The Advisory Committee on Transparency will host an event on transparency in President Barack Obama's administration on Monday, December 3 at 2:00 pm in the Rayburn House Office Building, room 2237. When President Obama took office in 2009 he pledged to lead the most transparent administration in history. During his first term, he issued the Open Government Directive, set a new course for FOIA, and led the creation of the Open Government Partnership. At the same time, many observers have criticized the administration for lacking openness or failure to follow through in a number of important areas. We are pleased to host a panel discussion on the evolving norms and behaviors of the Obama administration toward transparency. A panel of experts will explain how the transparency landscape has changed over the past four years. They will also look ahead at prospects for further advances and possible impediments to future progress in the Obama administration's second term. Panelists:
- Anne Weismann: Chief Counsel, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
- Hudson Hollister: Executive Director, the Data Transparency Coalition
- Josh Gerstein (Invited): White House Reporter, POLITICO
- Moderator Daniel Schuman: Policy Counsel at the Sunlight Foundation and Director of the Advisory Committee on Transparency
We hope you can join us. Please RSVP to http://snlg.ht/ACTobama
The Advisory Committee on Transparency educates policymakers on transparency-related issues, problems, and solutions and shares ideas with members of the Congressional Transparency Caucus. It hosts events to discuss important and wide-ranging transparency policy issues with experts from a variety of backgrounds and develops educational publications and provides timely information to the public and members of Congress. Learn more at http://transparencycaucus.org.
Continue readingMaking our Data and APIs Bigger, Better and More Accessible
It’s no secret that we’re dataphiles here at Sunlight, or that we want everyone to have access to the underlying... View Article
Continue readingWill lobbyists complicate fiscal cliff deal-making?
As the wheeling and dealing around the “fiscal cliff” continues to envelop Washington, thousands of lobbyists representing more than a billion dollars are watching. After all, any grand bargain on spending and revenue is will go right at the heart of two of the most heavily-lobbied issues in Washington: budget and taxes In the 112th Congress, 2,049 organizations have so far spent $619 million to lobby on tax issues, and 4,576 organizations have so far spent $576 million to lobby on federal budget and appropriations issues (totals are through the second quarter of 2012). Another 1,843 organizations have spent $234 million to lobby on defense issues (under the sequester, half of the cuts are slated for defense). Add it up, and and you have at least $1.3 billion in lobbying devoted to these three issues in the 112th Congress.
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 11/27/12
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- House ethics committee investigating New York lawmaker: The House Ethics Committee is investigating U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) for allegedly violating campaign finance laws. The Committee will defer, however, to the Department of Justice's investigation into the matters. (Washington Post)
- Supreme Court declines hearing on bribery conviction: The U.S. Supreme Court denied a request to hear an appeal in the case of former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA). The former lawmaker was convicted of a bribery scheme and is serving a 13-year prison sentence. (Roll Call)
- SEC Chair leaving: Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairwoman Mary Schapiro is leaving her position in December. She is one of the longest serving SEC chairs. Elisse Walter will fill the position. (Government Executive)
2Day in #OpenGov 11/26/12
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- Jackson resigns amid federal probe: U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) resigned from Congress citing health issues and an ongoing federal probe into alleged misuse of campaign funds. (Roll Call)
- NSA denies FOIA request: The National Security Administration (NSA) denied a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by watchdog group EPIC. The group had asked NSA to share a Presidential Directive that sets standards related to how the federal government handles cybersecurity. (Government Security News)
- Air Force, National Guard FOIA policy may violate law: The Air Force and National Guard may have violated federal law by setting a policy requiring information be released in PDF or image-based file format, which limits the accessibility of the documents. That may go against federal law requiring documents be released in the manner requested by the person or group filing a FOIA request. (Army Times)
2Day in #OpenGov 11/21/12
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- Waiting for changes at FEC: Five of the six members of the Federal Election Commission are serving on expired terms. Some are looking to President Barack Obama to fill those seats with people who might be inclined to reform campaign finance. The commissioners with expired terms can be replaced any time. (Public Integrity)
- Federal agencies could be overly optimistic on IT: Some federal agencies may be presenting an overly optimistic picture of their IT progress, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report. (Information Week)
Buyers remorse? Check out the return on investment webinar
Once the votes in election 2012 were counted, the Sunlight Foundation did some figuring of our own, calculating the percentage of money spent by outside groups in elections that helped winning candidates or hurt losing ones; we called that percentage return on investment (ROI). Mark your calendars for Thursday, Nov 29, at 1 p.m. for a webinar explaining how we did it, including a close up look at the ROI data. We will also debut our Congressional ROI data set, which shows how groups fared when the massive amounts of presidential election spending are removed from the totals. In this webinar we will show you how to dive into the data on a more granular level to tell the story behind the numbers. Sign up for the webinar here.
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 11/20/12
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- Clarification coming on digital copying rights: U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) might be working on a bill to clarify digital copying rights after the U.S. Copyright Office posed questions about whether fair use is legal. Issa suggested language could be written to help clearly define fair use. (Roll Call)
- RSC pulls report on copyright law: The Republican Study Committee posted a paper last week proposing reforms to copyright law and suggesting current law gives content producers a monopoly. When the paper was pulled down less than one day later, copyright reform advocates questioned the cause for the sudden change. (The Hill)
Follow the money from big Dem donors to super PACs to races
Big money won big on Election Day. That is, big money supporting Democrats.
In this year's campaign, many wealthy individuals and groups with large campaign coffers were involved -- directly with contributions to candidates or indirectly through outside spending. Sunlight decided to zero in on five mega-donors who gave the most to super PACs backing liberal candidates. They comprise two millionaires, two unions and a political action committee with strong ties to labor:
- Media executive Fred Eychaner, who gave $12 million;
- Retired hedge fund manager James Simons, $7.5 million;
- The National Education Association (NEA), $8.5 million;
- The United ...
Happy Thanksgiving! How much did your tax dollars underwrite the feast?
Nearly 400 years ago, at the very first Thanksgiving in the Plymouth Colony, Native Americans and pilgrims dined together on a meal of deer, corn, shellfish, and roasted meat. There was no such thing as crop insurance, sugar price supports, dairy subsidies, conservation easements, food stamps, or any other feature of the massive farm bill governing the nation's food policy, which expired on September 30.
Of course there was no such thing as the U.S. Congress either, which stalled on the farm bill last summer. In this country, food is a political issue, and where there is politics ...
Continue reading
59063
