As Vice President Joe Biden convenes a meeting of anti-gun groups today, some of them appear to be ginning up an ad campaign to demand greater regulation of firearms following last month's mass shooting of schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn.
Continue readingAfter the inaugural balls, where does the extra money go?
President Barack Obama's aggressive inaugural fundraising -- he's reversed the ban on corporate donors, lifted the lid on contributions and is soliciting up to $1 million for various VIP ticket packages -- raises an intriguing question: What's he planning to do with all the money? After all, the Presidential Inaugural Committee already has radically downsized the number of official balls.
The options are limitless. A number of recent presidential inaugural committess have acknowledged -- either wittingly or not -- ending up with a surplus of funds. There are no rules limiting how the money can be used. The 2013 Inaugural Committee ...
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 1/9/2013
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- The first of several projects associated with the Legislative Branch Bulk Data Task Force rolled out this week, according to John Boehner's office. House floor summaries are now available for bulk download in XML format dating back to the 109th Congress. (Tech President)
- The Corporate Reform Coalition, comprised of corporate investors, shareholders, activists, and academics pushed the Securities and Exchange Commission to move quickly on rules to require greater disclosure of corporate political spending. (Roll Call)
- Recently retired Representative Steve LaTourette (R-OH) is starting a new lobbying firm along with his wife, who has lobbied on transportation issues in the past. He will also helm the Republican Main Street Partnership, where he plans to launch a super PAC supporting moderate Republicans. (Politico)
- President Obama is showing signs that he plans to take on two of Washington's most powerful lobbying forces early in his second term. He has already signaled his intention to tackle gun control, and his nomination of Chuck Hagel to be defense secretary is a sign that he is planning to change tone on Israel. (National Journal)
- New start up Captricity aims to make it easy to transfer data from paper to electronic formats. They hope to help government agencies that still rely on paper based data collection systems to accurately and quickly translate their information into machine-readable formats. (GovFresh)
- Madison, Wisconsin passed an open data ordinance and is launching an open data platform. Local leaders say they based their program off of New York City's model. (Government Technology)
Happy Birthday Richard Nixon — RIP campaign finance reform?
Tonight, at Washington's stately Mayflower Hotel, just a few blocks from Sunlight's offices, family and former aides to the late President Richard Nixon will gather to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth in Yorba Linda, Calif. Who knew that it would also be an occasion for campaign finance reform nostalgia?
It was actually Nixon who, in 1971, signed into law the Federal Election Campaign Act, limiting the amount of money that could be donated to congressional and presidential campaigns and requiring that those donations be reported. And ...
Continue reading5 Things Reps Should Do to Be More Transparent
With 67 new representatives and 12 new senators just sworn in, it's likely that many members of the 113th Congress are still learning the way to their offices. As they get settled, here are 5 recommendations that they (and their colleagues) could implement right now to be more transparent. 1. Create an Online Guest Book Starting the day they they were sworn in, lobbyists, well-wishers, and constituents have streamed into member offices. While visitors to the White House are listed online, the same isn't true for visitors to congressional offices. At their front doors, representatives should set up an electronic guest book where visitors are encouraged to type in their names, briefly summarize why they're visiting, and say whether they're a federally registered lobbyist. That information should be posted on the member's website. In addition, members should post online their just completed daily schedule of activities, as maintained by their scheduler, at the end of each day. It will help people better understand what they do on a daily basis. 2. Who's Who in the Office Most meetings that take place in a congressional office are with staff, not the representative. Each staffer is the member's point person for a particular topic. All offices should post online a list of staff working in the office and the issue areas they handle. (Some already do this.) This info is already available from private companies for a fee, but it should be available for everyone.
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 1/8/2012
NEWS ROUNDUP: The White House is updating data.gov to make it easier to put up new datasets and planning to institute... View Article
Continue readingTalk to Congress: Public, Orgs Invited to Share Transparency Ideas at Jan. ACT Event
The Advisory Committee on Transparency is excited to invite the public and advocacy organizations to speak directly to Congress about... View Article
Continue readingThe Data and Tech Behind Sitegeist
It's been three weeks since we launched Sitegeist and the response has greatly exceeded (my) expectations! There have been over 27,000 downloads of the iOS and Android apps and a flood of feedback emails. Thanks again to the Knight Foundation and IDEO for their help in creating the app!
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 1/7/2012
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- Bringing back Congressional earmarks may help ease some of the gridlock and disfunction in Washington, according to this NPR piece on the history and current state of the practice. (NPR)
- The National Music Publisher's Association is losing its vice president of government affairs, Allison Halataei, to the Revolving door. Halatei will be joining the House Judiciary Committee as its general counsel and parliamentarian. (The Hill)
- With several high profile gubenatorial contests scheduled for 2013 outside money is expected to continue to flood American elections. Some of the major outside groups are considering turning their checkbooks to these state races and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has already seen millions of dollars of outside support. (Politico)
- Meanwhile, state officials from around the country are fighting dark money groups with court battles and new legislation to force political spending disclosure. (Roll Call)
- The FEC fined President Obama's 2008 campaign $375,000 for reporting violations following an audit. The fine is one of the largest ever levied against a presidential campaign. (Politico)
- Rep. Chris Van Hollen reintroduced the DISCLOSE Act in the House last week. The bill, identical to the one that failed to pass in the 112th Congress, has yet to be reintroduced in the Senate. (Roll Call)
Obama discloses less about inaugural donors
What a difference four years makes: President Barack Obama, who began his first term with a promise to change the way Washington works, barred corporate donations to his first inauguration, capped individual contributions at $50,000 and began disclosing his donors and bundlers more than a month before his swearing-in.
This time he waited until two weeks before the inauguration to release his first list of donors. The Presidential Inaugural Committee posted the names on its website but without the amount of each donation nor the contributor's occupation and city. Nor was a separate list of bundlers posted.
Moreover ...
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