Sunlight Foundation

Sunlight Foundation Press Release Archive

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Press Releases for 2010

  • Open Government Directive: Year One

    Washington, DC - Ellen Miller, co-founder and executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, gave the following statement on the one-year anniversary of the Open Government Directive, the Obama Administration’s plan for greater transparency, openness and collaboration in the federal government:

  • Sunlight Foundation Wants You to Check Your Influence

    WASHINGTON, DC – The Sunlight Foundation today launched Checking Influence, a web tool that analyzes your online bank or credit card statement to reveal how your everyday spending wields political influence. Checking Influence calculates how much the companies you do business with spend on lobbying activities and campaign contributions, making it easy to see how your spending habits align politically. Checking Influence is the latest addition to Sunlight’s library of websites that use publicly available data to help Americans explore the connection between money and politics.

  • Sunlight Foundation Urges Congress to Pass DISCLOSE Act

    WASHINGTON, DC -Because the Senate failed to pass the DISCLOSE Act before the 2010 election, American voters do not know the full extent of who tried to influence their vote through political spending. That is why the non-partisan Sunlight Foundation is now calling on Congress to pass a targeted disclosure bill during the lame duck session. Unless Congress enacts a robust, targeted disclosure bill now, the amount of secret money in the 2012 election season will eclipse the spending in 2010.

  • Sunlight Foundation to Live-Blog Senate Foreclosure Hearing

    This afternoon, Sunlight Foundation will live-blog the Senate Banking Committee hearing on the foreclosure practices of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders. Sunlight’s Reporting Group will provide commentary and data analysis of the witnesses and members of Congress participating in the hearing, as well as real-time research on foreclosure trends across the United States.

  • Sunlight Live to Cover Ethics Trial of Rep. Charlie Rangel

    The House Ethics Committee is scheduled to begin deliberations in the ethics trial of Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) on Monday, Nov. 15. And barring any announcement postponing the hearing due to Rep. Rangel’s lack of counsel, the Sunlight Foundation will be covering it using the award-winning “Sunlight Live” real-time, investigative reporting platform.

  • Sunlight Live Election Night to Look at the Money Behind the Winners

    WASHINGTON, DC- On Election Night, the Sunlight Foundation will cover the results using its award-winning "Sunlight Live" real-time, investigative platform to follow the money trail for midterm congressional seats as races are called. Combining live-streaming video, government transparency data and social media coverage, the non-partisan Sunlight Foundation will provide a new approach on how congressional races' results are reported.

  • Sunlight Foundation to Launch "National Data Apps" with Grant from The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

    WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Sunlight Foundation will create a series of new "National Data Apps" that will help citizens easily use federal data to better understand everything from local pollution and medical care to personal financial services.

  • Sunlight Uses its New "Follow the Unlimited Money Tracker" to Find 61% Increase in Spending by Outside Groups in 2010 Elections

    Washington, DC - Labor unions, political non-profits and political party committees increased spending 61 percent–from $35.3 million in 2006 to $57 million in 2010–to influence congressional mid-term elections, according to a new analysis by the Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group. The increase in this outside spending–on anything from phone banks and mailing lists to negative political ads to influence a federal election–come after the Supreme Court decisions that weakened campaign finance laws. Sunlight’s analysis of 2010 spending spans from January 1-September 20.

  • Sunlight Campaign Ad Monitor Tracks Political Advertising Money on New Website

    WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Sunlight Foundation is introducing a new website that allows citizens to report on the political ads they see on TV, hear on the radio or view online. The Sunlight Campaign Ad Monitor (Sunlight CAM) allows anyone to report real-time information on who is buying political ad time in support of or against candidates or issues on the ballot. In 2008, $2.5 billion was spent on advertising for political campaigns and electoral issues, and experts are indicating that this year’s elections will top that amount.

  • Sunlight Foundation Calls on Lawmakers to Enact Reforms to Create a More Open, Accountable Congress

    WASHINGTON, DC – As Election Day approaches and the current session of Congress draws to a close, the Sunlight Foundation announced a series of transparency and ethics reform recommendations that will allow for the most open and accountable Congress in history.

  • Sunlight Live Receives the 2010 Knight-Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism

    WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Sunlight Foundation received the 2010 Knight-Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism, at a ceremony held at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Sunlight was honored with the grand prize for Sunlight Live, its real-time investigative reporting platform that combines streaming video, government transparency data and social media coverage during major events in Washington.

