Every day there are new rumors about what Congress will and will not do, but it appears that we have a specific opportunity to open up Congress in the first few months of the next year. The Democratic Leadership has announced that it is going to spend a week of floor time allowing members 15 minutes each to propose parcels of a transparency and reform Agenda.

According to the Washington Post, the elements of the Agenda are a “done deal,” but we all know that more pressure can push whatever is “done.” Lieberman, this week, was talking about how he might push for an Office of Public Integrity even if the House Leadership didn’t include in its initial package, and the scuttlebutt is that there is much internal debate about the scope of transparency legislation.

So how can we use this time? How can we take that week and turn it into a platform for citizens’ demands? How can we use these critical six weeks to set up a cross-partisan citizen force that will demand more potent change?

As it stands, we are developing our Sunlight Agenda, reaching out to coalition partners, and planning a strategy meeting for early next week. We’d like to have your thoughts in that meeting.