NOTE: It has been brought to our attention by LegisStorm that our list of staffers who became a lobbyist has... View Article
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 2/21/2012
Here is the week's first look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
- Corporations have been getting involved in this year's election cycle, but not necessarily with large cash donations. Many companies have been donating "in-kind" goods and services to super PACs. (Washington Times)
- Super PACs have continued to dominate the Republican presidential nomination race. In fact, last month, the super PAC supporting Mitt Romney raised more money than his actual campaign. (Washington Post)
- Billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who has already given $11 million to a pro-Newt Gingrich super PAC, has indicated that he is willing to spend up to $100 million to support Gingrich or the eventual Republican presidential nominee. Ron Paul (R-TX) is the only candidate that Adelson would decline to support. (National Journal)
- NIC inc. has won a contract to redesign and manage Maryland's web portal over the next five years. NIC manages the websites of 27 states and a number of municipalities across the country. (Government Technology)
- A constituent seeking information about Representative Steven Palazzo's (R-MS) 2001 district schedule was told to file a FOIA request for the records. Unfortunately, records of this type are exempt from the law. (Roll Call $)
- On February 15, the African Charter on Democracy, Elections, and Governance became operational and binding on African Union member states. The charter aims to improve accountability among African governments. (Open Society Blog)
- The Open Government Partnership gained two new members recently. The addition of Panama and Costa Rica brings OGP membership to 52 countries. 42 countries are slated to debut their plans at the first OGP summit in Brasilia, Brazil in April. (Fierce Government)
Super PAC disclosures: Simmons hedges his bets; PayPal co-founder hearts Ron Paul
Monday was the day that super PACs on a monthly filing schedule file financial disclosure reports with the Federal Election Commission. Sunlight Foundation's Reporting Group is watching as they go online to see who is writing big checks. Highlights so far:
- American Crossroads, which put super PACs on the map in the last election cycle with mega-donations to GOP candidates, took in just over $5 million in January, almost all of it from one man: Harold Simmons, a major Republican donor who also has written checks to super PACs backing three of the party's presidential candidates.
- The super ...
House Sets Document Naming Conventions for Online Publications
Today the House of Representatives promulgated standards on how to electronically name a broad range of legislative documents, from bills to... View Article
Continue readingSunlight Weekly Roundup: “What’s happening in the government should be public…”
According to open government advocates, Maryland does not do a good enough job of making government information easy for citizens... View Article
Continue readingHelp Open States Rate State Websites
As Open States closes in on our initial goal of supporting all 50 state legislatures (just 3 more to go!) we're also planning to put out a report card evaluating state legislative data across every state.
As the 40+ individuals that have sat down and helped us scrape state sites can affirm, most states simply don't do a decent job of making legislative information available so we're hoping that this can serve as a sort of wake up call to states that make this vital data far too difficult to access. For those few states that are doing a good job we're hoping to praise their commitment to open data and point out areas where they can do better.
We've come up with a set of criteria based on Sunight's "Ten Principles for Opening Government Data" (which expand upon the 8 Principles of Open Government Data) that we feel we can fairly apply to the states and created a survey to evaluate states against this criteria.
In order to guarantee a high quality report we'd like to get several responses per state and that's where you can help us out. Click the link below to head to a form that will ask you to evaluate the information that your state legislature makes available via their official website. By doing this you'll help us ensure that our eventual report is as accurate and as complete as possible.
(If you have any questions feel free to contact jturk@sunlightfoundation.com. If there are any questions you aren't sure how to answer we'd prefer you leave them unanswered instead of guessing.)
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 2/17/2012
Here is the week's last look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
- Seven Democratic Senators called on the IRS to investigate nonprofit "social welfare" organizations that are heavily engaged in political activities. These groups have spent tens of millions of dollars for political purposes since the Citizens United decision, and do not have to disclose their donors. (Politico)
- An Illinois based PAC is suing the state, claiming that a law that prohibits a PAC from establishing additional PACs to raise more money, is inconsistent with the Citizens United and other court decisions. (Courthouse News)
- The EPA and the Department of Commerce are hoping to launch their FOIA portal this fall. Yesterday, the Office of Government Information Services allowed a sneak peak. (Investigative Reporting Workshop)
- More than 20 members of federal advisory committees de-registered as lobbyists after the Obama administration banned registered lobbyists from the panels in 2009. Critics say the rule simply encourages lobbyists to move into the shadows. (The Hill)
- Editorial: The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) a corporate backed organization that writes legislation for state legislators, should be required to register as a lobbyist in Wisconsin. (The Cap Times)
- The MPAA pulled some new staff through the revolving door. New hires include veterans of the Justice Department, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the White House. (National Journal)
Embattled financial services chairman hits up friendly industry for campaign dollars
Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., under investigation for possible violations of insider trading laws and facing a primary challenge over his close ties to the banking industry, will be seeking campaign help from that industry on Monday.
The Alabama Bankers Association is hosting a breakfast fundraiser at its offices, according to an invitation obtained by Party Time that highlights Bachus' position as the chairman of the Financial Services Committee. This election cycle, Bachus has raised more from the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate sectors than any other House member outside of leadership.
The ten-term congressman rose to become chairman of Financial ...
Continue readingRick Perry forming super PAC?
Former presidential candidate Rick Perry is urging the Federal Election Commission to let him convert his presidential campaign contributions into a political action committee -- and is asking whether he might turn his campaign apparatus into a super PAC, able to raise and spend money in unlimited amounts.
In a letter to the Federal Election Commission this week, Perry campaign treasurer Salvatore Purpura writes that the Texas governor ended the campaign with a warchest of $270,000 earmarked for the general election. The campaign is in the process of asking donors for permission to transfer their funds to the as-yet uncreated ...
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 2/16/2012
Here is the week's first look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
- House Democrats are pushing Dan Lungren (R-CA), Chairman of the Committee on House Administration, to hold an oversight hearing on super PACs and the role of undisclosed money in the American political system. (The Hill)
- PG&E, a controversial California utility company, donated $10,000 to a super PAC supporting Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA). His primary opponent, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), is using this connection in a new piece of attack mail. (Politico)
- Senator Michael Enzi (R-WY) asked President Obama to exclude HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius from a new policy allowing administration officials to attend fundraisers for pro-Obama super PACs. He claims that her participation would present a clear conflict of interest because she is overseeing the roll out of health care reform. (National Journal)
- The Federal government has taken many steps to make information available online. But, the goal of a fully transparent federal budget publicly available online is still far from fruition. (Federal Computer Week)
- Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) is losing his Chief of Staff to the revolving door. C.R. Wooters is leaving to join Purple Strategies. (Roll Call $)
- Europeans view corruption as one of the most important challenges facing the continent, according to a new survey. (Transparency International)
- From September 17th to 22nd, 2012 Helsinki, Finland will play host to both the Open Government Data Camp and the Open Knowledge Conference. (Open Knowledge Foundation)
- Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) asked Twitter for more information about the company's new policy to censor some tweets in certain countries. They also urged Twitter to join the Global Network Initiative, a voluntary code for tech companies to protect human rights. (The Hill)
59063
