The Sunlight Foundation and nearly a dozen other groups today sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to urge her to add to the upcoming lobbying reform legislation a provision that would require members to electronically file their personal financial disclosure forms. These reports provide detailed information on each members' personal financial assets, and are critical to the public's understanding of whether their representative's private interests might conflict with his or her public duties as a lawmaker. Congress, which has required electronic filing of reports by lobbyists, campaign committees and 527 organizations, has failed to make personal financial disclosure reports available on the Internet-even in PDF format. Instead, the reports and the information contained in them are buried in the basement office of the House Clerk.
The House Ethics Manual states that "...public disclosure of assets, financial interests, and investments has been required as the preferred method of regulating possible conflicts of interest of Members of the House and certain congressional staff. Public disclosure is intended to provide the information necessary to allow Members' constituencies to judge their official conduct in light of possible financial conflicts with private holdings."
And the Winner Is …..
We had no idea what a tough task it would be to select a winner for the Mashup Contest we announced two months ago as a way to honor Sunshine Week, but it was. We had about a dozen fabulous entries - some very complex and sophisticated, some less so, but every single one of them was very effective. The staff was certainly glad that the burden for the final choices didn't rest with us.
Today we are announcing the winner is a mashup called "Unfluence". "Unfluence" was submitted as an entry by Greg Michalec and Skye Bender-deMoll. And while their mashup actually uses state campaign finance data (and the APIs developed by a Sunlight grantee - the Institute of on State Money and Politics), it is clear that the underlying code is directly applicable to federal politicians. In fact, the Center for Responsive Politics has been experimenting with similar network mapping. The more data that's available both from the government and the nonprofit sector in mashable forms, the more data can be examined from different perspectives and the more we know about Congress.
Continue readingOpenCongress. Open Source.
We are delighted to point you to OpenMass -- a new website that takes ourOpenCongress.org open source framework and applies it to Massachusetts legislation, legislators and news about issues in the state. As they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery. Forty-nine more states to go.
Update: Check out the Open Government movement in Pennsylvania at PassOpenRecords.org where a movement to push for new open records laws appears to be centered. This effort is sponsored by the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association. Join in the conversation.
Continue readingVote for OpenSecrets.org Today!
One of our grantees -- Center for Responsive Politics' website http://www.opensecrets.org/ -- has been nominated for the "People's Choice" Webby Award as the best politics site on the Internet. Today is the last day you can vote so please do! OpenSecrets.org is responsible for not only the most comprehensive Congressional and presidential campaign finance databases but also databases that cover Congressional Travel, Personal Financial Disclosure, Lobbying, and the Revolving Door. They've created remarkable tools that many other of our grantees are using to do their work (Full disclosure: I was CRP's Director for 12 years.)
Continue readingHappy Anniversary, Sunlight
It would have been a great one year anniversary present to have had the Senate's electronic filing bill pass today, but we're not going to let that rain on our parade as we pause, briefly, to celebrate the one year anniversary of Sunlight's public launch. Just 12 months ago, we announced the start up of Congresspedia and the results of national polling that demonstrated -- overwhelmingly -- the public's support for greater transparency in Congress. We feel like the efforts of our first year have lifted the lid off of what is really possible. Today we marveled at the good luck of the timing of our effort because it seems like our very presence at this time has galvanized more than we ever would have dreamed possible in our first year.
Continue readingA Friend of Campaign Finance Disclosure…or Not?
As one who has followed Sen. Mitch McConnell's stiff opposition to campaign finance reform efforts for many years, I can't help but recall that while McConnell opposed any campaign finance reform efforts he was always a fan of campaign finance disclosure. That's why his current position on the secret hold/objection on the Senate's electronic disclosure bill - I know but I won't tell - is a bit strange. I mean, if he's for disclosure, then he should want to help S. 223 along.
Here's a sampling of some of what he said in 2001 and 2002 in the context of the debate on the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law:
Continue readingSenator Alexander Doesn’t Know
I've been out of Washington for the day and when I returned I found the following email from a former colleague who now does press for Sen. Lamar Alexander:
I ran across your call to arms on the anonymous hold on the senate electronic filing bill, and wanted to let you know that we really honestly have no idea who's behind it. The rules (both parties) on this kind of thing are complicated and not necessarily formal, but basically my boss just happened to be standing there when the floor staff needed an R senator to formally register an objection that was already filed. This is SOP, happens all the time, has for decades. It's why both parties always make sure to have at least one of their members on the floor whenever we're in session. The only people who actually know the holder's name are the floor staff and your old nemesis, McConnell. And, of course, Sen. Luddite him or herself, whoever it is.
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Ironically, Alexander supported the bill in Rules and will happily vote for it on the floor. So you can have your members call us if you like, but we're already on your side, and couldn't tattle even if we wanted to (it would be frowned upon in the conference as a breach of senate protocol, of course). Just thought you'd want to know so you can focus your pressure more usefully.
The Story from OMB Watch’s Point of View
Yesterday, we told you (and the New York Times published a longer article) that USDA published the Social Security numbers of individuals who receive federal aid in a publicly available online database of government grants. That information was inadvertantly pick up in a database that we funded -- FedSpending.org. The database, which details government grants and contracts in a user friendly way was developed by OMB Watch. It's a hugely popular database -- during the month of March, there were roughly 1 million searches made. (That's not visitors or hits, that's 1 million people looking up stuff.)
Continue readingA Hold is a Hold. Keeping Calling.
Last night at about 7.30 PM I got three or four emails from some of our conservative allies in the fight for greater transparency in Congress. Independently, all of them wanted to pass along talking points that they received from (get this!) an anonymous Republican Hill source who claimed that the secret hold on the Senate's electronic filing bill wasn't a "secret hold" but, well, an anonymous objection to bringing the bill up by unanimous consent. In our mind, a hold is a hold is a hold, unless you want to debate what the definition of "is" is.
Looks like the Washington Post agrees with Sunlight's definition of a secret hold. See their editorial (You gotta' love their headline: "Sen. Ima Luddite (R)" and a column. Check out the NYTimes Blog, The Hill, and the SF Examiner for more support for our position.
Continue readingSunlight is Moving Monday, April 16
We are all very excited about our move to new and larger space. The move actually begins mid-afternoon today, April 16, and while it should be completed before business tomorrow, we are all assuming that there will be disruptions for the next several days. Our computer systems are supposed to be back up and running on Tuesday the 17th. Phones will not operate before the end of the day on Wednesday, the 18th. And this web site should be unaffected by all. Since nothing ever goes as smoothly as planned, forgive the interruptions as we settle into our new headquarters. We'll be back in full operation as soon as possible.
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