  • New Analysis from Sunlight Identifies $1.3 Trillion in Broken Federal Spending Data

    WASHINGTON, DC - Today, the Sunlight Foundation launches ClearSpending.com, a new website and "scorecard" that analyzes how well U.S. government agencies are reporting their spending data on USASpending.gov. Clearspending is the most thorough analysis of this federal grant and loan data ever conducted and was first previewed at the Gov2.0 Summit yesterday.

  • Editorial Memo: White House Stalls Its Commitment to Transparency

    At a time when ethics issues are making headline news—consider the pending ethics charges against Reps. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) and Maxine Waters (D-CA)—is the White House short-changing its commitment to transparency and ethics reform?

  • Sunlight Foundation’s “Poligraft” Detects the Money and Influence in Politics

    WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Sunlight Foundation launched Poligraft, a new website and utility that allows anyone to uncover levels of influence in federal and state-level politics and the news coverage of it. Using data from Sunlight’s TransparencyData.com and its upcoming Influence Explorer site, Poligraft allows you to connect the dots between money and politics in Congress and in state offices.

  • Sunlight Labs' 'Congress' App Puts the Legislative Branch in Your Hand

    WASHINGTON, DC – After months in public beta, the Sunlight Foundation today officially announced the free ‘Congress’ application for Android phones as the best way to comprehensively follow congressional activity. ‘Congress’ allows users to easily find their members of Congress by GPS, zip code or name and track their latest activity.

  • Senate's Nay Vote on DISCLOSE Act Leaves Americans in the Dark on Campaign Spending

    WASHINGTON, DC – Today’s 57-41 vote by the Senate against the DISCLOSE Act (S.3628) was a misstep and an unfortunate loss for recent momentum on transparency initiatives in Congress. Since the Supreme Court issued its decision in Citizens United v. FEC in January, the Sunlight Foundation has continuously advocated to create the more transparent, accountable political disclosure system made necessary by the Supreme Court’s decision. Sunlight also fought for online, real-time transparency provisions that were included in the DISCLOSE Act. The Senate’s failure to pass the legislation now leaves voters uninformed about exactly who is responsible for funding political ad campaigns and how much corporations and unions are spending in November’s upcoming elections.

  • Advisory: Sunlight Live Covers GOP Meeting with Lobbyists

    WASHINGTON, DC - Tomorrow at 10 a.m., the Sunlight Foundation will turn its powerful 'Sunlight Live' spotlight on the meeting between GOP leaders and lobbyists. 'Sunlight Live' uses an interactive, real-time investigative reporting platform to add valuable contextual information to the conversation as it happens. GOP leadership has stated this meeting with powerful trade association lobbyists is part of the 'America Speaking Out' project where Republicans are crowdsourcing ideas to shape its 2010 policy agenda.

  • Sunlight Foundation Discovers Nearly $120M in Unspent, Lapsed Transit Earmarks

    WASHINGTON, DC – Nearly $120 million in Federal Transit Administration (FTA) earmarks that were introduced and approved by Congress have sat untouched in FTA accounts for years and have now lapsed, according to a new analysis by the Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group. According to documents Sunlight obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), local recipients never spent $119.2 million set aside by Congress through over 150 earmarks in 2006 and 2007 that should have funded mass transit projects in several communities across the U.S. These funds were allocated under The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for User (SAFETEA-LU) and should have been spent by September 30, 2009 at the latest. Along with its analysis, the Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group also released a spreadsheet that details which projects were never completed and how much earmarked funds should have been spent.

  • Nearly 300 Former Government Officials Spin Through Revolving Door to Lobby for Telecom Companies

    WASHINGTON, DC -The top phone and cable companies with a stake in the upcoming overhaul of telecommunications legislation--including broadband and net neutrality rules--recently hired 276 former government officials to lobby Congress and the executive branch. According to a new analysis of lobbying data obtained from lobbyist disclosure forms and the Center for Responsive Politics, the Sunlight Foundation also found that 72 percent of the lobbyists hired by AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and the US Telecom Association have previous government experience. These organizations combined to spend $20.6 million lobbying the federal government in the first quarter of 2010.

