The Bush Administration is getting quite good at death by budget, knocking off two federal open government programs in the last couple of weeks. Tony Soprano would be impressed.
Late last month, the administration submitted their 2009 budget, where it was revealed they eliminated the key provision of the Open Government Act of 2007 - the ombudsman whose job it is to oversee all Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. They pulled it off by moving the office from the National Archives and Records Administration to the Department of Justice where it is doomed to ineffectual exile. The second hit was on EconomicIndicators.gov, an award-winning web site full of current economic data at the U.S. Department of Commerce. The site will be put in mothballs effective March 1st. The administration said it was a budget cutting decision. The Web site has gotten a lot of attention for how easily it allows citizens to access the daily releases of key economic indicators and to cross reference the data among various bureaus and would send out e-mails to registered users whenever new economic data was released. Sure, Think Progress writes, the data will still be available but much harder - much much harder to access. Most of us wouldn't have the time to go and look at the individual sites and even know where to look for it.
Continue readingA Lover Spurned
The National Association of Home Builders, acting like a spurned lover, has announced that it's suspending its PAC contributions to all members of Congress. The Home Builders are a big contributor to members and congressional candidates, and spends heavy on lobbying. This could get interesting.
What caused the trouble? The Hill reports that the association's lobbying efforts failed to get a particular tax break provision (a provision that would help companies with losses to trim prior year tax bills) included in the economic stimulus package. Calling the step "extraordinary," the Home Builders' president said they were disappointed in both Congress and the Bush Administration for "not adequately addressed the underlying economic issues that would help to stabilize the housing sector and keep the economy moving forward."
In other words, as far as the Home Builders are concerned, Congress will be sleeping on the couch "until further notice."
Continue readingWhat Would Huey Long Think?
Huey Long must be rolling over in his grave.
Legal Times' Influence blog reports on how new Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is pushing the state to adopt "a gold standard" in ethics laws. Jindal called the legislature into special session, saying there is nothing more important for Louisiana at this time than ethics reform. In an editorial he wrote that appeared in the Shreveport (La.) Times Jindal outline his proposal that includes political candidate ethics training, monthly lobbying disclosure, making the failure to register as a lobbyist a criminal offense, earmark disclosure, and ending the practice of legislators bidding on state contracts. Jindal said that he wants to "ensure that the rest of the world knows that corruption will no longer find a home here." No surprise that resistance exists within the legislature where some bristle at his proposals.
Continue readingRethinking Campaign Finance Reform
Last week, Matt Stoller, president of Blog PAC, principal at Open Left, and Sunlight Foundation consultant, gave an interesting speech at the University of Connecticut Law School where he advocates a rethinking of the historic approach to campaign finance law, a system that has not kept pace with the Web 2.0 revolution.
Reformers usually think about changing the campaign finance laws to limit the influence of big money in politics. As we know, the lion's share of the money is spent on TV, radio, and for mass mailings, what Matt terms "spammy media." This, he says, should be regulated. But for the Internet, what Matt calls "social media" because of its infinite possibilities for consumption and participation, he suggests a deregulation scheme. Specifically calling for the establishment of a kind of two-tierd regulatory system that limits the "spam quotient" of modern campaigns and encourages the social context of politics.
Interesting... Check it out.
Continue readingMillennials Remaking Democracy
Fascinating piece from millennial makeover entitled Millennials Are About to Give America an Extreme Political Makeover.Right here in Hollywood, a dedicated group of over one hundred Millennials, gathered by mobilize.org, met the weekend before New Year's Day to finalize their own Declaration of Independence, entitled "Democracy 2.0." Citing a need to "upgrade" our nation's system of governance, the gathering identified the challenges that previous generations had failed to resolve, especially "economic inequality, America's role in the world, and the effect of money on the democratic process." But then, instead of condemning those in power for the nation's problems and walking away as Gen Xers might have done, or attempting to tear down the political system as some Boomers did, they asserted the need for their generation to fix each of those concerns. Their manifesto declared, "Our generation...is uniquely positioned to foster community engagement through social networks... It is our responsibility to use information and technology to upgrade democracy, transform communication, and advance political engagement and civic participation."
