The fall-out commentary over Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” comment has been fascinating for a number of reasons, but perhaps most... View Article
Continue readingJust how unequal is political voice in Washington? Very unequal
For those of us who worry about influence in politics, we know pretty well that we are not working with... View Article
Continue readingHow the NSF allocates billions of federal dollars to top universities
As another college year begins, tens of thousands of academics will once again be scrambling to submit proposals to the National Science Foundation, hoping to secure government funding for their research. Each year, the National Science Foundation (NSF) bestows more than $7 billion worth of federal funding on about 12,000 research proposals, chosen out of about 45,000 submissions. Thanks to the power of open data, we can now see how representation on NSF federal advisory committees connects to which universities get the most funding. (Federal advisory committee membership data is a feature of Influence Explorer.) Our analysis finds a clear correlation between the universities with the most employees serving on the NSF advisory committees and the universities that receive the most federal money. Overall about 75% of NSF funding goes to academic institutions. Even when controlling for other factors, we find that for each additional employee a university has serving on an NSF advisory committee that university can expect to see an additional $125,000 to $138,000 in NSF funding.
Continue readingWhat do rich political donors get for their contributions?
A major feature of this year’s election cycle has been the focus on the super-wealthy individuals whose million dollar checks are funding the super PACs. It’s not a new story that campaign contributions are incredibly concentrated and come from the very rich. As I documented in December, just 1% of 1% of Americans (actually 26,783 individuals) accounted for about one quarter of all political donations to candidates in 2010. All contributed at least $10,000. But the question has always been: what do rich political donors get for their contributions?
Continue readingCorruption ranks as a top campaign issue. Campaign finance transparency would be a great start.
In the week following the Senate’s failure to bring the DISCLOSE Act to the floor for a vote, the pollsters... View Article
Continue readingPutting Romney’s tax returns in presidential context
The controversy over what’s hiding in Mitt Romney’s unreleased tax returns continues. But even without the missing filings, putting his 2010 and 2011 tax numbers in context is strikingly informative. It dramatically shows what an outlier Romney is on a few basic tax and income dimensions.
Continue readingBig banks dominate Dodd-Frank meetings with regulators
This piece was prepared in collaboration with Drew Vogel In the two years since the mammoth Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act became law, federal regulators have heard overwhelmingly from the biggest banks, according to a new Sunlight Foundation analysis of financial regulatory agency meeting logs. The voices of reform-oriented groups have been much quieter – particularly in the past 12 months. Since July 21, 2010 (when the president signed Dodd-Frank), regulators at the three major banking regulatory agencies – Treasury, the Fed and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) – have reported meeting with 20 big banks and banking associations on average a combined 12.5 times per week – as compared to on average just 2.3 meetings with reform-oriented groups. The top 20 banks show up 1,298 times in meeting logs at the three agencies, while groups favoring tighter regulations of the financial markets show up just 242 times.
Continue readingDark money in the 2012 elections (so far)
As the Senate this week takes up the DISCLOSE Act, a bill that Sunlight and other open government groups are... View Article
Continue readingCampaign contributions help companies get more federal contracts, study finds
In 2011, the U.S. federal government awarded $537 billion in private contracts. If U.S. federal contracts were their own national... View Article
Continue readingSurvey says: congressional staffers want more online communications with lobbyists
When it comes to being lobbied, the results are clear: congressional staffers want to be e-mailed. According to the new... View Article
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