By Daniel Schuman and Alisha Green One of the foundations of democracy is a legislature that functions well. The ability to assess whether a legislature is functioning properly depends on the public's ability to see what it is doing. Observing what the U.S. Senate is doing, unfortunately, is a difficult task, and one that is unnecessarily hard. Have special interests become increasingly powerful in the Senate because the upper chamber has diminished its capacity to legislate? To evaluate this question, we gathered data about congressional staff numbers, pay, and retention from a number of difficult-to-access (and often non-public) sources. While the U.S. Senate is often seen as the wiser and more seasoned counterpart to the House, we believe it is suffering from the same affliction that has robbed the lower chamber of some of its ability to engage in reasoned decision making, placing it at the mercy of special interests. Over the past thirty years, the Senate weakened its institutional knowledge base and diminished its capacity to understand current events through a dramatic reduction of one of its most valuable resources: experienced staff.
Continue readingThe $2 billion lunch
Whatever will be on the menu when Mitt Romney and Barack Obama sit down for a mano-a-mano lunch today at the White House, we already know that those two diners have run up quite a tab.
At this point, we know that the two former presidential rivals and their supporters spent more than $2 billion on the campaign, as calculated by the Center for Responsive Politics. And that isn't even the complete tab. The post-election campaign reports are due at the Federal Election Commission on Dec. 6.
Of the money we know about so far, more than $600 million ...
Continue readingTools for Transparency: A Crowdmap for Open Government
Crowdmap is the hosted version of the Ushahidi platform, which allows you to quickly crowdsource information to a map in real time. Crowdmap has typically been used to monitor elections in developing countries, map crisis information as an event unfolds or to curate local resources.
Two examples include Syria Tracker which tracks the missing, arrested or killed in Syria while Vacant NYC keeps tabs on vacant properties in and around New York City.
We've been using the service for the past few months to curate Sunlight Meetups and open government events taking place around the United States. You can see the latest events on our Participate page.
2Day in #OpenGov 11/29/12
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- Lawmakers duel over music royalties: A House Judiciary Committee hearing made it clear lawmakers have different ideas about what kind of reform should happen with royalties music-streaming websites pay recording companies and artists. They did agree, however, that royalty fees should be paid for songs played on traditional radio stations. (The Hill)
- Issa considers two-year ban on Internet regulations: U.S. Rep. Darrel Issa (R-CA) is asking for input on a bill that would place a two-year ban on any new Internet regulations, with an exception for national security emergencies. (The Hill)
- Report finds Reyes probably misused funds: A House Ethics Committee report found reason to believe U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) violated campaign finance rules or law by having campaign events on House property, among other things. (Roll Call)
Outside spenders’ return on investment: Capitol Hill edition
Sunlight calculates outside spenders return on investment for congressional races and hosts a webinar on how to use the data
Continue readingPandora gets heard but many lawmakers change the channel
To the delight of the recording industry, a congressional hearing about a bill that would decrease the royalties that Pandora pays to record labels and artists turned into a larger discussion about how Congress regulates the music business.
The hearing, on the Judiciary Committee’s intellectual property subcommittee, was about the Internet Radio Freedom Act, a bill sponsored by panel member Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, that would subject Internet radio services to the same rate setting standard of cable and satellite radio.
MORE: Check out the archive of Sunlight Live's coverage of the hearing.
In a press release issued after ...
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 11/28/12
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- Earmarks ban appears set to stick in House and Senate: It looks like the ban on earmarks will continue in the House and Senate. House and Senate Republicans have approved the bans, and Senate Democrats may follow that lead. (Roll Call)
- GSA launches dashboard: The General Services Administration (GSA) has launched a dashboard that will share more information on federal IT spending. (Federal Times)
- Obama signs extended whistleblower protections: President Barack Obama signed into law a bill that extends whistleblower protections to more federal workers, including those in the TSA. (Government Executive)
Lame ducks: Flying free or still dancing with them that brung ’em?
There are more than 80 "lame duck" legislators who won't be back next year but whose votes could determine whether the nation runs off the fiscal cliff or stops short of it.
Continue reading“Fiscal Cliff” Casts Shadow of Secrecy
Just like the debt limit negotiations and Supercommittee process that helped cause it, the so-called "fiscal cliff" of expiring laws is creating another round of secretive negotiations among our political leaders. The heads of both parties now thrive on stories of impending fiscal consequences, even when they're of their own making.
To cope with a polarized electorate, our leaders have figured out a way to create an apparent impending disaster that is unpalatable regardless of one's ideology. Whatever the outcome of their fight with each other, they've created a dystopian future against which they can be made to look like heroes warding off impending doom with their brave bipartisanship.
It doesn't really matter which party started it (both of them) or whether this was avoidable (it was), because divided government has again led us to a place where the most important policy decisions are probably going to be made in secret, and then passed down to the rest of us.
While online disclosure and dialog don't threaten to take away politicians' power anytime soon, they do represent our best chance at elevating substance, rewarding merit, and reducing undue influence, whether in crafting legislation or in dealing with the struggles of divided government. Sunlight's approach to government transparency has made us skeptical observers of these political negotiations, and as we find ourselves entering yet another cycle, we decided to ask:
What can we expect of the next month, and what should we do about it?
Continue readingBattle brews between recording industry and Internet music providers
The fiscal cliff might be getting all the headlines, but another battle is brewing in Congress, pitting the recording industry, a traditional source of Washington power, against Internet firms using an upstart technology.
But in a departure from last year's struggle over the Stop Online Piracy Act, better known as SOPA, which favored entrenched media firms like Walt Disney and Time Warner while drawing opposition from technology firms like Google and Reddit, this time the bill at the center of the controversy favors the upstarts. The Internet Radio Fairness Act would lower the royalty fees that sites like Pandora pay out to recording companies and artists.
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