Instead of spending another Friday night surfing the Web for your news, here's some television you should watch tonight. Bill Moyers Journal will give you the best arguments you'll ever need to explain why it's so important for our government to do its work in the open. They have prepared an extensive report on government waste and abuse of power.
Specifically Moyers is going to look at some of the unsolved mysteries under investigation by Congress's Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman. The program profiles the Committee's work, including its investigations of the mercenary army of Blackwater; Lurita Doan, who remains head of the GSA despite allegations of questionable no-bid contracts; and Condoleezza Rice's State Department, which is plagued by fraud and abuse. Waxman's Committee's Web site is a treasure trove of information and documents on these issues. (In fact, Sunlight regards it as a model site itself when it comes to revealing the details of the work of a committee of Congress.)
And we're pleased that their Web page will highlight many of Sunlight's insanely useful Web sites for people are seeking more information.
Continue readingA Picture is Worth….
Here's a great story about Washington lobbyist lawmaker connections and a fabulous graphic. One picture is worth a 1,000 words.
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Need for Regulatory Transparency
The EPAhas been considering new national health standards on ozone and smog. With about six weeks before they announce their decision, the White House has been meeting with some of "the biggest and nastiest polluters," according to Frank O'Donnell, president of the environmental watchdog Clean Air Watch. More private meetings! I thought we'd have enough of this.
On its face, the decision on ozone and smog shouldn't be a tough one. The health evidence is overwhelming that tougher smog standards are needed to protect children with asthma and millions of other Americans. EPA's own independent scientific advisers are unanimous in support of tougher rules. But last Friday, OMB recorded that several oil industry consultants came to meet with administration figures on the new rules. Anne Smith of CRA International came representing the American Petroleum Institute and Teresa Gorman of LPI Consulting and Bingham McCutchen representing ExxonMobil on clean air regulatory issues. Wouldn't it be nice to have a little transparency about what was discussed?
Continue readingFull Frontal Scrutiny
Consumer Reports WebWatch and the Center for Media and Democracy (our partners on Congresspedia) joined forces to launch Full Frontal Scrutiny, a blog-driven, wiki-based site dedicated to exposing fake, corporate-funded front groups that are pushing agendas, while hiding their true identity or agenda. Full Frontal Scrutiny will give consumers, voters and citizens a resource for investigating organizations they run across in the media or elsewhere that have popped up to promote a particular opinion or bill in Congress. We love the banner on the site that include this quote from Jonathan Adelstein, commissioner at the FCC: "The American public deserves to know when someone is trying to persuade them." The organizers say it's this spirit that is their motivation for exposing "hidden persuaders." This is a new battle being waged in the spirit of transparency.
Continue readingSo Much For the New FOIA Laws
When President Bush signed the Open Government Act of 2007 on New Years Eve, the first reform of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in a decade, one might have been tempted to believe the administration was reevaluating its embrace of hyper secrecy and warming to more openness and transparency. No such luck.
Over the weekend, Think Progress reported how the administration is now attempting to "neuter" the new law, which Congress wrote to open up government to more accountability. The law sets up the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), designed as an ombudsman to provide independent oversight and settle disputes over FOIA requests. The law authorized funds to address backlogs in the requests and resolve the requests in a timely manner.
Continue readingA Bump on the Road to Republican Reforms
This weekend, House Republicans held their annual three-day retreat to the historic Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. Earmark reform was a hot topic at the retreat, with young Turks challenging the old bulls to take bold action for reform, as Dana Chasin wrote at OMB Watch's blog. Younger conservatives pushed for a moratorium on GOP earmarks through the rest of 2008 in hope of showing voters Republicans are serious about fiscal responsibility. Ultimately, the bulls won.
They did attempt to hang some window dressing on the decision by sending a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling on her to establish a bipartisan panel to work on reducing pork-barrel spending. And they took four other steps: pledging to not fund projects named after themselves (Ouch! That must hurt.), promising not to "airdrop" earmarks into bills, agreeing not to send funds to "front" organizations and pass-through groups, and requiring members to place rationales for earmarks in the Congressional Record.
Continue readingGovernment Secrets
Back in September, I blogged about a hold being put on a bill that would undo the damage done when President Bush issued an Executive Order allowing presidential records to remain secret indefinitely. The bill, Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007, passed the House by a vote of 333 to 93. A bipartisan group of Senators cosponsored the bill which Senator Lieberman swiftly ushered through The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in June of 2007. Its momentum stalled when a Senator put a secret hold on the bill so it could not be voted on by Unanimous Consent in the Senate.
Continue readingMore Campaign Finance Data Due Next Week
The folks at the Center for Responsive Politics (OpenSecrets.org) are eagerly awaiting the candidates' final campaign finance reports of 2007, which are due to the FEC by midnight on Thursday, Jan. 31.
Massie sez:
Check OpenSecrets.org for updated data beginning Friday, Feb. 1. We're aiming to have the presidential section fully updated by Monday, Feb. 4, in time for Super Duper Tuesday the following day.
And while you are there take their user survey.
Continue readingLet The Good Times (Continue to) Roll
In today's edition, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reports that the annual Washington Mardi Gras party kicks off tonight at the Washington Hilton, a weekend-long event billed as "one of the most sought-after tickets in any season in Washington." The event's parties, the paper says, "are arguably the most intimate gatherings of businesspeople, politicians and lobbyists left in Washington" after new congressional ethics rules were adopted. Writing that the parties are"a throwback to the days when politicians and lobbyists socialized regularly outside the glare of the public spotlight," the paper added that they are "largely immune to the new ethics standards."
A secretive, Louisiana-based group headed by a lobbyist and former aide to now lobbyist and former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) organizes the event. The organization declined to name this year's corporate sponsors, but in years past they included R.J. Reynolds, BellSouth, and Lockheed Martin, according to the paper.
Continue readingBig Money Still Rules
Catherine Holahan, writing at BusinessWeek, published a story last week on how the various presidential candidates are having tremendous success at attracting contributions from small donors, those who make gifts of less than $200. The campaigns are tapping blogs, e-mails, social networks, YouTube videos, and their own Web sites to reach into the hearts and pockets of new contributors. This year's campaigns are receiving more small donations than the campaigns in previous elections, according to the Campaign Finance Institute.
However, this year's candidates are also receiving more large money donations than ever before. And apparently the ratio of large donors to those who give $200 or less has remained relatively the same as in prior elections. So you have to wonder about the 'new' conventional wisdom that large donors means less to the candidates this year as a result of the influe of small money, and that some how the campaign finance system that allows the big donors to get their hooks into the candidates is less awful than its ever been because of the influx of small money.
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