In advocacy, knowing who your friends are is half the battle. With this in mind, Sunlight Foundation has gone about compiling and curating a list of international organizations working on open government issues in their own countries or regions, an effort that brings a touch of clarity to an unwieldy transparency ecosystem. The spreadsheet can be viewed here and any organization or project that is missing from the list is encouraged to fill out this brief survey. While Sunlight may be taking the lead here, we see this as a project that is by the community and for the community -- so please contribute!
After several months of gathering information from transparency-related organizations, our repository was made public in late May and was received with enthusiasm by many members of the community. Since its launch, over 40 organizations from every corner of the globe have requested that their work be included. We were happy to add them to the list and are excited to continue to hear from new organizations and new projects. We know there are a number of groups doing incredible work that are still not included on this list and we hope to hear from those organizations very soon.
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 7/23/2013
by Justin Lin, policy intern NEWS:
- The American Commitment Action Fund, which is a conservative super PAC, just spent $100,000 on ad buys, which are going toward defeating Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who is running for the New Jersey Senate seat. Booker is projected as a favorite in both the primary and special elections, with a recent Quinnipac poll putting him up around 53-30 against Steve Lonegan, his likely opponent. (Washington Post)
- Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), who recently lost the 2012 election after serving 20 terms in Congress, hired The Hula Monsters to play at a party he held for his staff. Stark spent around $1,800 for the services of the Hula Monsters and still has over $67,000 of cash on hand. After 40 years of Congress, it probably doesn't hurt him too much to spend a bit on a party for the staff, even if doing so is against general protocol. (National Journal)
- Minority Leader Mitch McConnell may face election challenges at the primary level as well now. Matt Bevin, a wealthy businessman, is running for the Republican nomination against McConnell and will be making eight stops over three days, planning to announce his candidacy at 10 p.m. in Frankfort, Kentucky. (Washington Post)
- Majority Leader Harry Reid is in danger of violating the famous (or infamous) Hastert Rule with the student-loan deal if he doesn't garner enough support for the Bipartisan Loan Certainty Act. The Hastert Rule is a informal principle that a bill that has not garnered support from the majority of the majority party should not be brought to a vote on the floor. This bill would tie the interest rates of student loans to the 10-year Treasury note and is scheduled for a vote this week. (National Journal)
- The National Republican Congressional Committee named nine more members to its Patriot program, which lists members of their own party that could be potentially vulnerable in the upcoming election. Notable additions include Rep. Gary C. Miller, who raised $238,000 in the second quarter after raising what is considered a mere $78,000 the first quarter. These incumbents of the Patriot program join 11 others who have been previously added. (Roll Call)
Gang of Eight enlists K Street
The bipartisan group of senators known as the Gang of Eight is planning a sequel to their Senate approach to... View Article
Continue readingWho’s on top in June fundraising?
Sunlight looks at fundraising by political parties and political action committees and provides a sortable .csv of the data.
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 7/22/2013
by Justin Lin, policy intern NEWS:
- Good news for the future of the Senate? Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Dean Heller (R-NV) wrote a letter to Majority and Minority Leader Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell to ask for more activities amongst Senators on both sides of the aisle. Reid has previously said that he would like to have more meetings involving both parties. (Roll Call)
- The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raised $5.3 million the past month, more than $1.5 million more than the Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which raised $3.7 million. The DSCC has $9.6 million in the bank and $12.5 million in debt, as compared to the NRSC, which has $7 million in the bank and $6.5 million in debt. (Roll Call)
- Currently 94 of all current senators have a leadership PAC, and 2/3 of all House members have a leadership PAC as well. Members are particularly eager to form leadership PACs because it allows people who contributed to their campaign to then make another contribution to the leadership PAC as well. Leadership PACs were originally used by leaders of Congress to give out contributions accordingly but is now commonplace. (National Journal)
- One measure that is sure to raise a lot of attention among senators is the business expensing write-off, which allows businesses to receive tax deductions for purchases in equipment. This does, however, means to a loss of $21 billion in revenue each year; despite this, this measure is being heavily lobbied by big and small businesses. (Politico)
- Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has taken to calling on lobbyists to pressure House GOP to act on immigration reform. However, the House has not taken kindly to such calls, and Marco Rubio, a noted member of the "Gang of Eight," has refused to pressure the House to act. Lobbyists also find McCain's calls dubious and potentially ineffective. (National Journal)
- The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) is looking to interview Christine O'Donnell, who was allegedly unfairly investigated by the IRS during her campaign for the Delaware Senate seat. O'Donnell claims that she was previously notified in January by the TIGTA that her tax information may have been inappropriately accessed by a Delaware state employee but that the case was later closed without her knowledge why. (Politico)
- Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) travelled to Iowa to encourage evangelical leaders to become active politically. Both attended an Iowa fundraiser by Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman, and said they would return for the Iowa GOP Summer Picnic. (Washington Post)
To Combat Dark Money, States Must Focus on Disclosure
A recent story in the Huffington Post outlined state-level efforts to combat the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, even as reform... View Article
Continue readingEx post facto lobbying: Banks blitz regulators to soften Dodd-Frank’s impact
The same financial interests that lobbied Congress when the Dodd-Frank reform legislation was being considered have turned their efforts toward the executive branch as it crafts rules implementing the law.
Continue readingDodd-Frank meeting data need improvement
As much as big data can tell us about how the big financial institutions that contributed to the 2008 financial crisis are dominating the rule writing for the Dodd-Frank law, our reporting has alerted us to the limitations of the data -- and to how important it is to watchdog.
Continue readingWhat the banks’ three-year war on Dodd-Frank looks like
Graphics by Ben Chartoff and Amy Cesal. Network analysis by Alexander Furnas. In the three years since President Barack Obama signed the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, federal regulators charged with implementing it have opened their doors to the biggest banks over and over again – 14 times as frequently as they have to representatives of consumer and pro-financial reform groups, a new Sunlight Foundation analysis finds. By most accounts, the banks’ besiege-the-regulators strategy has yielded rich rewards in sapping, slowing, and stymieing regulations intended to prevent another massive financial crisis. The emerging consensus is that Dodd-Frank implementation is limping, while the big banks are poised to return to being the most profitable industry in the U.S. Sunlight’s analysis is based on logs of Dodd-Frank meetings at the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the Treasury, and the Federal Reserve Board., available through Sunlight’s Dodd-Frank Meetings Tracker. Because of problems with data quality and comprehensiveness, we had to exclude two other regulatory agencies (the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission). And because of the time involved in data cleaning, we also excluded 22 percent of reported meetings – those that did not include “active” players. (By “active” we mean organizations that showed up at least five times in meeting logs.) For more on the data, see our methodology section at the end of this post, and read our companion piece, “Dodd-Frank meeting data need improvement.” Still, the imbalances our analysis reveals are so overwhelming that we can be confident that they are not merely a feature of the reporting practices.
Continue readingTransparency Case Studies: Some Early Lessons from the Field
For much of this year I have been conducting research into the impacts of technology enabled transparency policy around the world. A significant step in this process was reading theory and existing evidence to find the footing and context of the project, as well as defining our scope and developing our methodology and research protocol. But over the last several months, the long process of data collection has begun. The first wave of the case study project is in full swing, and so I spend my days setting up and conducting interviews. At this point the data collection on our first case, public procurement in the Slovak Republic, is coming to a close. Despite the early stage, some interesting lessons and themes have already begun to emerge from the conversations I am having.
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