It looks as if the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) could use Sunlight's database expertise.
Wired.com writes about a GAO report issued earlier this week that blasts the agency for doing an "appalling job" of tracking, responding and resolving complaints regarding telecommunications services. GAO's report states:
Limitations in FCC's current approach for collecting and analyzing enforcement data constitute the principal challenge FCC faces in providing complete and accurate information on its enforcement program... Limitations in FCC's current approach for collecting and analyzing enforcement data constitute the principal challenge FCC faces in providing complete and accurate information on its enforcement program.
Rep. Ed Markey, chair of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, requested the investigation that focused on the agency's enforcement efforts between 2003 and 2006.
How bad is it? Bad.
Continue readingWelcome to Washington, Mr. Foster
Chris Soghoian writes at his blog Surveillance State about how Capitol Hill just got its first computer geek lawmaker. Last Saturday, Bill Foster, a physicist with a Ph.D. from Harvard, won a special election to replace former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who resigned late last year. Here's a lawmaker who no doubt understands the power of technology for Democratic renewal.
Lawrence Lessig writes that Foster is "the kind of CHANGE Congress needs."
And Foster's already had an impact. Tuesday evening, Foster cast what was quite possibly the deciding vote on H.Res.895, which would establish an Office of Congressional Ethics. Nice start.
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A Debate: Information v. Privacy
At Wired.com, there has been an interesting back and forth between Bruce Schneier, world-renowned security technology guru, and David Brin, physicist and award-winning science fiction author. Schneier critiques Brin's view that "freedom is best served when all citizens have enough knowledge to hold each other reciprocally accountable" that he flushed out in his 1997 book The Transparency Society. Schneier fears openness would be a radical departure from the social contract that our present society is built upon, and that it would threaten personal privacy. Brin's rebuttal is that Schneier is wrong about both the social contract and privacy and that ever since the Enlightenment, markets, science and democracy have "flourished in direct proportion to how much their players (consumers, scientists and voters) know, in order to make good decisions." Also, he says "whatever extent these arenas get clogged by secrecy, they fail."
Amen. When almost everything we want to know, do, buy, and connect to is at the tip of our fingertips government should fully embrace the tools of this new age. Information is the currency of democracy, and technology is enabling citizens interact with their government in new and exciting ways, enriching and strengthening democracy.
Continue readingCoburn Doesn’t Give Up
Continue readingEarmark foes are preparing to force a vote that would oblige senators to disclose all campaign contributions connected to their pet projects.
As the battle over the budget heats up, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and other senators are readying an amendment in case Democrats propose an alternative to a Republican-led moratorium on earmarks, as Coburn suspects.
How Little Anyone Knows About Government Contracting…and Why It Matters
Yesterday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a troubling report on the U.S. Defense Department (DoD) hiring of private contractors to assist in its operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It really illustrates how little we know about government contracting and why the lack of transparency is a problem.
Imagine this. DoD doesn't even know how many private contractors it has on the payroll. AP reports that a senior defense official, in congressional testimony last month, estimated that there are about the same number of private contractors in each of the two war zones as there are American troops, 163,000 in Iraq and 36,500 in Afghanistan. But no one apparently knows for sure. The GAO found that private contractors outnumber DoD employees in some offices, and handle sensitive jobs like writing contracts and awarding fees.
Continue readingDisclosure for Presidential Library Contributions
On Saturday, The Dallas Morning News ran an op-ed from Sen. Joe Lieberman in which he called on President Bush to make all documents public regarding his presidential library. This followed President Bush's press conference on Feb. 28 where he discussed his planned $200-million-plus library in Dallas on the campus of Southern Methodist University, saying that he would accept donations from foreign sources and that if donors wanted their names kept confidential he would consider that request, according to The New York Times.
Fundraising for presidential libraries continues to be a blind spot when it comes to disclosure. Unlike contributions to an electoral campaign, gifts to the libraries are unlimited and undisclosed, and they can receive money from corporations and foreign governments. As Think Progress reports, Bush-the-Elder accepted large donations from foreign governmental figures, including a donation that is believed to be in excess of $1 million from the United Arab Emirates. A presidential pardon for a six-figure contributor to Bill Clinton's library and political campaigns left the indelible impression with many that a presidential pardon was purchased, according to 2007 congressional testimony of colleague Sheila Krumholz, director of the Center for Responsive Politics.
Good for Lieberman for calling out Bush.
Openness and transparency in the way government does business is not a passing fancy for Lieberman. He was the lead sponsor of the E Government Act of 2002 and is the sponsor of the proposed E-Government Reauthorization Act of 2007.
Continue readingCase Study. Why Transparency is a Good Thing
The Associated Press reported that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will investigate how a huge loophole in federal overseas contracting was slipped into regulations being drafted to limit waste and fraud in government-funded projects. The regulations, when enacted, will require contractors to establish and maintain specific internal controls to detect and prevent improper conduct in connection with a government contract. The loophole would specifically exempt contracts performed entirely outside the U.S.
According to the report, the Committee will "look at whether the exemption was added at the request of private firms, or their lobbyists, to escape having to report abuse in U.S. contracts performed abroad."
It's a good question, but, as long as we are on the subject of waste, we would suggest a simple fix that could lead directly to an answer, without spending taxpayer dollars on document reviews, staff interviews, subpoenas, hearings and testimony stemming from an investigation. If Congress had enacted H.R. 984, Congressman Waxman's Executive Branch Reform Act, a few keystrokes on a computer might provide us with an answer as to whether a firm or lobbyist requested the exemption.
Instant Analysis from MAPLight.org
The House of Representatives passed the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007 (H.R. 1424) yesterday, a bill that would require group health insurance plans to cover mental health and substance-abuse cases just like other medical issues, a significant change over the current system. And thanks to MAPLight.org, the brilliant money-fand-votes tracker (and Sunlight grantee), we have a much better view of how the various interests attempt to influence legislative outcomes.
MAPLight.org analyzed the giving of those groups in real time, releasing immediately after the vote their analysis. (I'm just delayed in posting!) They found that those "interested" in the legislation, both pro and con, gave over $8,000 more to the individual legislators who voted the way they wanted them to. A press release from Maplight.org gives more detail:
Opponents--such as Accident and Health Insurance, Big Business, Chambers of Commerce, Restaurant and Manufacturing, Retail and Wholesale Trade gave an average of $22,693 to legislators who voted No on this bill, compared to $14,183 to legislators who voted Yes. The disparity is 160% more money given to a No vote.
Supporters--such as Health and Welfare, Mental Health care-givers, Mental Health Services, Clergy and Non-profit--gave an average of $4,242 to legislators who voted Yes on this bill, compared to $1,812 to legislators who voted No. The disparity is 234% more money given to a Yes vote, or $2,430.
MAPLight.org looks at correlations between campaign contributions and legislation, giving citizens key information to allow them to "draw their own conclusions about how campaign contributions affect policy," Dan Newman, MAPLight.org's director, said in the release.
Continue readingA SuperDelegate Widget
Check out the SuperDelegate Widget over at Congresspedia.
Another Week, Another Lobbying Update
From the Center for Responsive Politics. Year-end lobbying reports for 2007 are still trickling out from the Senate Office of Public Records. The total spent on federal lobbying last year is now up to $2.3 billion, but we know there are still reports that haven't been made available electronically yet. Based on the 2006 total, the missing data for '07 could total $300 million or more. We'll update OpenSecrets.org's Lobbying Database again next week with any new data.
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