachowski, who visited 48 times between June and September. Not that it was all business; Genachowski checked in to use the White House bowling alley and to attend a poetry reading.

• The New Republic - Transparency and Sausage Making

  When the Democrats announced that they would be forgoing conference committee proceedings and negotiating a final health care reform bill informally, critics pounced on President Barack Obama for violating his promise of greater transparency in government. And I, for one, had no great urge to defend him.

• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Foreign interests spend $87 million lobbying in U.S.

  Washington — Over the years, Rep. Gwen Moore has grown so passionate about helping Liberia that she championed legislation to speed delivery of U.S. foreign aid to the West African nation. Her measure - which became law as part of a federal spending bill in 2007 - was a major victory for the Liberian government.

• The Courier-Journal - Notes From Washington - Tallying words, the currency of Congress

  Think of this: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., spoke for an entire day last year on the Senate floor.

• The Day - Report: Data about safety, efficacy of top drugs is tough to access

  Information from regulators about the safety and effectiveness of more than a third of America's top-selling drugs is not readily accessible to doctors or the general public, according to a report released Friday by the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation.

• The Huffington Post - Congress shocker! Actually spending time to do their job

  Sunlight Foundation, the gov't accountability and transparency leaders, got the scoop in Welcome Back, Congress:

• USA Today - Congress burns the midnight oil in '09

  Does the "do-nothing" label still apply to Congress? Turns out, lawmakers worked more days in 2009 than any year since 1995, according to an analysis by the Sunlight Foundation. Congress, racing through a packed agenda that included the economic stimulus and President Obama's health care legislation, wound up logging 191 days in the Senate and 159 days in the House, according to the foundation's analysis of a recent report on congressional activity.

• Sphere News - Congress Hard at Work, Records Show

  Despite routine accusations that they are lazy, ineffective and overpaid, members of the U.S. Congress put in more hours on the floor of the House and Senate in 2009 than in any year since 1995, newly released records show.

• The Washington Post - Busy bees

  According to a document review conducted by the Sunlight Foundation, Congress spent more days in session in 2009 than in any year since 1995. The Sunlight Foundation sells this as "working harder," and maybe it is, though many members of Congress would argue that time spent in the home office, fact-finding trips, constituent meetings and much else should count as "work." Either way, Congress spent more days in 2009 doing the nation's business than in any year since 1995.

• The Nonprofit Quarterly - White House Visits from the Nonprofit Sector

  On December 30th, the White House released additional names of its visitors through the end of September. Some 26,000 visits are in the latest spreadsheets made available to the public.

• Cato@Liberty - On C-SPAN: What’s a Little Promise Among Friends?

  My, oh my. Transparency is getting defined down to excuse a breaking campaign promise. At the Center for American Progress’ “Think Progress Wonk Room” blog (or whatever it’s called), Igor Volsky makes the case against allowing C-SPAN cameras into negotiations about the health care bill. Recall that President Obama promised on the campaign trail to have health care negotiations broadcast on C-SPAN.

• The Blue Ridge Times-News - Politicians under election fire

  Days after the confetti was swept into dust bins and champagne bottles tossed in recycling bins, the 2010 election season is grinding into gear. The year began with Sen. Richard Burr and Rep. Heath Shuler under fire for fundraising efforts.

• The Washington Times - Law firm on both sides of Fed loan program

  One of the law firms hired to provide legal work for the Treasury Department on a multibillion-dollar federal loan program also lobbied Congress for a private client pushing to expand the same government initiative, records show.

• The Chronicle of Philanthropy - Episode 14: Using Twitter to Keep Connected With Supporters

• The Blue Ridge Times-News - Burr named top partier

  North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr was given a dubious honor - he was named the “Top Congressional Partiers” for 2009 by the Sunlight Foundation for his numerous fund-raising events.

• The Huffington Post - Lobbying's New Frontier: 'Not Lobbying'

  Brien Bonneville and Larry Mitchell have officially deserted the lobbying profession. Lobbyists have become too despised and stigmatized, are banned from certain government jobs and subject to all sorts of onerous disclosure requirements. Bonneville and Mitchell needed out.

• Federal Computer Week - Web mashups put transparency to the test

  A cornerstone of the Obama administration’s vision for a more open and accountable government rests on making government data easily accessible to the public. However, that’s only the first step. From there, people and interest groups must be able to analyze or package the data in ways that make it more useful to others.

• Metro Times - Ten years after

  At the end of another decade we asked a cross-section of locals — as in, once you're tied to this area, you're always tied to this area — about their experience of the last decade. What mattered? What did we learn? What gives hope for the future? What follows is a sampling of the responses.

• The Washington Times - Making progress on pork busting

  Rep. Jeff Flake went to the floor of the U.S. House 48 times last year to offer amendments to strip pork-barrel spending projects from the annual spending bills. And 48 times, he walked away having suffered a stinging defeat.

• The Wall Street Journal - Health-care bill may bypass conference process

  WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Democratic leaders in the House were planning to meet Tuesday to discuss plans for stitching their health-care bill together with a Senate-passed version, but the bill may not go through the usual conference committee process, congressional aides said.

• NextGov - Mashup Probes White House Visitors

  Less than a week after the White House began releasing visitor logs on a regular basis, watchdog groups already are linking the names of people doing business there to campaign finance stats online for all to see.

• The Hill - Mash-up makes sense of White House visitors log

  Sunlight Labs, and arm of transparency advocate Sunlight Foundation, has created a mash-up to let people get a better idea of who is actually visiting the White House.

• Columbia Journalism Review - Report Card

  In the year since President Obama took office, he has made significant progress on transparency and access issues. Still, there have been plenty of missed opportunities and much work still to be done.

• The Frederick News-Post - Frederick Watchdog — Charting House members' spending

  In late November, the U.S. House of Representatives took a quantum leap forward in accountability, for the first time releasing quarterly Statements of Disbursements online. Congress has been required to gather and report all receipts and expenditures of its members, committees, officers and offices since 1964. Each quarter's reports come in three volumes of about 3,000 pages.

• The Washington Examiner - New Media leader exposes myth of Obama's 'bottom-up' Internet-driven 2008 campaign

  End-of-year media pieces tend to be boring rehashes but occasionally a thoughtful person will use the opportunity for some genuinely original and useful thinking about the most recent past. Such is Micah Sifry's powerful and significant post on Personal Democracy Forum's Tech President, "The Obama disconnect: What happens when myth meets reality."