  • Sunlight Foundation Urges Members of Congress to Support the Earmark Transparency Act

    WASHINGTON, DC –The Sunlight Foundation was joined today by nearly 30 organizations in calling on House and Senate members to support the Earmark Transparency Act (H.R. 5258 and S. 3335), legislation introduced last month in both chambers. This legislation would strengthen the public’s ability to know how lawmakers are directing federal spending by requiring Congress to create a centralized, online, searchable database for all earmark requests. The signatories to the letters sent to lawmakers today range in mission and ideology, representing the broad interest in creating accountability for the earmarking process. The full text of the letters sent today to members of Congress and the entire list of signatories is available at: http://sunlightfoundation.com/policy/documents/cosponsors-earmark-transparency-act/

  • Sunlight Reporting Group Finds House Members Spent More Than $673 Million for Office Expenses in Last Half of 2009

    WASHINGTON, DC – House members and committee offices spent more than $673 million in the last half of 2009 on salaries for staff, travel and outside vendors, according to a Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group analysis of six months of congressional spending data released by the House Clerk's Office.

  • Sunlight Live Covers Financial Reform Conference Committee Negotiations

    WASHINGTON, DC – “Sunlight Live” (http://sunlightfoundation.com/live/), the interactive, real-time investigative reporting platform of the Sunlight Foundation, will cover the conference of House and Senate representatives selected to combine the House and Senate financial regulation bills this afternoon at http://sunlightfoundation.com/live/. In its latest experiment using the “Sunlight Live” platform, Sunlight’s team of reporters and technologists will show live footage of the conference deliberations while displaying government data about the representatives as they speak. The Sunlight Foundation will cover the live conference committee negotiations throughout the next two weeks on its blog at http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/.

  • New TransparencyData.com Gives One-Stop Search for Lobbying and Campaign Finance Data on State and Federal Level

    WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Sunlight Foundation launched TransparencyData.com (http://TransparencyData.com), a new website that lets anyone keep track of campaign donations, lobbying and contracts on the federal and state level. Sunlight demonstrated the site at the annual Personal Democracy Forum conference in New York City.

  • The Sunlight Labs Announces Design for America Winners

    WASHINGTON, DC – The Sunlight Labs, Sunlight Foundation’s open source development team, announced the Design for America winners at the Gov 2.0 Expo sponsored by O’Reilly Media and TechWeb this week (http://sunlightlabs.com/blog/2010/design-america-winners/). Sunlight awarded eight prizes of $5,000 each for art and visualizations in three general categories: data visualization, process transparency and redesigning government.

  • Federal Data Shows BP Faulted for 8,000 Oil Spills

    WASHINGTON, DC –Today, the Sunlight Foundation’s Reporting Group published an analysis that shows British Petroleum was blamed for roughly 8,000 reported incidents of spills, emissions and leaks of oil, chemicals and gases into the environment (http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/2010/british-petroleum/). This analysis is based on data collected by the National Resource Data from reports filed by the company reporting on itself, whistleblowers and the public.

  • Sunlight Foundation Announces the National Data Catalog

    WASHINGTON, DC– On the first anniversary of Data.gov, the Sunlight Foundation announced the launch of the National Data Catalog, a new user-friendly website that aggregates data from all branches of government on the federal, state and local levels. The Sunlight Labs, Sunlight’s open source community, created the National Data Catalog as an open platform for government and non-profit data sets and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to make it easy for anyone to find government information online.

  • Sunlight Live Covers Endgame of Financial Reform Debate

    WASHINGTON, DC - "Sunlight Live," the interactive, real-time investigative reporting platform of the Sunlight Foundation, will cover the endgame in the Senate legislative battle over financial reform this afternoon at http://sunlightfoundation.com/live. In its latest experiment using the "Sunlight Live" platform, Sunlight's team of reporters and technologists will provide contextual political information about interest groups trying to influence reform and senators as they take to the floor for the final maneuvering.

  • Sunlight Releases New Data & Reporting on Financial Services Lobbyists Who Host Fundraisers for Member of Congress

    WASHINGTON, DC –The Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group released a database that lets reporters and bloggers easily research which registered lobbyists for financial industry firms held fundraisers for members of Congress since 2009 (http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/2010/financial-reform-fundraisers/). Using this new database, the Reporting Group also published a story that shows that Sam Geduldig, a lobbyist for financial service industry firms whose own website (http://www.clarklytlegeduldig.com) states he has a self-proclaimed ability to "kill legislative threats for his clients," has hosted 17 fundraisers for members of Congress and their leadership committees since January 2009. Sunlight matched more than 440 fundraisers to financial industry lobbyists.

