Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., requested
earmarks for at least ten companies that have been donors to the
lawmaker in this election cycle. Five of those companies have been
long-term contributors to Shelby.
Shelby, who is on the Senate
appropriations committee, requested more than $54.3 million for these
ten companies and has received more than $69,000 in campaign funds from
their employees and PACs since 2008, a quick analysis of his online
earmark requests using Sunlight's newest tool Poligraft.com shows.
Employees
of Radiance Technologies, for which Shelby requested $5 million in
earmarks, have given the lawmaker more ...
House disbursement data for 2010 now online
We’ve released a cleaned up version of the House disbursements data that covers the first quarter of 2010, during which the House spent more than $339 million on salaries, expenses and equipment.
Last month we aggregated and analyzed all the data in the statement of disbursements, which the House started publishing online in a PDF format in December 2009, showing for the first time the private firms that do the most business with the House.
To make this data useful, the Sunlight Labs team had to parse the information in the PDF so it could be searched, sorted and ...
White House releases 2010 financial disclosures for staffers
Last week we requested personal financial disclosures for a few senior White House staffers. These documents list the assets officials own--property, stocks and mutual funds. The documents can be requested on the White House website by clicking here..
In addition to assets, these disclosures also tell you who gave these high profile staffers gifts or paid for their travel. For instance, on page 16 of Rahm Emanuel’s disclosure, we can see that he received tickets to the Bruce Springsteen concert last summer. We previously reported that 18 members of Congress benefited from fundraisers held at the concert (for details ...
Podesta’s lobbying ties
Last week we pointed out several fundraisers that BP lobbyists planned for lawmakers since 2008. At least nine of the eleven fundraisers invites we collected had Tony Podesta of the Podesta Group listed as a host.
Today, the Daily Caller using data from the Center for Responsive Politics has more details on Podesta's clients -- a list that includes other oil companies such as Sunoco as well as a range of green businesses.
According to the piece, "The couple [Tony and Heather Podesta] lobbies on behalf of a range of green businesses, too. For instance, the Securing America’s ...
In six months, House offices spent $673 million on salaries, equipment, expenses
In the final month of fiscal year 2009, House committees and offices went on a shopping spree, spending more than $60 million left in their budgets before it disappeared. More than $12 million went towards purchasing computer hardware, which could include new laptops and desktops.
According to a Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group analysis of six months of congressional spending data released by the House Clerk's Office, House members and
various committee offices spent more than $673 million in the last half of 2009 on salaries for staff, travel and outside vendors, who help with everything from tracking constituent information ...
Oil Spill: Wildlife data shows several species may be affected
As the millions of gallons of oil continues to spill into the Gulf of Mexico, the Department of Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Services has started an uphill battle with their rescue efforts. The agency has deployed a 200-person workforce in the area who are reviewing the natural habitats affected by the oil spill.
For environmentalists and reporters covering the vast and prolonged damage the oil spill can cause, here’s a list of wildlife refuges that can be affected released by the Fisheries and Wildlife Services.
And, to check on various species of endangered wildlife that could be affected ...
Senate expenditures go online at OpenSecrets.org
The Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets site just added expenditures by Senate campaigns to their site. The data was released by the Federal Election Commission for the first time last week. CRP has a detailed listing of all the expenses incurred by the committees, the recipients and the dates of the expenditures. For instance, we know that in the 2010 cycle Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., spent more than $31,000 for catering at the Charlie Palmer Steakhouse.
And a quick search on our Party Time data shows that at least four fundraisers for Reid were held at the venue and ...
Financial reform fundraising: Are lobbyists for Wall St. firms hosting hundreds of events for lawmakers?
Sam Geduldig, a lobbyist for high profile financial firms, banks and credit card companies who has the ability to "kill legislative threats to his clients," is listed as a host on 18 invitations to fundraisers for Republican members of Congress and their leadership committees, a Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group review of Party Time data from January 2009 to the present has found.
Geduldig's name appears on both fundraising invitations in Party Time and the
Center for Responsive Politics' lobbying database; Sunlight is also releasing a spreadsheet listing all matches of names hosts to names of lobbyist with links to ...
Civil rights groups want details on immigrant fingerprint program
As Arizona turns up the heat on illegal immigrants, civil rights groups are demanding the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) release details about a rapidly expanding federal program that helps local police identify illegal immigrants for potential deportation. The Center for Constitutional Rights and two other groups filed a lawsuit on April 27 attempting to force ICE to turn over data about its “Secure Communities” program after failing to get the information through a Freedom of Information Act request.
“This program has very little public scrutiny. There’s very little known about the way it operates,” said Sunita ...
OGD: Labor releases five enforcement datasets
"I now realize that I must have had my first glimmer of the need for
preventive journalism as a young West Virginian who would hear of a
mine disaster, then read heartbreaking stories of weeping widows and
indignant editorials demanding effective safety regulations. But in the
years that followed, no reporter went down into the mines to see if
they were safer. We only found out they were not after the next
disaster when a new round of heartbreaking articles and indignant
editorials would appear." -- Charles Peters, Understanding government.com
This week the Labor Department began releasing data that reporters ...
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