Thanks Micah for passing it along.
Continue readingEPA’s Wiki
It's a welcome change of pace to be able to say something nice about the federal government. Federal Computer Week reports on the Environmental Protection Agency's use of the Web 2.0 style to help local citizens in Washington State working to clean up Puget Sound.
Last November, EPA held its 2007 Environmental Information Symposium where they activated its Puget Sound Information Challenge wiki. Participants were asked to supply information that could help local groups working to restore the Sound. The Web site was up over the two days of the conference, and received 18,000 page views, 175 entries with everything from documents to decision support systems and a significant volume of e-mail, the magazine reports.
Continue readingAsk lawmakers about the issues you care about on public radio
If you had a microphone and a media pass at the U.S. Capitol, what would you ask your lawmaker? What issues matter most to you during this election? The economy? Healthcare? Immigration, global warming, Iraq? Now’s your chance to make your voice heard in the corridors of power and on 200+ public radio stations across the U.S.
Using Sunlight grantee Capitol News Connection’s new Ask Your Lawmaker site and widget, you can ask powerful lawmakers on the air about the issues that will define this election. Plus, how lawmakers, as “super delegates” could end up picking the candidates at the conventions: how will they decide?
Capitol News Connection, the award-winning congressional news service that brings politics ‘home’ to almost 2 million public radio listeners nationwide, will compile the best – and most popular questions – submitted through the Ask Your Lawmaker widget and site. Citizens with the best questions will be chosen to ask them on the air. Listeners can also call them the CNC team at 202/546-8654.
All questions must be submitted by COB Monday, February 11. The Ask Your Lawmaker shows will air on over 200 public radio affiliates next Tuesday (2/12) and Wednesday (2/13).
PS: If you haven’t already, be sure to download CNC’s Ask Your Lawmaker widget and use it on your site!
Lots Sunshine in Alaska
From Jacob Wiens at POGO:
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This week, the state of Alaska launched a website that tracks every state expenditure of over one thousand dollars, as reported on today's NPR Morning Edition. This makes Alaska the tenth state government to provide such a service to its taxpayers. On a side note, Alaska also has the lowest individual tax burden of any state in the U.S.Alaska calls its website "Checkbook Online." According to the state, this service "...is part of a national trend for governments to develop websites that allow constituents to view financial information in searchable formats. Such websites are widely considered to improve transparency into the financial operations of government."
New Ways to Look at the Money Behind the Presidentials
The Center for Responsive Politics (a Sunlight grantee) is displaying some cool new ways to view the role of money in the presidential election. Look here for the "Money Web." This shows you the links between candidates and donors, including the five top contributors and industries (including ties) to each of the candidates. Click on a bubble to start making connections among candidates, their top-giving industries and top contributors.
Here's a cool map that illustrates how much money is going to Republican and Democratic candidates from each state and which presidential candidate got the most.
If you want to see how a candidate's fundraising stacks up against another's week by week, or month by month, look here. On this map click on a state to see contributions from that state to each candidate, as well as money isolated by metropolitan area and top ZIP codes. (Note that the Web site is geteting some heavy traffic this afternoon. If you have trouble loading anything, try back later.)
A Little More Accountability, Please
Three watchdog groups have sent a letter to House appropriators urging more oversight of the oil and gas royalties owed to the federal government. Friends of the Earth (FOE), Project on Government Oversight (POGO), and Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) sent the House Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations a letter calling on the appropriators to set aside additional funding to hire auditors to oversee what they called the Department of the Interior's (DOI) troubled oil and gas royalty programs.
DOI made two increases to the offshore royalty rates over the past year. Those rate increases are ridiculous the groups say if effective auditing and enforcement functions are not in place to keep the oil companies honest, who over the past decade have been forced to pay almost $600 million in settlements for shortchanging the government in royalty payments. Since 2000, DOI has cut the number of auditors by 45 or 15.7 percent (from 287 to 242). As the groups say in their letter, "With fewer watchdogs minding the store, oil and gas companies have fewer incentives to pay up."
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