  • New Earmark Transparency Legislation Introduced in House and Senate

    Washington, DC-The Sunlight Foundation lauds Senators Coburn (R-OK), Feingold (D-WI), Gillibrand (D-NY) and McCain (R-AZ) in the Senate and Representatives Cassidy (R-LA) and Speier (D-CA) in the House for introducing landmark legislation today that would require Congress to create an online, searchable database for all earmark requests. Sunlight has long advocated for technological solutions to ensure that earmarks reflect the public interest, and formally proposed an online, searchable database of earmark request disclosures in March of 2008 in its Transparency in Government Act, posted to its PublicMarkup.org website.

  • Senator Jon Tester Introduces Public Online Information Act

    WASHINGTON, DC – Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) introduced legislation today that would revolutionize how the public accesses government information. The Public Online Information Act (POIA) requires all government-held information that is already required to be publicly available to be posted online, subject to common-sense exceptions. Representative Steve Israel (D-NY) authored companion legislation (HR 4858) in the House of Representatives.

  • Sunlight Foundation Announces Advisory Committee on Transparency

    Washington, DC-Today, the Sunlight Foundation announced the creation of an Advisory Committee on Transparency to support the mission of the new Congressional Transparency Caucus. The inaugural event for the Congressional Transparency Caucus took place on Capitol Hill earlier this afternoon, at which Sunlight announced the creation of TransparencyCaucus.org, a new website that will house the work of the Advisory Committee. A project of the Sunlight Foundation, the Advisory Committee will assist the new 26-member Transparency Caucus, co-chaired by Representatives Mike Quigley (D-IL) and Darrell Issa (R-CA), by providing education, information and advice to members of Congress on open government issues. Unlike the Congressional Transparency Caucus, the Advisory Committee is not part of government.

  • Advisory: Congressional Transparency Caucus Inaugural Event to Bring Together Bi-Partisan Coalition of Lawmakers Committed to Open Government

    WASHINGTON, DC – The Sunlight Foundation congratulates the Congressional Transparency Caucus for hosting its inaugural event this Thursday, April 29, 2010. The event will feature remarks by the caucus co-chairs, Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) and Rep. Darrel Issa (R-CA), as well as a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers committed to making government more accountable and accessible to the American people. The caucus currently has more than 20 members representing districts from all across the United States.

  • Wall Street Lobbyists Wine, Dine and Raise Funds for Senators

    WASHINGTON, DC – Just as the Senate prepares to debate financial reform, a new review by the Sunlight Foundation’s Reporting Group of fundraiser invitations in its Party Time database (http://politicalpartytime.org) shows that lobbyists representing the financial sector have hosted fundraisers to benefit at least 10 senators on the Banking and Agriculture Committees (http://bit.ly/financeparties) this year. Both committees have recently worked on a bill to overhaul the financial regulatory system.

  • Federal Agencies to Mark Milestone Today for Open Government

    Washington, DC-Today, under the administration’s Open Government Directive, federal agencies are required to publish plans that articulate how they will improve their transparency, collaboration and engagement with citizens. As soon as it has an opportunity to review the plans, the Sunlight Foundation, which heralded the Open Government Directive when it was first announced in December 2009, will assess on its blog—http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com—whether or not agencies have adhered to the Directive’s data transparency requirements.

  • Correction: Setting the Record Straight on the "Stupak 11" Earmark Story

    Washington, DC-The Sunlight Foundation’s Reporting Group issued a series of corrections and clarifications to a story it published late last week about earmarks requested by several members of Congress. The spreadsheet used to inform this blog entry contained four major errors in its data, causing Sunlight’s Reporting Group to overstate the amount of earmark requests by a few members by a factor of 10.

  • "Stupak 11" Request Over $4.7 Billion in Earmarks After Changing No-to-Yes Votes on Health Care Bill

    THIS STORY HAS BEEN CORRECTED. View the correction. Washington, DC -Today, the Sunlight Foundation’s Reporting Group published a story that found that a day after Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), and ten other House members compromised on their pro-life position to deliver the necessary yes-votes to pass health care reform, the "Stupak 11" released their fiscal year 2011 earmark requests, totaling more than $4.7 billion. This is an average of $429 million worth of earmark requests for each lawmaker. The story is online here.

