Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the guest blogger and those providing comments are theirs alone and do not reflect the opinions of the Sunlight Foundation or any employee thereof. Sunlight Foundation is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information within the 
guest blog.
Mary Beth Hutchins is the Communications Director at Cause of Action. Prior to joining Cause of Action, Hutchins spent several years at an Alexandria, VA-based public relations firm where she managed press outreach for a number of national non-profit groups.
The need for government transparency has never been greater than it is right now and at Cause of Action, we’re working to make sure it happens.
As a nonprofit government accountability organization, Cause of Action works to expose cronyism, waste, fraud and mismanagement in the federal government through a combination of investigations, education and litigation.
With our staff of investigators, lawyers and communications professionals committed to government transparency, Cause of Action frequently uses Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to shed light on otherwise opaque facets of the Federal Government.
2Day in #OpenGov 2/15/2013
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has some new members and subcommittee heads. Notably, Claire McCaskill (D-MO) will now have oversight of financial transparency, procurement, and contracting issues. (Federal Computer Week)
- Many major lobbying firms are facing shortfalls in their PACs following the 2012 election compared to previous cycles. The firms appear to have spent big while trying to keep up with the torrent of outside cash that flooded what was the most expensive campaign ever. (Public Integrity)
- Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) is planning to re-introduce the Federal Research Public Access Act. The legislation would require researchers who receive federal funds to make their final papers available for free online. Companion legislation will likely be introduced in the Senate. (National Journal)
- The IRS paid $125.4 million to whistleblowers in 2012, significantly more than in 2011. The boost was mostly due to a $104 million payout to former UBS banker and whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld. Over the past five years the IRS has collected almost $1.5 billion as a result of its whistleblower program. (Wall Street Journal)
- The OMB is pledging to improve the accuracy of spending data on USASpending.gov. Dan Werfel, OMB's Controller, highlighted transparency and the need for standardized data across government at a speech on Wednesday. (Federal Computer Week)
Amazon, AT&T donated services to Obama’s inaugural
While some information on the staggering sums given by the more than 20 corporations and unions that contributed to President Barack Obama's inauguration has been reported, like AT&T's staggeringly large $3 million donation, less attention has been paid to the goods and services that companies provided to the 57th inaugural.
Continue readingAs sequester nears, Northrop Grumman looks and lobbies for new markets
Image released by the United States Air Force
The looming sequester--across-board-cuts in defense and domestic discretionary spending that Congress and President Barack Obama agreed to in 2011--was the subject in opening remarks at an unusual press briefing offered by officals of Northrop Grumman, a major defense contractor that could see its business shrink along with the Pentagon budget.
In 2012, Northrop Grumman ranked tenth among U.S. contractors with $4.2 billion in awards mostly from the Pentagon, data in USASpending.gov shows. And according to the Center for Responsive Politics, Northrop Grumman ranked as the tenth largest spender on ...
Continue readingHouse Convenes Second Public Meeting on Legislative Bulk Data
On January 30th, the House of Representatives held a public meeting on its efforts to release more legislative information to the public in ways that facilitate its reuse. This was the second meeting hosted by the Bulk Data Task Force where members of the public were included; it began privately meeting in September 2012. (Sunlight and others made a presentation at a meeting, in October, on providing bulk access to legislative data.) This public meeting, organized by the Clerk's office, is a welcome manifestation of the consensus of political leaders of both parties in the House that now is the time to push Congress' legislative information sharing technology into the 21st century. In other words, it's time to open up Congress. The meeting featured three presentations on ongoing initiatives, allowed for robust Q&A, and highlighted improvements expected to be rolled out of the next few months. In addition, the House recorded the presentations and has made the video available to the public. The ongoing initiatives are the release of bill text bulk data by GPO, the addition of committee information for docs.house.gov, and the release on floor summary bulk data. It's expected that these public meetings will continue at least as frequently as once per quarter, or more often when prompted by new releases of information. As part of the introductory remarks, the House's Deputy Clerk explained that a report had been generated by the Task Force at the end of the 112th Congress on bulk access to legislative data and was submitted to the House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee. It's likely that the report's recommendations will become public as part of the committee's hearings on the FY 2014 Appropriations Bill, at which time the public should have an opportunity to comment.
Continue readingDoes Congress Love You?
In celebration of Valentine’s Day, we wanted to see what Congress keeps close to its heart. Using Capitol Words, we... View Article
Continue readingMerger of American Airlines, US Airways creates lobbying titan
American Airlines, which announced today that it has finalized terms of a merger with US Airways, was already the biggest spender on influence among air carriers. Adding US Airways will likely extend its reach.
While the two carriers' agreement to create the world's largest airline must win approval of federal regulators, they will have plenty of chits to draw on and an amazing array of former insiders to make to their case to Congress and the Obama administration of the wisdom of their plan.
American, which declared bankruptcy in Nov. 2011 and announced thousands of layoffs three months later ...
Continue readingOpen States: Find and Follow Your State Capitol
After more than four years of work from volunteers and a full-time team here at Sunlight we're immensely proud to launch the full Open States site with searchable legislative data for all 50 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico.
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 2/14/2013
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- Following a major corruption scandal donors withheld nearly $300 million in aid from the Ugandan government. The country will increase domestic borrowing in order to replace the shortfall. (TrustLaw)
- A group of government watchdogs is publicly opposing a request made by a bipartisan group of lawyers to roll back recently adopted changes to the Office of Congressional Ethics' rules and allow for public comment. (Roll Call)
- It's rare for the White House to miss an opportunity to collect data on citizens interested in its actions and last night's State of the Union was no different. The Citizens Response Tool for the 2013 State of the Union allowed citizens to comment on and share parts of the speech provided they cough up their email address. (Politico)
- Iraq is close to finalizing a lobbying contract with the Podesta Group. This will be the first time that Iraq has signed up with a lobbying firm in the post-Saddam Hussein world. (Politico)
- A major wholesaler of helium filled balloons is looking to secure its markets during a serious helium shortage by lobbying Washington. Helium and Balloons Across America has hired the Alpine Group to lobby on its behalf. (Public Integrity)
- President Obama's actions on campaign finance issues have failed to back up his strong rhetoric in the three years following his public criticism of the Supreme Court for its Citizens United decision. (NPR)
About last night: State of the Union includes nods to special interests
Yesterday, we posted an item asking if influence data--campaign contributions and lobbying reports--could offer a useful prediction to the content of President Barack Obama's fourth State of the Union address. Did Obama include items on their lobbying agendas? How well did we do?
Reasonably well, we think. Of the ten areas we made predictions, we were right or partially right on eight of them. And in our two misses, we knew we were pretty far out on a limb when we suggested that Obama would suggest bolstering the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to tweak Sheldon Adelson, who along with ...
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