Groups Urge Transparency Around Fiscal Cliff Negotiations
The Sunlight Foundation, along with the Institute for Policy Innovation, OpenTheGovernment.org, Public Citizen and U.S. Public Interest Research Groups sent a letter to President Obama, Senator Reid, Senator McConnell, Representative Boehner and Representative Pelosi urging them to ensure that a minimal standard of transparency apply to the fiscal cliff negotiations.
Recognizing that some negotiations will necessarily occur in private, the groups encourage leaders to commit to ensuring that any legislation resulting from the negotiations is online for 72 hours prior to consideration in Congress and that any side agreements, including promised votes on future legislation, are also made public. In addition, meetings with lobbyists and other influencers attempting to impact the outcome of the negotiations should also be disclosed online in real time.
Transparency around the fiscal cliff negotiations is critical to begin to restore accountability to a broken budget process.