  • The Sunlight Labs Announces Design for America Competition

    WASHINGTON, DC –The Sunlight Labs, Sunlight Foundation’s open source development team, announced Design for America, an innovative contest that challenges artists and designers to use government data in exciting new ways. Contest winners will be announced on May 27 at a reception at the Gov 2.0 Expo, sponsored by O’Reilly Media and TechWeb. Competitors will compete for 1st place prizes of $5,000 each in several categories. Sponsors include The Adobe Corporation, Google, O’Reilly, TechWeb and the Gov2.0 expo.

  • Advisory: Sunlight Foundation's Executive Director Ellen Miller to Testify Before the United States Senate Today

    WASHINGTON, DC – Ellen Miller, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Sunlight Foundation, will testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security today. Ellen’s testimony will focus on the need for greater government transparency and the need for government to rethink how it makes data and information available to the public. The hearing on government transparency will begin at 2:30 PM and feature two panels.

  • Sunlight Foundation Goes to Testify, Gets Cut Off by Procedural Move

    Washington, DC - The Sunlight Foundation’s Executive Director Ellen Miller went before the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security, in order to testify on the need for greater government transparency and the need for government to rethink how it makes data and information available to the public. Around thirty seconds into her testimony, the hearing was suddenly canceled due to an unexpected procedural move, which forced all Senate hearings to immediately cease.

  • Help The Center’s Data Mine Liberate Gov’t Records During Sunshine Week

    WASHINGTON, D.C., March 17, 2010 — As part of Sunshine Week, March 14-20, The Center for Public Integrity and the Sunlight Foundation are looking for help with The Data Mine, a new online series identifying inaccessible or difficult to use information from the federal government.

  • Congressman Steve Israel Introduces Landmark Transparency Bill

    WASHINGTON, DC - Congressman Steve Israel (NY-02) introduced a banner piece of legislation today in an effort to make public government information available to all Americans online. This bill, the Public Online Information Act (POIA), is an effort to remedy the fact that significant quantities of government data sets are designated as "public," but are hard to find, and sometimes difficult to read. POIA will ensure that government information from across all agencies will be available to everyone within a few keystrokes on a computer.

  • Advisory: Sunlight Foundation to Announce National Public Equals Online Campaign This Thursday

    WASHINGTON, DC – The Sunlight Foundation will kick off a national campaign for transparent government this THURSDAY, March 18, 2010. The “Public=Online” campaign will be an ongoing effort by the Sunlight Foundation to harness public support for accountability and transparency in order to build a grassroots movement that works to hold elected officials accountable on the local, state and federal level.

  • Advisory: Congressman Steve Israel to Introduce Landmark Transparency Legislation

    WASHINGTON, DC – During Sunshine Week next week, Congressman Steve Israel (NY-02) will introduce The Public Online Information Act (POIA), a banner piece of legislation to require that all public government-held information be available to all Americans online. Congressman Israel will announce his plans for POIA at the press conference next TUESDAY, March 16, 2010 at the United States Capitol. Congressman Israel will be joined by Ellen Miller, executive director and co-founder of the Sunlight Foundation and Andrew Rasiej, founder of the Personal Democracy Forum.

  • Sunshine Week 2010: Editorial Board Memo

    Every day, the federal government releases vast amounts of useful information about every aspect of our nation and how government works. This public information has a deep impact on almost every aspect of American life. Some of it can be used to hold our elected officials accountable for their actions, or have a profound effect on health, economic development and commerce. The problem is, much of this government information is too often hard to find, difficult to understand, expensive to obtain in useful formats, and available in only a few locations.

  • Sunlight Foundation Updates Its Databases of Congressional Expenditures and White House Visitor Logs

    WASHINGTON, DC – This past Friday, both the U.S. House of Representatives and the White House delivered on their promise to release more information online. The House posted its quarterly Statement of Disbursements, which tracks how members of Congress use their official budget, and the Obama administration released a new set of White House visitor logs online. The Sunlight Foundation added both these data sets to previously existing databases.

  • Advisory: Sunlight Foundation Announces Sunlight Live: Health Care Summit Edition

    WASHINGTON, DC - The Sunlight Foundation will host a comprehensive, online, real-time resource on Thursday during the president's health care summit to give reporters and the public a one-stop shop for information on the debate and on the attendees. Sunlight Live (http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/live) will bring together real-time blogging, tweets and relevant facts on congressional members in attendance including campaign finance data, revolving door information, lawmakers' personal finances and key votes to give the public a greater understanding of why the elected officials have staked out their positions on health care.

  • Schumer-Van Hollen Legislative Framework on Citizens United Includes Sunlight Foundation Recommendations

    WASHINGTON, DC - Senator Chuck Schumer and Congressman Chris Van Hollen released a legislative framework yesterday meant to address the potential flood of corporate and union money into the political system as a result of the Supreme Court's decision on Citizens United v. Federal Election Committee (FEC). Senator Schumer and Congressman Van Hollen addressed several critical new reporting and disclosure rules which mirror many of the recommendations that the Sunlight Foundation offered (http://sunlightfoundation.com/policy/documents/comprehensive-disclosure-regime-wake-supreme-court/) just two weeks ago. The Sunlight Foundation renewed its call for disclosures to be electronically filed and publicly available online within 24 hours.

  • Sunlight Foundation Releases Seven Recommendations to Update Political Spending Disclosures in Wake of Citizens United v. FEC

    WASHINGTON, DC – This morning, the Sunlight Foundation released seven proposals that should be immediately implemented in order to create a more transparent, accountable political disclosure system in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC) decision last week. The proposals are structured to address new realities, including the ability for corporations and labor unions to spend unlimited amounts of money on independent expenditure campaigns, on behalf of candidates and issues.

  • President Obama Formally Adopts Sunlight Foundation Priorities in State of the Union

    Washington, DC - Last night during the State of the Union address, President Obama made transparency a cornerstone issue for his administration this year. He called for the establishment of a single, Congress-wide database to track earmarks; better and more complete lobbying disclosure and a concerted effort to change the campaign finance laws to reflect the new realities created by last week’s Supreme Court decision on the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC) case. Since these issues strongly reflect the Sunlight Foundation’s mission, it has issued policy proposals to help Congress and the White House achieve these goals.

  • Obama Administration to Release Unprecedented Amount of Government Data Today

    Washington, DC - The Obama administration is making an unparalleled amount of data available online today. The release, as part of the Open Government Directive, is further evidence that the administration is serious about increased government transparency and is committed to moving toward a more open way of operating. The Sunlight Foundation applauds this long-anticipated action by the administration and is pleased to see its own recommendations heeded.

  • Supreme Court Deals Blow to Campaign Finance but Calls for Greater Transparency

    Washington, DC - Today's landmark Supreme Court decision on Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission which allows corporations to spend unlimited funds on direct electoral activities and issue advocacy makes overhauling election disclosure laws a necessity, according to the Sunlight Foundation. The majority opinion penned by Chief Justice John Roberts specifically cites online public disclosure as key to giving the public the information they need to make informed decisions on political speech.

  • The Sunlight Labs Releases Most Comprehensive iPhone Application for Congressional Activities Ever

    WASHINGTON, DC - This morning, the Sunlight Labs launched a new resource for iPhone users which could revolutionize the way that users of Apple's popular app phone can access and interact with information about Congress. The Real Time Congress application is a fast and free way to access real-time congressional activity, meetings and documents right at users' fingertips.

  • Sunlight Foundation's New Reporting Group Site to Integrate Resources and Trainings for Journalists

    Washington, DC - This morning, the Sunlight Foundation launched a new resource for journalists, bloggers and citizens, the Reporting Group Web site, available at Reporting.SunlightFoundation.com. The site will integrate Sunlight’s many efforts on behalf of journalists including training materials, research, data and stories—into a single site.

  • White House Releases Visitor Data; Sunlight Labs Augments it with Resources to Make Sense of Data

    Washington, DC - Acting on the latest online release of visitor data provided by the White House last week, the Sunlight Labs released a mashup designed to make it easier for anyone to conduct independent research on who is visiting the White House. The new mashup links to data from the Center for Responsive Politics and the National Institute on Money in State Politics to show whether visitors have given campaign contributions on the national or state level; it also links to visitors’ profiles on LittleSis.org and their Google and Wikipedia search results to provide greater context of who is conducting business with the White House.